From Contest to Community, the Pay It Forward Movement
A comment I was about to reply today got me thinking about how a simple little idea for a contest has turned into a community. This community is one that I feel has the potential to really help keep new steemian active and engaged reducing the crazy high turnover rate of steemit. Plus long term the potential to help build a solid middle class filled with Minnows...~an army of minnows~ a school of minnows.
A school of minnows to help teach the next round of plankton how to grow and be good steemians...I like the sound of that better then an army of minnows as I've called them before. Oh yes, you are getting my raw unfiltered free writing today so bare with my crazy ideas here.
The Comment and what I almost replied
On the current Curation Contest Post @tryskele posted:
.... Also It is AWESOME to see so many members visiting each other's features. Keep up the amazing work!!
and here is what I almost replied and decided it was fuel for a post...
This right here is now my biggest motivation in keeping this "contest" going each week. This has gone from a contest where people dropped their entry and a couple judges visited along with a few random visits from a couple people here. At that point it really was just a contest.
Now over time this has turned into a true community of people who are out there making a point to help each other grow, support each others posts, visit the featured bloggers and support them. While we call it a contest and there are some prizes this really has become much more.
Contests are about Winning, Community is about Giving
To me when the Curation Contest started it was all about winning a prize. Most people would post their entry and that would be the end of it. A select few showed great promise from day one and visited other entries and those who did are still part of the contest 20+ weeks later. See those people started turning this from a simple contest into a great community.
See those like @wolfhart, @tryskele, and @lynncoyle1 (our first judge and longest standing) who have been judging the entries and giving their time and money to help grow the Curation Contest haven't done so in the hopes of winning or gaining anything. Sure I've given them each some SBI shares and Upvoteshares, but nothing to justify sticking around as a judge other then their wanting to build a great community and help others.
Those who have put in entries from day one like @bengy and @viking-ventures or those who like @trincowski go out of their way to visit so many entries each week don't do it for the potential of a 1 steem SBI share. Sure winning every now and then is great, but lets be honest the limited prize pool can't be why people come back week after week.
| It's no longer about winning, it's about giving and sharing. We have moved long past being a simple contest and become a true community. |
|---|
This keeps me motivated and wanting to find even more ways to try and help the community and those who working on building their accounts.
Building a "school" of minnows
What exactly do I mean by "building a school of minnows"? Going to drastically paraphrase from Wikipedia on this, but it's close enough. Many small fish, minnows included, tend to swim in groups working together to help protect themselves against predators, to help find food, socialize and so much more. The strength of 1 small little minnow is pretty much nothing in the great big sea, but a school of minnows working together in a school they not only survive they thrive.
So when I want to build a school of minnows it's a group of minnows that can not only survive the great big steemit sea, but thrive by working together.
For as good as we are doing I know we are still a new little community and it will take continued efforts to keep it growing. My commitment to @pifc and @minnowbuilder are just the start of my efforts to keep our community going. I hope everyone can look for ways to help strengthen their ties to our community and to bring in new members to help expand our community.
Very nice freewrite. Pifc has come a long long way over a short time. I wonder where we will be in another 20 weeks.
That is what I was thinking. So many people fail at things because they quit to soon. Really feel that a community like pifc is something that takes time to grow and we are really in it's infancy at this point.
I always figured it would take 9-12 months to get pifc feet on the ground. This is not and never has been a short term goal. We will have to go through the ups and downs but that's life. For a small group of people this has been one heck of an accomplishment. The team is second to none who get along great with honest and open discussion, how rare is that.
Seriously it's amazing to me that there hasn't been any real drama to deal with.
running smoothly, discord also. sponsors are great and the support has amazed me. Have to give @tryskele and @lynncole1 a lot of credit.
aww I have my moments 😁
Honestly, this is how I have pictured things progressing. Seeing the past couple of weeks how many participants have visited the other features and even some of the features visiting, has been amazing. It has truly become a Pay It Forward mentality.
You're absolutely right about it being a community too. Everyone is committed to helping each other and that has become the beautiful thing about Steemit. I love we have this open for everyone to participate. I love that it's flexible. If you want to post every week you can. If you want to post 1 a month you can. If you just feel like visiting feature you can.
and @viking-ventures, I don't even know how you have the time to do what you do. You do an amazing amount for the community as a whole. Let me know how long 500 sp keeps your VP up. Right now with delegation I'm just over 200. I depleted 20% in an hour (silly me didn't check to see I was at just over 80% when I started, next thing I knew I was at 60)
It's so easy to knock out a bunch of VP really fast...lol. Heck with 2000sp I still have issues as I tend to want to give at least a 20% upvote and many times more then that.
