The Mesopotamians Curie Community Support Application
The Mesopotamians is an initiative built to train and empower future leaders in the Steem community. It uses consistent voting support and gamification to help users who have shown a desire to become strong positive forces within the Steem community become more effective. It's run by @tcpolymath.
Our mission is to create a class of dedicated, community-minded users who hold enough Steem Power to be extremely effective in the areas where they work to make Steem better.
In order to do this, we select users who we believe will be good future leaders and provide consistent voting support as they grow to 5000 SP through a six-level system of automatic voting accounts. Accounts operated under this system are @doctorworm @particleman @m-sargon @m-hammurabi @m-ashurbanipal (future) @m-gilgamesh (future) and @themesopotamians.
History
This initiative started on May 17, with the single account @doctorworm supporting twelve users below 500 SP. The project has grown quickly since then, and we recently launched our fourth active account, @m-hammurabi, to support users as they grow beyond 1100 SP. The system as a whole is currently supporting 68 users and growing; we'll likely be taking applications for a new class at the smallest levels in the next week or two.
Each account in the system posts twice per week - once a curation post to share what our users are doing in that week, and once a post to provide users with statistics on their account growth. In order to be a part of the system, the users have committed to growing the Steem Power in their accounts for the long term, and to participating and growing the community. They are not required to support the system in any way, though we're glad that some have chosen to.
Current community-support and curation projects supported by The Mesopotamians include the Pay-It-Forward Curation Contest, Helpie, Asapers, Photocircle, Archisteem, See.Feel.Write, Classical-Radio, Dropahead, Cover-a-Steemian, and the Steemit-Webcomics and Cartoon-off comics contests. We also support developers behind such projects as NobleBot, BDExchange, Steem Monsters DB, and SteemDaily.Press.
For the future, we have a project roadmap which may be accelerating. September tasks are already finished, and the low price of Steem has made it more practical to acquire the necessary Steem Power for expansion faster than planned.
Level-Up
At each level the users are required to envision and complete a community support project in order to remain in the system and advance to a larger vote amount. This keeps everyone in the mindset of building new things and learning how to be more effective on Steem, as well as developing their leadership skills. The structure is based loosely on the concept of the Eagle Scout Project.
Completed level-up projects have included the Cartoon-Off Comics Contest, the Photocircle Weekly Photographer Spot, organizing and producing the DTube birthday video, and the Steemit Webcomics Cover Contest, with more in progress.
However, the level-up reward of a slightly higher vote may not be sufficiently motivating, especially with the falling Steem price making the difference between the votes at bordering levels only a few pennies. So with the opportunity to to apply for Curie support, we would like to create a new incentive for users to complete their level-up projects.
Potential Sponsorship
We would like 100 Steem per month to be used to reward users who have completed a level-up project during that month. Our preferred method of reward would be Steem Basic Income shares, as value in SBI promotes long-term presence on the platform, and the extra share from sponsoring would support the sustainability of our program. However, we are open to sponsor input if they feel this is too self-rewarding; SBI shares can be awarded to two users with no self-sponsorship, or the reward could be provided in Steem Power or liquid Steem.
Increasing the level-up reward will make one of the most exciting parts of the program more effective - the part where we're essentially a machine for creating community projects.
We'd like to thank @curie and @randomwanderings for this opportunity. For any further questions please feel free to contact @tcpolymath on Discord as tcpolymath#2171.
One of the most supportive and encouraging initiatives on Steemit! I've been a member of The Mesopotamians and I've really felt the sense of trying to build something together from fellow participants, and from @tcpolymath <3
If there's possibility for @curie to support this, I can attest, as a member of this project, that The Mesopotamians is a community-minded initiative, aimed to help new users succeed and grow and though the members are selected by a biased process of @tcpolymath 's own determination, the virtues of such method is that ONLY COMMITTED users have been given the support and they, in turn, are encouraged to grow, and engage further, creating a ripple effect within the blockchain!!!
I don't want to spoil my UP COMING level up project, but this comes at an opportune moment since I am preparing a post to launch my own contest at Steemit to give back what I can (since a few days ago!!!) :D And, I have to say that I had been motivated 100% by my commitment to The Mesopotamians because otherwise I'd be taking my sweet time, and also I have a lot of fears and stuff, (like what if people are not entering etc.) ... but @tcpolymath and The Mesopotamians forces me to commit, and so, I believe in this project, and I think it 100% deserves all the support it can get :D
@curie and @randomwanderings - my heartfelt support for the Mesopotamians, please ! :D :D :D
Thank you, Spider. I don't think you'd ever have had any problems getting people to enter a contest, but there's a group of people behind you here to make absolutely sure of it.
