The Inbox Runneth Over -- Special Edition -- Announcements of Policy Changes
This Special Edition may be one of a kind -- although I can think of other topics that could make up posts here. So ... maybe not. It's the only legitimate place I can think of right now to put this list of announcements on policy changes for participating in The STEEM Engine and having your work featured in The Daily Whistle Stops.
If you're not a member of The STEEM Engine who posts work in our post-promo channel, you don't need to read this. If you are, you might want to continue on.
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This has not been an easy document to write. It's been nearly two months in the making. I have given this a lot of thought and talked it over with the other leaders more than once. There are some problems that need to be addressed in this group -- and the solutions are not easy.
I realize Steem is down and the mood on the platform is sullen -- to say the least. But we're still here -- those of us who founded The STEEM Engine -- working to promote the quality content of our members and encourage constructive engagement on Steemit.
To that end and to sort of quote Freddie Fender, I'll be here 'til the last teardrop falls. But we've (or for sure I have) finally reached a point where we need some "new rules." They apply exclusively to those members who submit their posts for promotion in the baggage-car -- our post-promo channel.
If you are one of the many who are supporting us from the goodness of your heart (and for this we bless you many times over!!) or are just "along for the ride," you can stop reading here, because what follows really doesn't affect you at all. This is only for those submitting work in our post-promo channel.
It would be easy to turn this into a rant, but I won't. Here's "the bottom line" for those who appreciate brevity.
For your post to be included in The Daily Whistle Stops or to receive any upvote from The STEEM Engine (TSE) account, you must be upvoting that group post consistently and at a respectable amount.
To clarify: 6 or 7 times a week is great. 3 times out of the last 21 days is not. 0 times out of the last 21 days for sure is not. A $.05 vote at 50% is great. So is a $.01 vote at 100%. A $.00 vote at 10% isn't.
Our group account grows through the upvotes on our posts. If you want to benefit from the ~$.30 upvotes we've managed to maintain, even under current conditions (or the ~$.80 upvotes we handed out in much better times), you need to participate in fueling that effort.
Have a look at some of the statistics from people who are really helping us grow. Some of the dollar amounts are pretty interesting, but notice especially the number of articles the member has upvoted and the number of their articles TSE (The STEEM Engine) has upvoted.
EDS has contributed $438.62 in 200 articles to @thesteemengine
TSE has contributed $ 30.78 in 55 articles to @ethandsmith
CW has contributed $22.70 in 178 articles to @thesteemengine.
TSE has contributed $11.82 in 35 articles to @catweasel
ES has contributed $29.85 in 177 articles to @thesteemengine
TSE has contributed $15.24 in 54 articles to @enchantedspirit
APM has contributed $15.04 in 183 articles to @thesteemengine
TSE has contributed $41.54 in 113 articles to @apanamamama
ATL has contributed $10.72 in 183 articles to @thesteemengine
TSE has contributed $24.02 in 57 articles to @awakentolife
SP has contributed $48.98 in 177 articles to @thesteemengine
TSE has contributed $11.11 in 21 articles to @shadowspub
KC has contributed $30.94 in 179 articles to @thesteemengine
TSE has contributed $8.89 in 21 articles to @karencarrens
TJ has contributed $78.14 in 186 articles to @thesteemengine
TSE has contributed $42.07 in 120 articles to @tattoodjay
Now look at some statistics from members who are submitting their articles into the baggage-car for curation. Again, notice not just the reward amounts, but the number of TSE articles (or comments) members upvoted vs. the number of member articles TSE has upvoted.
XXX has contributed $0.33 in 13 articles to @thesteemengine.
TSE has contributed $9.75 in 45 articles to xxx
XXX has contributed $1.48 in 67 articles to @thesteemengine
TSE has contributed $22.52 in 96 articles to XXX
XXX has contributed $2.29 in 11 articles to @thesteemengine
TSE has contributed $22.66 in 51 articles to XXX
XXX has contributed $0.43 in 7 articles to @thesteemengine
TSE has contributed $3.34 in 34 articles to XXX
XXX has contributed $0.10 in 17 articles to @thesteemengine
TSE has contributed $6.26 in 32 articles to XXX
XXX has contributed $0.15 in 7 articles to @thesteemengine
TSE has contributed $3.70 in 29 articles to XXX
XXX has contributed $1.25 in 21 articles to @thesteemengine
TSE has contributed $18.5 in 58 articles to XXX
These folks aren't even upvoting us as often as they ask us to upvote them -- sometimes by a long shot. And these $$$ amounts don't take into account the 20 - 35c trailing votes from Ethan and our curation trail that members usually receive on their posts. When you add those in, the books become even more unbalanced. I think this needs to change.
