Curation - The Magic Sauce of Steem?
For the past few days, I've been doing something different.
Something, I actually haven't done in a long, long time. At least not at this frequency.
Can you guess it?
It's curating content.
Curation = Magic Sauce?
And I didn't really expect it, but .. it's pretty addicting and frustrating at the same time.
On the one hand, it's similar as if you're scrolling for content on twitter or instagram, but on cocaine.
You're not simply relaxing in your chair, or wherever you might be.
No no. You're scanning as fast as humanly possible for potentially valuable content. One eye on the thumbnail and text, the other eye on the payout and post-age.
And this is where stuff gets addictive!
Once you find something valuable, which hasn't been found yet, you're feeling a rush of adrenaline. Why?
- 1.) You just made someone their day. There aren't many feeling as similar as getting a 10$ vote on your post, without expecting it.
- 2.) It might even make your day. If other people find the post valuable as well and upvote it, it increases your curation reward. ($$$)
But .. and here comes the frustrating part:
Good quality content is actually quite rare
I mean, sure, most people can write half-decent posts, but writing something great which also fits a specific subject? Oh boy. That way, finding content to curate is like a treasure hunt.
Scrolling through the created section, trash flyin' around everywhere but your eyes are on the price!
But on a serious note:
While curating is somewhat exhausting at times, I do believe curation makes Steem unique and provides a unique selling point for people to come to this platform.
And if I could guess where things might go, I've got a hunch that if we continuously reward good content on Steem, the average author will contribute better content, which might even result in a positive feedback loop.
With that said: Gotta' get back to curating. Content ain't sleepin'.
Wolf
It looks like I will have to curate only because I have @spaminator taking all my posts and comments to 0... pretty sad considering I put many paychecks into steem only to see it plummet and now I can’t even self vote once in a while when I don’t have time to curate
Imagine what Steem would be like (and have been like for 2 years) if there weren't bidbots to entice people to not curate and who instead chose to sell their votes... hmmm... imagine...
Its my favorite hobby and the reason i buy steem. Welcome to the future
edit: i have got over the fomo of being first all the time :)
You got that right! Last fucking year and a half the only good quality content creators that I could find on this entire platform were @traf and @raindrop.
I've just only recently started to find a few other ones.
@traf,
I also a good quality content creator in #OldSteem too lol :D
Atleast you still like to joke lol :D You can't hide your true nature dude :P
Cheers~
hahaha
too soon?
perfect!
It depends on what you are looking for. You can check out the posts on steemiteducation, we are curating daily and a boost might help.
There's a whole literature now on addictive design and positive reinforcements in tech UI/UX. It's weird that no front end has made systematic use of it to 1. Retain users better. And 2. Increase time people want to spend on their website (which now equals more ad revenue), and 3. Makes more people want to buy or power up SP to participate in what is a very rewarding experience as you say.
Imo, solving the problem most other social medias have where most users find the time they spend on it "wasteful", and instead providing an experience of time-well-spent and actually rewarding, is how we can attract the masses. Not niche ideas of censorship resistance and fancy decentralized consensus rules (which are of course still very important and enabling. But they are in the background and enabling).
Anyways, really cool to see you curate! Keep it up.
I totally agree with that. A slick and nice front-end for Steem could do wonders. IMHO introducing a front-end which makes curation fun would have been a much easier (and more straight-forward) way of getting people to curate than changing the economic incentive.
It is hard to find good stuff. Many of the benefits still exist though, when voting late. Getting paid to be entertained. There's no rush. When all of the pieces of the puzzle fall into place at just the right time, sure, you'll get a boost. Finding and rewarding the good stuff you personally approve of, whenever, regardless of time and current value, will eventually encourage more to step up to the plate and put in more effort, creating a positive feedback loop, and making the curation process a lot easier, over time... I hope. Hope and a little bit of an educated guess.
I know we've had our differences in the past. I'll give you credit though. I've seen you out there, voting, helping, even downvoting when necessary. High five, man. It's good to see.
Been having a lot of fun curating again since the HF, not really going for maximization but whenever I see something early in my feed I try to get in some small votes for a bigger return. Things on the platform are turning around and changing fast, nice to see your project adapt with it!
Complete transformation of bidbots into curation projects would be a win-win situation for content creators and investors.
'Technical' guys know when to hit the post to get highest possible curation, why not hire people who will monitor the blockchain and will submitting good posts to curation - bidbot owner runs the script that analyzes the data and when the right time comes it will upvote it
I agree, let's see what the future brings.
so you mass vote at small % around without reading it, well well :))
sometimes if it's a trusted author, sometimes I also vote 3-4 days late knowing I'll get the minimum out of it but the author deserves it :)))
@manniman
I'm starting to like your intrusive and inquisitive style pal. I suspect I should abduct you to my tribe very soon. And then put you at carving some intimidating Totems, sculpt a few enigmatic Moais or something like that for a while.
I reckon we should plant more of this 'critical thinking iconography' everywhere around this island. };)
You certainly looks like someone who actually belongs to my little horde of tongue-twisters barbarians.
thanks, I guess. I have to admit, 'intrusive and inquisitive' actually does sound like some of my comments.
Seems old days are getting back...hip hip hurray manual curation
Thank God I saw this positive comment, @acidyo. Please take a look at the comment I left at the top of this post replying to trafalgar. I listed many places you can go to find "pre-screened" minnow/redfish content. None of it is currently in your feed or any other bigfish feed - I am certain of that.
If you boost a post under $1 to maybe $2-3 dollars, I assure you the math is on your side. You will get better curation rewards from that action than being part of a $50 payout. People notice the difference and the numbers are even better now after the fork. Plus you will be the only big fish in many cases.
Note what I say in my reply above about "trusted" curation trails. With your huge vote, you will burn out if you try to do all this small voting yourself.
You give me hope. Thank you.
Steam is certainly something unique that does not exist elsewhere in this form. However, hurdles to get here are very high. For the normal user of a social media platform are damn many things to consider. All this does not exist on other platforms. All the advantages of Steam also make the platform complex. Not everyone likes to get so deeply involved in his free time to give his heart for the best. From my point of view, usability should be the first priority.
$10 hasn't given me a whale yet. Maybe it's because my contributions aren't good enough 🤔
Posted using Partiko Android
Of course they are good enough! What do whales know about butterflies? ;-)
Okay, I got the message. So I have to change that. I stay tuned and do my best. The current whales don't have to be the ones of the future. With some luck, I can inspire some whales for the magic of nature. Until then, I glide further through the steem universe.
By the way, a big thank you for your support!
Actually, I wanted to criticize the whales, not you. I think non-STEEM/crypto topics should get more attention, and your posts deserve every upvote.
So going for even more curation might be even better?
Finding the great content is sort of issue where everyone feels it not worth curating however...you will find a gem and instantly you pumped up to do more
It's still quite a long way to go for authors; for now the impact of the new rewards curve is dramatic, if I was here for the STEEM that would do me in. Fortunately I am also curating a lot, and I do agree: It'a great rush!