Think the flexibility to take part in different ways is part of why it works. Those that can't make an entry for a week can take a few minutes and visit even a couple entries and help make a difference.
I don't have a day job - that's how... Other than kids, house and lots of writing, anyway. It's the only way I can do this much. But yes, the flexibility of Steemit is one of the many beautiful aspects - and why it works!
I didn't start at 100%, I was hanging out in the mid-high 70s... Now, I'm in the mid 60s. I was trying to use just enough VP to give a 0.2 SBD upvote where I wanted it. In addition to my PIFC entry today, I've also done a Daily Sneak entry, so that wiped me out a bit further. I did get through three PIFC entries today, so it's good. I'll see what I can manage in the morning...
Ahh that explains it. Nice to have the flexibility :) Now that I've changed jobs, I actually have permission to do this and take classes and pretty much anything else I want to do when it's slow. The previous job as soon as they found out what I did they blocked Steemit then anything with a .io address LOL
The new job sounds awesome then!
I really like it. I don't have people yelling at me anymore. That's the best part. Everyone has been very welcoming. It's just so mellow.
@tryskele's comment was awesome indeed. I need to work harder at visiting more posts - and as my SP grows, I can do more and more anyway. VP being in a shambles is a great sign that I'm doing enough voting. (My autovote list keeps growing as well...)
Hope that the week or so of being at 500sp helps show you the value of potentially leasing the added SP you need to keep that sliderbar. It really makes your ability to increase your engagement.
Might do... I shouldn't need the help for very long now. I've been increasing my SP very quickly recently.
It's a domino effect as you grow it becomes easier and easier to gain more SP. It's partly because you have SP to work with, but it's mainly because you have learned how to earn the SP and done the work to build up your social network.
I really have to get to more of the other entry posts, I often run out of time though... Now that I'm on tour, no kiddies... I should be able to visit a few this week!
Any and all support is always welcome. Know that real life gets in the way sometimes...it needs to take priority.
What are yout thoughts on a PIFC token when the next update hits?
You have my attention. We should talk a little about this and what it would take to create and what value it would have to those who hold it.
Oh, I only managed to check a few posts of others last weeks as I was busy but I should have some time towards end of this week and will make sure to support other entries too!
Thank you for your support of the featured bloggers!
You got a 41.96% upvote from @ocdb courtesy of @thedarkhorse!
I did a blog this last night and posted it this morning AND DID IT WRONG! But I was just trying to get the two minnows some more attention, I am not in this for the win, give that to the Guys I spotlighted. But in these slow times ( not me I am still producing blog everyday building My library of life through My blogs) its even harder to get the attention Thats deserved for these Newbies entering the steemisfere. I would enter anyway even if There wasnt a prize available because When a good Minnow blog come along I am enthousiastic and wowed.
Mistakes happen, but you fixed them and they will get some added attention. No question it's harder to get them the attention they deserve right now with so many of the big fish keeping their SP for leasing or selling of votes.
There are 6 prizes for entering and 8 for those who are featured so even the prize pool is skewed towards giving over receiving. Look forward to more entries from you and hope that your featured bloggers appreciate the efforts you made on their behalf.
Good morning @thedarkhorse. Happy Labor Day! Perhaps fitting, given how much time and energy you've put into providing a framework inside which others can join you in your efforts to help build up our Steem blockchain.
Thank you for this great update post on how the PIFC team is doing!
In my recent update post, I mention "recalibrating." As part of that thought process, after careful reflection, I've decided that "chapter one" of my Steem "journey" is over.
So ... Opening "chapter two," I will very intentionally try to be more narrowly focused on where I find the most value in investing my time "in here." I have decided a significant part of that will be toward helping the PIFC team.
I've done what I could, up until now, with financial backing. Moving forward, I'll see what I can do with the investment of more of my time. Don't want to "over promise and under deliver," so I'll just leave it at that, for now.
Doing my small part to provide you a little encouragement @thedarkhorse. For a better tomorrow ...
I appreciate all that you do! 👍
Unity through Arts! so touching your post