I realize some people's upvotes are still very small. That's not the point. I'm perfectly willing to honor requests from people who play fair with us. If you expect to win the lottery, you need to buy a ticket -- and if you want a nice little chunk of change from The STEEM Engine, you need to throw your penny on the pile -- regularly. As you can see, the payoff is still pretty great when you do. Again, look at these accounts who are helping us grow with their consistent support.
S&P has contributed $15.10 in 238 articles to @thesteemengine
TSE has contributed $66.63 in 201 articles to @sultnpapper
Z-A has contributed $2.06 in 144 articles to @thesteemengine
TSE has contributed $45.04 in 115 articles to @zen-art
BT- has contributed $1.99 in 63 articles to @thesteemengine
TSE has contributed $8.03 in 23 articles to @bigtom13
M19 has contributed $0.95 in 44 articles to @thesteemengine
TSE has contributed $2.58 in 34 articles to @movement19
EGS has contributed $6.54 in 130 articles to @thesteemengine
TSE has contributed $39.02 in 105 articles to @eaglespirit
These figures show a picture of who's on-board with this effort and who isn't, of who's supporting our group and who's not. You are perfectly free to do what you want with your upvote, but I am now taking this into account.
Along these same lines, there has been some concern from the leadership and from members as well about the value of upvotes left on member's posts along with comments to qualify for putting your own post in baggage-car -- post-promo. Frankly, some of those have been pretty stingy.
That 4% vote for $.00 may not be as thrilling to the author as you'd hoped. If the post, in your opinion, isn't worth more consideration, maybe you need to look further until you find one that is. Our group has some wonderful authors. I promise you, your search won't take long.
On the other hand, if your heart really isn't into this effort more than making a minimal gesture to "abide by the rules" ... maybe you need to rethink your participation here. Period. Again, your upvote ... your choice. But be aware ... attitude counts.
Next point: There have been some extremely low effort / low quality posts showing up in baggage-car -- post-promo lately. Even MinnowBooster refuses to upvote single uninteresting photographs with less than 150 words designed to make them somehow more interesting. Extremely short posts -- less than 300 words -- or posts that contain one photo and a few sentences with no other redeeming value beyond the level of "here's what I had for dinner tonight" will not receive upvotes from the TSE account.
Of course there are exceptions to this word-length rule -- poetry, professional photography, drawings, etc. If it's art -- that's one thing. If it's a post you basically phoned in, that's another. I know it when I see it. So do you.
Bots are part of the Steemit culture. I understand this and I'm not here to debate the pros-and-cons of that question. You are free to use them or not, but posts that have more than $25 worth of bot-boost on them by the time I see them will not receive upvotes from the TSE account. By my accounting, you've arranged your reward on that post -- and that's fine. I'll use our assets to help someone else. There are plenty who need it.
By the same token, if your post has a value greater than $50 showing on it from whatever source by the time I see it, it will not receive an upvote from the TSE account.
If these posts are worthy of promotion in The Daily Whistle Stops, I'm happy to put them there -- minus the TSE group upvote. But if your post has $147 showing on it, our 30 - 80c vote will matter far less to you than to another member whose also excellent post has received $.38 worth of respect.
I hope you can appreciate the reasoning behind this decision. We rejoice along with you for your recognition and success, but part of our mission is to help support those who are still waiting to see Fortune's smile.
Thank you for your attention to this admittedly long document. And thank you especially for your help in making The STEEM Engine a better experience for everyone.
Original images used under this Creative Commons license or this Creative Commons license and modified by added text.
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My votes are not worth a whole hell of lot but you get 100% of it each time I vote. I had brought this subject up before in one of my daily doses about up voting the group account posts on a regular basis but evidently not many read it or decided to adopt it.
I actually came up with another way to thank @thesteemengine and maybe some folks will follow along and do the same, I just bought a share of Steem Basic Income in the group account name @thesteemengine which should get an upvote for the account from SBI each time the Daily Whistle Stops is published, if each of us in the group would do that it could really help in improving conditions, it is only $1 steem for a share in SBI. So who else is going to follow sult?
I'm having @catweasel do ours now. We kind of got side-tracked yesterday. You know him. If the refrigerator starts calling his name, I have to round him up again.