@themesopotamians was the first community on Steemit that went looking for me to give me support. Actually, it was so subtle, that it took me a couple weeks to figure out what was going on and track down the source of this volunteered assistance to @tcpolymath, so that I could thank the man himself =)
The votes aren't huge (Delegate his accounts some SP Curie!) but the mental impact of knowing that someone was appreciating the work I was creating enough to put me on a fairly sizeable vote trail was very impactful as a new Steemian trying to figure out this site and find reasons to stay.
Not only does he have the voting trails, but he has created his own Discord channel which he has gathered all of us into, and puts out regular bulletins featuring the best of our work, with introductions to all of them - meaning he reads everything we create - basically @tcpolymath is running a one-man-Curie over here, and if he isn't leading the pack when it comes to community-building then I don't know who is.
I think he might be batman.
You know what they say: always be yourself, unless you're Bruce Wayne, in which case be absolutely anything else.
Discord?! Did I completely miss that memo? Where might I find an invite? @tcpolymath?
I am glad to have been selected as one of the Steemians to receive support from the Mesopotamians project. The automated votes is obviously very nice and motivating, but there are also additional benefits of being part of a community with driven and inspirational people.
I have learned a lot in this program and I believe The Mesopotamians really have a vast outreach throughout different Steemit communities as it encourages us to improve and engage with others, helping the user retention rate in Steemit.
This project really deserves to be supported because right now @tcpolymath is supporting all of us with his own money.
I do believe this is the kind of project that @curie should support, it is very unique and very future minded. Unlike most other people who joined Steemit, @tcpolymath has an elaborate and ambitious design to make people grow on this platform.
Thank you, Scrawly.
This is another great project to support people as they grow. It definitely deserves extra support itself.
Thank you.
I'm a member of this community and love the little community that we're building. It's such a supportive and encouraging bunch of Steemit users, and one with huge potential. :)
Thanks to @curie and co for supporting us.
Thank you.
Being part of this initiative has been the most exciting thing about Steemit for me so far. I now see growing my account to minnow status (and beyond) as inevitable, not something I wonder if I might attain. But also, I know I'll have to do the work to get there.
I am sure my opinion is biased, but I believe this is the best community building project out there. @tcpolymath's approach to leveling by creating new initiatives shifted my mindset from waiting for the next level to planning for it. It also encourages collaboration between project members. I know I am interested to see the projects my cohorts come up with!
Thank you.
It is heartfelt.
P.S. I think SBI shares is a great idea for a level up bonus.
Generous and encouraging support without fanfare. @themesopotamians and @tcpolymath are building a community of committed and community minded people, spreading an outward ripple of like minded generosity, curation and support.
This is definitely a project that deserves support from @curie as it has carry on effects that go far beyond the initial splash of assistance. I am proud to be a member (privately as myself, and more recently also as @classical-radio) of this project!
Thank you. I've kind of been obsessed with metacuration for a few years, and one of the things I really like about Steem is the ability to build a structure for it.
This idea of curating curators is pretty interesting, and it is a great way to get a bit of a extra mileage out of the support, by supporting others who will support others further down the line.
As a recipient of @tcpolymath's initiative, I've seen how well the program works in terms of support and encouragement, but what really makes this program stand apart, is the community support project required to level up. This is not simply another "help accounts grow" intiative, but one that envisions this platform full of community minded individuals, aimed together at generously and selflessly growing one large steemit community :) I'm 100% behind this project and truly hope that @curie and @randomwanderings see the value in it as well!
Thank you as always @tcpolymath for all you do :)
Thank you.
You're welcome!
I continuously see tcpolymath contributing alot of time, energy and research into making the Steemit platform a great place on the internet... I have seen many upvotes from his various accounts. I believe he has a strong vision and a solid direction. I feel honored that he supports my work here on Steemit. Steemit is a better place because of tcpolymath. ;9) Just as Steemit is a better platform because of the hard work and commitment of Curie. A patnership between themesopotamians and Curie, in my opinion, would be absolutely wonderful for the platform. Have a great week.
Thank you.
This is one of the best projects I have come across. I am grateful @tcpolymath saw something in me chose me to be a part of such a wonderful group of people. To get to see each level 's features for the week, it is amazing the amount of good content that is out there noticed and unnoticed.
Thank you.
Thank you 😃