Application for Steemit "Community Curator Project"

In a recent post, Steemit announced the launch of their community curators project. This is my application to be involved as a community curator.

My Steem history

I have been involved with Steem since July of 2016. Here is my introduction post. My son, @cmp2020, is also an active Steemizen.

In my time here, in addition to personal social media activities, I also managed to squeak in some (very small scale) POW mining before that service was eliminated, and I have operated an unpaid voting bot on behalf of myself, my son, and several other people that we know. It may not be perfect, but the bot's goal is and has always been to support content producers first, and earn curation rewards second. For a look at the types of posts that it votes on, and to find authors that may deserve additional support, you can look at Steempeak's voting trails for @cub1 or @remlaps1. That bot has been in continuous operation since some time around July or August of 2016.

On top of that, my son and I also launched the #classical-music category and have curated it continuously with the @classical-music account since about 2017, and we provide delegation support to the @classical-radio account, which does the same. With the launch of Steem communities, we also established the Classical Music community, along with a number of other Steem-resident classical music enthusiasts.

Finally, during the last year or so, I have been focusing (with limited success) on a series of posts that was designed as a mechanism for near out of footprint marketing and to facilitate active discussion of timely science and technology topics.

Recently, I found myself on the Hive airdrop blacklist because I opposed the freezing of funds through SF 0.22.2 and cast my witness votes in a way that was intended to discourage something like that from happening again. (FWIW, I now disagree with SF 0.22.8888 for similar reasons.)

My Ideas for Improving Steem

I have three long-overlooked ideas that I think would improve Steem as a content appraisal and engagement system. They are:

• Pattern reward distribution after a second price auction, which I believe would encourage high-stakes voters to vote more accurately, instead of just maxing out their votes (up and down).
• Protect dolphins and minnows from downvote retaliation by adopting a mechanism that was inspired by quorum sensing in bacteria.
• Using beneficiary rewards to recognize and reward value throughout the Steem ecosystem

Language

The only language I speak fluently is English.

What if I am approved?

I will support content producers in STEM and Classical-Music communities.

STEM

I will monitor science, technology, engineering, and mathematics related categories. I don't own either of these communities, but I will also monitor the STEEMSTEM and STEMGEEKS communities. I will target 8-12 votes per day in these categories and communities.

Additionally, up to one vote per day will go to my own #rsslog Science & Technology series, which makes use of beneficiary rewards and my experimental @penny4thoughts account to share rewards with the authors of substantive replies to the posts.

Classical-Music

I will monitor the #classical-music tag and the Classical-Music community, and upvote valuable content that appears there. I will also support classical-music related content that I happen to find in other music categories. I'll target 2-4 posts per day there.

We had developed a fairly active niche community in Classical-Music before the HIVE split, but it has been slower recently. Perhaps some higher stakes curation can bring back some activity.

What qualifies me to judge these categories.

STEM

I am a 30+ year tech worker with experience ranging from mainframe computers to the blockchain world, and many technologies in between. I also have a bachelor's degree in mathematics, a master's degree in computer science, a second master's degree in information and technology management, and I have been awarded 3 US technology patents.

Classical Music

I have zero training in classical music, but my son @cmp2020, has studied piano and music theory for years, so I have learned some things vicariously through him. Also, as long as he's home with me under COVID-19 house arrest, I have him available as an adviser.

Thank you for your attention!

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Steve Palmer is an IT professional with three decades of professional experience in data communications and information systems. He holds a bachelor's degree in mathematics, a master's degree in computer science, and a master's degree in information systems and technology management. He has been awarded 3 US patents.

Steve is also a co-founder of the Steem's Best Classical Music Facebook page, and the @classical-music steemit curation account.