I'm astonished at how many times you've upvoted the account -- using the comments in addition to the group post itself. That's extremely generous. I've recently commandeered the TDWS comment from Cw, so I can start doing that too. (I wish Steem would rise so my vote would be worth something again. Honest, I do. Lord, this is depressing.)
Contrary to some recent implications, I don't just sit and "keep books" on the various member accounts. It was just that our group posts have been getting such miserable payouts lately (and all of a sudden.) I decided to look into what had changed, because doing several hours of work a night for a < $3.50 payout on an account I don't even own was really starting to bruise my morale. Especially when you consider that Ethan's vote alone makes up a quarter of that total.
In the beginning, we got more than 10x that amount and were growing nicely. Of course, Steem was really booming and people were excited, etc. But these miserable payouts with more than 100 votes on the account (and more than 150 group members, as you've noted) were really bumming me out. Especially when I found people giving 150% like you and some generous others ... and some then wanting rewards who weren't giving much at all.
So I've tried to be as fair as I can to everyone because what I just described ... wasn't.
The first thing I do when I see the notice from the Whistle Stops is click the upvote button and then I try and respond with a comment if I have the time. I have always felt that I need to support the group any way I can and I just don't understand why everyone doesn't feel the same way, an up vote costs a person nothing to make. To me it shows that there was at least some appreciation but like I said, I watched for about a week straight a while back and not one person on several days upvoted the Whistle Stops even though they were featured in it.
I wonder if it is because some folks have so many groups they belong to and this might be as not as an important group to them?
Thanks for following the suggestion on the SBI share, I think it might be a good thing to consider going forward as a "one time" initiation fee or even an application fee at sign up.
It will be interesting to see how many folks actually step up and donate a share since the suggestion has been made . I have received some responses that people have done so, so that is encouraging but no where near the numbers I would like to see yet.
Good idea. I followed your advice and bought a share for SteemEngine. About the least I can do for a wonderful group of people.
Thanks Tom. Now if we can get 100 more people to step up we will really have accomplished something and improved conditions for all at minimal cost to each person.
I will follow you with this honey, what a great idea! I just bought a share for the group account too. Thank you for thinking about this! 💚
I actually had done it prior to even reading this post by @enchantedspirit , it was part of my SBI weekly give away and I even wrote in there encouraging others to do the same. Thanks for stepping up and helping to make @thesteemengine a better and more solid group. Very much appreciated.
Thanks for this great idea @sultnpapper...I just followed it and brought a share for the group too!
Thank you.
I just hope im not one of the XXXs. hehe
I was away for a while so im not in the loop but ive kept you guys in my autovoter. Isnt that the easiest thing to do for everyone that might miss your posts?
If TSE is in your autovoter at a reasonable level I promise you are not an XXX. You are right, it's an easy way to make sure you are playing fair by your fellow passengers.
Trust me, I'm a doctor.
Some people don't like auto-voting and I understand that. I don't much either, so manual voting is my choice -- and it can certainly be for others. too. I have one curation auto-trail that I follow so my vote gets used if my VP gets too high -- while I'm asleep, or if the power is out, or some other crisis has interrupted my time and attention. Otherwise, I stay pretty current. Auto-voting is easier for a lot of people -- but I'm a control freak. (Sorry, I just can't seem to change that.)
You're definitely not on the XXX list. Your voting record is fine and I'm glad to see you back again.
@silentscreamer contributed $1.56 in 130 articles to @thesteemengine
@thesteemengine contributed $6.96 in 26 articles to @silentscreamer
For some reason most of your videos work for me. (Most other people's don't.) So, it's nice to see you doing your thing -- because I can sit back and enjoy it. Your schedule sounds like it's every bit as crowded as mine. I don't know how you're managing to wedge Steemit back in there.
I only wish my vote were worth more! Thanks to TSE for being awesome and always supporting me! :) You're awesome TIB!!
I have to agree with you, if the account grows, the vote gets bigger and everyone benefits. I'm going to add this account to my SteemAuto voter too.
I guess the low quality content stuff was not always like that from whoever these authors were, or they would not have got past @catweasel?
I do sometimes do some posts that I don't consider worthy, but I don't add them to the baggage-car -- post-promo area. I think everything I write is > 300 words.
I write a lot of things that never make it into the baggage-car. I have to be kind of like Caesar's wife, if you know what I mean.
