[Manual Curation] Introduceyourslf tag - My criteria to vote these posts
This is the second post I make about manual curation, the last one was about curating the art tag. I will continue to write this kind of posts whenever I feel like. There isn´t a specific day of the week or date of the month, I just write them whenever I fell writing about curation. I write these posts talking about the specifics of each of the most popular tags around so everyone knows what do I expect from a newbie´s post in order to curate it.
What I´m going to do is spread some votes among the various posts I find while browsing the introduce yourself tag and explain why am I voting on them and why am I voting with that percentage.
Now, these set of criteria I use to vote, is not a step by step guide that you should follow in order to get a vote from me. I´m 100% in favor of people posting what they want, when they want and how they want to do it, I am just putting this information out because that is how I base my decision whether to vote or not on a post and what percentage I vote it with.
This is not a rule book and definitely should not be taken as law, I am going to make these type of posts to answer all these questions I get of what do I take into account when curating certain tags.
If you are inviting people to join the platform, perhaps let them know about this post because most of the manual curators take into account some of the bullet points I´m about to list here.
Curating the introduceyourself tag
My personal criteria when voting on this kind of posts is kind of loose, not because I expect low quality posts, but because I expect the post quality of a newbie. This doesn´t mean I just throw votes to every post I find using this tag, but I definitely strive to reward as many people as I can, sometimes I even leave comments in these newbies´s posts.
1 - First timer. An introduceyourself post must be the first post a person makes to, redundantly, introduce themselves to the platform and its community. If I notice that an intro post comes from a Steemian whose rep is not 25, I click on their profile name to see their posting activites. If he/she hasn´t made an intro post before and then decide to make one then I decide if it´s too late or not - I mean, an intro post 10 days into your steemit journey it´s ok, and intro post 5 months after you joined the platform and started blogging... definitely not ok -. It also has to be the first time this person uses this tag - this one is hard to control but usually this tag is the first used, so it´s easier to notice if the person uses it frequently.
2 - Original content. As weird as it sounds, some people copy introduction posts from someone else so, I do my usual plagiarism check using Grammarly so I am sure this intro post comes from the heart and not from the copy+paste realm.
3 - ID check. I find it easier to vote on a post that includes a pictue of the Steemian, showing their face and holding a piece of paper with their username and the date. This is to ensure that there is actually a person behind the account and it´s not just another bot - we don´t need more of those. There´s a lot of people who take their privacy very seriously and I´m fine with that, so sometimes just holding a piece of paper without showing their face, or perhaps just the paper side by side with something the new Steemian likes as a hobby. Probably the steemian likes football soccer, so if he doesn´t want to show his face, why not take a pic of the piece of paper resting on the ball? Anyway, timestamp, that little piece of paper is very important for a manual curator, sadly, less and less people are doing it nowadays.
4 - You only get one first impression, make it count. I want a post, full of pics and swamped with passion. Show me that you are really interested in making Steemit your second home. If I find a small post with just a few lines and just one picture, It´s going to be very hard for me to vote it but, sometimes when a post is amazing, I vote hard on the post and I may even end up following the person. Imagine making your very first post and having already a minnow with a whale costume following you? So make that first impression count, write the best post you can because that lone post is going to set the bar high or low for your readers, your first post is your presentation card, make it the best one.
5 - Smart writing and smart title. Imagine there are hundreds of introduceyourself posts every day. How are you planning on leave a mark? What´s your strategy to make people curious about you and click on your post? Use a smart title, I was very lucky because my post title was very plain and simple but those were other times, now we are competing with a lot more people to get their attention.
6 - English writing. I´m sorry, but if the post is not written in a language I can´t understang, I completely ignore the post.
Are you curious about my introduction post a bit more than 1 year and one month ago?
Hello! About me <- What a simple title, I bet today this title would get me nowhere.
Not everyone is a writer and not all of us are english speakers so I understand if you have a few grammar mistakes but, in general, I expect from these introduction posts a lot of passion, dedication and overall, quality - for a newbie, I don´t expect markdown perfection but I do expect more than 3 lines and one pic.
None of these bullet points are mandatory for me to curate introduceyourself posts, but certainly fulfilling a higher percentage of them makes it easier for me to vote with a bigger weight on these posts.
