Interviewing the SteemSTEM Curators - @aboutcoolscience

Last week we introduced a new blog series, "Meet the Curators of SteemSTEM" and our first post was a very interesting interview with our first curator @ruth-girl.

@ruth-girl described when and how she became a curator for SteemSTEM, revealed what she loves reading about when curating and provided us with some very useful tips for STEM (but not exlusively STEM!) authors.

Let's read some information about what the Curators do and let us interrogate, uhm sorry, I mean interview @aboutcoolscience!

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The Curators of SteemSTEM

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What do they do? Well, their tasks include searching for new STEM authors, evaluating and reviewing STEM articles, conducting thorough searches for plagiarism and they are the people who will suggest whether or not a STEM article has to be upvoted and supported by @steemstem.

Let's get to know the Curators better, shall we?

A community gets bigger and stronger as its members work together, get to know each other, learn from each other. Evolve. Flourish.

Who are the curators of SteemSTEM? How long are they going through the STEM posts? What makes a post unique according to them? Is their job easy?

We are planning to interview the SteemSTEM curators with the goal and hope to inspire you and to shed more light about how the curation process works.

In our first interview, @ruth-girl revealed many curation secrets .. What could be next?

In this post @aboutcoolscience is interviewed by @katerinaramm!

If you have any extra questions or thoughts, feel free to let someone from the PR team know!

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Let the curtain open!

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If you are interested in biology, you surely have read posts of @aboutcoolscience. Some of his most interesting blogs include T-Cells, some interesting ways to defy death and I am sure you would want to know more about prolonged youth!

Curating both English and Italian STEM blogs, @aboutcoolscience has been asked to let us know what positive or negative impressions he gets about posts and gives us some useful tips.

Plus there is a bonus question, so make sure to read the whole interview!

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Q - Hi @aboutcoolscience, thank you for taking the time to reply to our questions! Let us know a few things about yourself: What is your real (first) name? What do you do, where are you from, how long have you been on Steem and what are your hobbies?

A - Ciao! My name is Gianluca, I'm from Italy but I moved to the US for my postdoc few years ago and now I'm a scientist. I used to have many hobbies like cycling, hiking and going for long walks with friends. However, a year ago I joined Steem and my activities on the platform increased so much in the last few months that I had to give up many of my previous hobbies. However, now I am involved in several communities on this platform and I am interacting with so many great people, so it's definitely worth it.

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Q - How long have you been a curator for SteemSTEM?

A - I've been a curator since early 2018.

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Q - How and when did it all start?

A - I did not become a curator right away. When I joined Steem there was much more activity (Steem price was higher) and there were bigger issues with spam also with the SteemSTEM tag, so it was difficult to get noticed and to receive support. I remember asking SteemSTEM if they could support other language communities because several science posts were not supported in other languages (like in the Italian community). So initially, I became the curator for the Italian sub-community and I founded @itastem. I am happy to see that today we can also support several other languages.

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Q - How often do you curate?

A - I try to curate every day. It's not always easy to find the time because I have a hectic schedule but I do what I can.

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Q - What is the first thing that you take into consideration when curating?

A - Am I going to remember anything about this post in 2 days? Posts should be informative and give value to the reader, surprise them and make them curious about the topic.

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Q - Tell us something that really gives you a great first impression when you see a SteemSTEM post. (It could have to do with the chosen topic, images, structure etc)

A - Choosing the right topic is important but it's also important to do some research on the topic. It's challenging to convey several new concepts in a short text but it's something I take into consideration when I evaluate a post. So I value posts with high density of information conveyed in a easy to read format. I know it's not easy to do that but that's what I consider a quality post.

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Q - Do you have a favorite scientific topic that you have fun reading and reviewing over any others?

A - I like to read about things I did not know before, usually I prefer biology posts because it's my field but if something is well written I don't mind reading it. Users should consider that if something is on Wikipedia it means it's probably common knowledge and nothing new.

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Q - Tell us something that really makes you disappointed when you see a SteemSTEM post. (It could have to do with the chosen topic, images, structure etc)

A - I hate when I find that a post is plagiarized. It's disrepectful towards the original author but also towards the curator that has to read something that has been copy/pasted. I can do better things with my time...

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Q - What would be your advice to both the old and new authors who wish to join SteemSTEM but do not know where to start?

A - Be patient and have some humility. The first thing most users get frustrated about is why their "wonderful" post did not receive the same support as other posts. But if you look thoroughly you start seeing that maybe their post did not have a clear structure, the topic chosen was not interesting or they simply put down a few concepts randomly so they can tell themselves they did their homework. They should ask themselves: is this something I would want to read? It's sad but I think some users can't even stand to read their own posts. In general it takes time to build a reputation and cultivate a following, if your first post did not receive much attention it's normal, it means you need to get more involved in the community because probably nobody knows you.

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Q - If you could interview anyone from SteemSTEM, who would it be?

A - I have a chance to interact with many of them already but probably new users don't know well the founders of SteemStem, what about @justtryme90?

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Q - If you could have any job in the world, what would you choose?

A - I like learning, that's why I'm a scientist but there are many things I don't like about academia and how it's structured. Maybe being an independent writer would allow some freedom and a better work/life balance.

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Q - Would you like to tell us what other projects you support besides SteemSTEM?

A - I do many things besides SteemSTEM, I am one of the users behind the DaVinci witness, we also recently started a collaboration with @utopian-io for the translation of open source projects so currently we work with more than 100 translators on this mission and I am pleased to see that our community is growing almost daily.

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Q - Could you describe in as few words as possible what science means to you?

A - Science is curiosity, but the aim should not be just to accumulate knowledge but also its dissemination. To do that you must be a good communicator, I think a drawing I commissioned a while ago to @pab.ink explains it all:

Which comes from a quote by Einstein:
"It would be possible to describe everything scientifically, but it would make no sense; it would be without meaning, as if you described a Beethoven symphony as a variation of wave pressure." So the communication aspect is very important for the dissemination of knowledge.

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Q - And here is a (described as 'hard') question I was advised to ask :) Hint: You don't have to reply... but it will surely be fun to! Which metal has more value to society, Adamantium or Vibranium? (credits for the question to @mobbs)

A - I guess Adamantium, everyone likes Wolverine :)

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Q - What is your wish for SteemSTEM?

A - To continue to grow and to see more participation from the users.

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Q - Where do you see yourself in 5 years?

A - I may like to go back to Europe someday, I still have too much to see there.

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Q - Where do you see SteemSTEM in 5 years?

A - I would not be surprised if SteemSTEM starts working more closely with professionals and educational institutions, who knows..

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I would like to thank Gianluca a lot for the time he took replying to all my questions!

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@aboutcoolscience is also the founder of @itastem and if you are an Italian reading this post, you can consider writing STEM in Italiano.

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