In the beginning, before we acquired that priceless "wisdom of experience," people could join just by clicking on the server invite link and some people got in whose posts weren't that great. Most of them have moved on by now -- but some people who I know can do better work have started "taking it easy" on themselves. As I said, that's a real temptation when Steem is so down. But as @shadowspub wrote recently, this is the time to really step up .
I don't want to encourage less than the best on our group account -- either with rewards or by example. We try to have minimal rules in TSE ... but the ones we have just got stronger. (You know how it is. It would be great if people would just abide by the spirit of the law by themselves. But they don't always. And some may not fully understand the situation.)
We had one applicant recently who wanted to quibble with us over the use of the word "suggest" in our initial request that he upvote the group account if he joined. ("'Suggest' means, I don't have to, right?") Technically, yes. But that didn't bode well -- as you can imagine.
So, now, no one has to upvote the group account if he just wants to join and sit quietly with his thumb where your recently highlighted appliance can wash it for him. But if he wants votes from us, he needs to ante up.
While you're here ---> Thank you so much for all that you do. You're one of the exceptions that makes life better. You always go the extra mile and more. You're a real inspiration.
I think that's fair enough. If they don't want to vote, they don't receive the vote. There's other places they can go if they don't like the rules.
Thanks, but my head is expanding right now, I really don't want it to burst.
I should be back to writing soon, as I'm back from the highlands now. STEEM is approaching $2 again, so does that mean we get better quality again? We will have to see.
I frequently write comments that are over 300 words. This one, ^^^ for example.
Yes, I have noticed :)
Jeeze. You guys have given me so much more than I can hope to repay. And I'm not talking just money here. The support from SteemEngine and the people there of is just amazing.
My vote isn't worth much and I vote at 20% or less. Lets me be in a couple of curation trails without dipping too low at any time. I think I can 'kick it up a notch' (technical motorcycle term meaning to raise) with SteemEngine and TIBRO.
Thanks, just thanks for all you do. It's amazing.
Read and understood. I'm fairly new, and hope I've been playing by the rules, although inconsistently. I often forget to vote the SE posts daily, but make a point of catching up each week. I also never post without first supporting others... but that seems like common sense. Thanks for what you do, and keep smiling! Steems gotta climb one of these days. :)
Catching up is fine. But some haven't caught up for a very long time. I figure if they can find the time to put their posts in post-promo, they can make "catching up" part of that routine. Love some of your posts, kiddo. Especially the serious ones. ("Sometimes I think I’m the wrong species…" ) Lord, I know how you feel!!
This is a totally legitimate policy, and I strongly support it! I've been upvoting the Steem Engine posts at 70% since I first joined (soon after it was founded) and fully intend to keep doing so.
Just out of curiosity, how much have I contributed/ what's my score?
@mountainwashere contributed $20.61 in 188 articles to @thesteemengine
@thesteemengine contributed $43.97 in 73 articles to @mountainwashere
Thank you a thousand times (well ... at least 188 times) for your support. We're glad to have you. Your writing is always superb.
Glad to be a part of The Steem Engine! And thanks, glad you like it!
You are right, I have not been pulling my weight lately. I have been getting everything in order in my new house so my posts have been pretty crappy so I didn't bother leaving any in the baggage claim. However I still have been upvoting members, I just don't feel the need to announce it if I'm not leaving a article. Either way, I haven't been participating nearly enough lately so I am part of the problem. I have changed my Steem Voter upvote to 100% for TSE and 50% for your personal account because you do so much for everyone else. I know that is not nearly enough but it is a start. Thank you for everything you do.
I've had you on auto upvote since TSE inception. I will gladly buy TSE a few shares of SBI immediately. I love this group and will always support it. I haven't been going in to give posts lately since they've mostly been short selfie freewrites from a contest and another contest i'm in. i do not consider these "good" material to submit for TSE curation. going to get some SBi for TSE right now ... love you all!
It's funny that people still get to vote with percentages below 100, part of the rules when we all got on board was to use our steemvoter and place the community account on 100% which I thought we all did. Anyone not doing this is doing the wrong thing and I am not pleased with such news.
I spent 4 hours last night purging the rolls ... tossing out people who aren't upvoting us, who haven't posted on their blogs in more than 2 months, etc. I was astonished at how many there were. I'll keep a lot closer eye on this from now on -- although I really don't want to have to turn into a "rules enforcer." That just causes resentment. (One notable example has already erupted.)
@awakentolife frequently says he'd rather have 50 members who are really behind the group and its goals than 500 who are only there when it suits them. I have to agree. It's a continuing challenge. Thank you for being one of those who is always there ... 100%.