@theserene - Ladies and gentlemen please allow me to introduce to you to myself
Long post: Check
Nice pics: Check
Interesting subjects: Check
No plagiarism: Check
First introduceyourself post: Check
What would I add to the post: Piece of paper for ID check.
Voting weight: 20%
@david.laguardia - Introducing myself
Long post: Check
Proof of ID: Check
Interesting subjects: Check
No plagiarism: Check
First introduceyourself post: Check
What would I add to the post: A few more pics as teaser, perhaps of the book he is talking about?
Voting weight: 20%
@sweetelyse - New Steemit: Let´s get to know each other
Long post: Double check
Nice pics: Double check
Interesting subjects: Check
No plagiarism: Check
First introduceyourself post: Check
What would I add to the post: Again, a piece of paper for ID proof.
Voting weight: 25%
@herbayomi - A writer, A scientist, A programmer... A short intoduction of myself
Long post: Check
Nice pics: Check
Interesting subjects: Check
No plagiarism: Check
First introduceyourself post: Check
ID proof: Check
What would I add to the post: Nothing!
Voting weight: 25%
@queendina - First post en Steemit, I´m ecstatic
Two words: Video introduction!
What would I add to the post: Nothing! I couldn´t ask for a better introduction.
Voting weight: 30%
There you have it, I hope this makes it clear to you what I look for in introduceyourself posts. Make sure to let your friends who are just arriving to Steemit know about this post, perhaps this will give them an idea of what some whales look for while curating intro posts.
As someone who often curates the Introduceyourself tag, I agree with you that there are certain things people can do to greatly improve their intro posts. Great job with this one @anomadsoul!
Yea. His points are vital as it is fair as well. I appreciate you old steemians who take out time to look out for new users like us. I made an introductory post just two days ago and it was my first time using the tag. I hope you would not mind taking a look at my blog.
May I ask? What's the discord's server nickname of @anomadsoul?
Me estoy esforzando mucho y trabajando bastante en mis nuevos post para obtener algun dia un voto favorable de una ballena como voce! jajajaja algun diaaa pasarás a visitarme y te encantara mi trabajo!
PD: Linda sonrisa, un buen corte y estas perfecto jajaja.
Te falto decir: "Queres que te la mame?"
Jalabolismo en estado puro
I love how you always encourage people to do more! New Steemians, go above and beyond, make a stake for yourselves on this platform.
How do you feel about people sending you up close pictures of their nipples on discord though? Would this earn
mea certain someone a flag? This is gravely important, pls respond.I get it. I posted my intro post late, like really late. I had not realised I needed one and I think I posted it over a month later, maybe even two months in. I was clear in the post that I had omitted to create the intro post, so that people knew where it was coming from.
I wish I would have done a better job with my intro post. It’s was so early and I had no idea what folks looked for and how to make an impression. Still learning this stuff daily here. Reading posts such as this one helps me become a better writer and Steemian!!
Hi Eric, I love that you are so open in the way you mostly do healing, no doubt it's a subject where subjectivity comes into play, but it's a great job under any optics, when I started in steemit I didn't make my presentation, maybe because I didn't know how positive it could be, here I see the importance that can have the person who guides us here, no doubt my new friends steemians will direct them to this post, thank you friend
Wow, que gran trabajo haces @anomadsoul... No solo votándonos, sino también enseñándonos a postear.
Estoy claro que no quieres que se tome "esto" como una guía o como la "ley", pero es super interesante saber o intentar comprender el como votas y el por que... Mas interesante aun es que nos orientas en como "deberían" ser nuestras publicaciones para ser de calidad, o por lo menos eso asumo.
Siento y se que tienes las mejores intenciones, no solo de darnos pescado, sino también enseñarnos como debemos pescar (en el sentido metafórico).
Thanks for your support to the new commers and please keep supporting them.
There's no greater source of motu action than being supported the fist day. I tell you from own experience. Kudos to you @anomadsoul..
Regards.
@eurogee of @euronation and @steemstem communities
Brilliant in put. Thanks for understanding the need to support the minnows. Great line of thought.
Great overview for your 'requirements' for the IntroduceYourself tag. We believe if you want to make your stamp and welcome to the platform, you need to show some structure and heart. If we knew this before, we would change a few things in our Introduce Yourself post, but no regrets as we wrote our post with what we knew then. Hindsight is 20/20.