Greetings of the day Steemit Team!

First of all I want to thank everyone who put heads together and came up with such a great initiative in offering support to at least 6 Communities on the platform! This is greatly appreciated by all!

So yes, I am @progressivechef and I am on the platform for more than 4yrs now! Since my first day here, back in 2017, I've always believed in Steem/Steemit and posted regularly only original and good quality posts!

I am running the Steemit Iron Chef Community for nearly 3 months now and we've reached over 710 subscribers in this little time! Everyday we have more people subscribing and we will hit a 1000 very soon!

Steemit Iron Chef is a unique type of cooking contest that I started back in 2017 and run for several months...then after a brief pause, I got the blessings of @steemcurator01 to kick it off once again couple of months back...

Since then, this contest has become the favorite one of original foodies and serious food bloggers of Steemit!

This post is our application for The Communities of the Month Support Program, I hope to get some positive feedback and get selected for this program!

Let's Go!!!

Community Purpose

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• What is the purpose of your community?

If you look around on Steemit, there are a lot of contests going on each day...this is great indeed! Contests actually makes people get acquainted to the platform, makes friends and learn from each other while having great chances of earning some precious Steem!

But we also have a real lot of users who just join the different contests by posting very low quality posts while others just posts plagiarized posts and some posts several entries just for their personal gains...and this is not something nice for the overall image of Steemit! Isn't it!?

In Steemit Iron Chef, I organize a weekly contest where each user can only enter only ONCE a week...and only those who produce top quality posts are rewarded in terms of weekly prizes, league points for another bonus and support from votes from the curator!

• Is it unique?

I will say, YES...we are unique!

Our biggest point is that I am myself a Chef, backed by more than 19yrs of experience in the culinary field and having worked in the world top hotels and restaurants...So I know everything about food and cooking contest!

Steemit Iron Chef is a serious cooking contest where contestants are encouraged to realize the best dish they can! When we started earlier this year, the overall quality was so so...

But now after 9 rounds completed...you can see the quality...Michelin Star quality food from our users!

Steemit Iron Chef is a community where there will be only food/beverage contests running on a professional level!

• Are there any other communities covering the same subject or area as yours?

Food based contents are present everywhere...contests are also everywhere...but the way we make it in Steemit Iron Chef...hmmm no we don't have any other one like us!

• Why should people join your community?

In SIC, everyone is on the same level...and they all have only ONE chance per week...if they do it well, they get some nice rewards...

So basically users know that they have this one chance to grab some great rewards which can cover all their earnings from a full week blogging on Steemit!

I encourage foodies who are real passionate to join and show us their talents!

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Community Team

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• Who are the Admins and Moderators of your community?

@progressivechef is the admin and @steemit-ironchef is the moderator. I have plans to get some more moderators on board...but this will depend on the support that we can get from Steemit team!

• What countries are they from and what languages do they cover?

We are open for all languages, with all the translator apps around, I think language should not be a barrier in any community at all!

• Are the team members paid or rewarded in any way from the community funds for their work in running the community?

If we get some support, each team member will get all his/her posts rewards + upvotes from my growing account on their posting!

Contestants on the other hands are rewarded with minimum 25 STEEM weekly + a grand reward pool for the top 50 participants!

You can read more on the latest round of the contest here!

• If you only have one Admin what would happen to your community if you left or lost your keys?

I don't think this will be an issue...I am well acquainted to Steemit and all passwords and keys are well saved.

But like I mentioned above, I am looking forward to add some more admin/mod soon...we are just 3 months old!!!

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Community Curation Account

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• What is your Community Curation Account?

My account @progressivechef is the community curation account! While all SP earned on @steemit-ironchef account is delegated to contestants - each time that account gets 100SP, a lucky contestant receive it as delegation!

2 contestants already received 100SP each!

We are unique as there's no community doing this initiative - we delegate to users instead of users delegating to
us!

• How much Steem Power does it have - both of its own and delegated to it?

My account is over 7000SP now and looking forward to grow each month as I powerup maximum I can! My goal is to reach 100K SP by next year - now if I get some delegation from the Steemit Team, things will be simply great!

• What are your plans for growing the SP of the account?

Power up Power up Power up...I have been getting good support from the curator and over 90% of my earnings are powered up!
I don't want to ask for delegations from members...they are themselves struggling! I don't feel this is the right thing to do! Instead, we delegate to ease the user experience of others!

• Are all the post rewards powered up, or are they used for paying delegators or members of the community team?

More than 90% of post rewards are powered up while I need to have liquid steem on hand each time to reward the contestants each week.

• Who has access to voting with the account?

As this is my personal account, so I am the only one voting with the account.

• What is the current Voting CSI score for the account (from Steemworld.org)?

My voting CSI is 5.0 with only 12% selfvote giving out 74 upvotes to 39 different authors - mainly Steemit Iron Chefs top contestants!

• On average what proportion of the posts each week receive a vote from the community account?

100% of posts are rewarded! No one if left on the side

Actually I use all my votes on the entries of contestants - they all get 100% upvote from my! But if we get more than 70 entrants, then it will be difficult and I will have to adjust the voting power on each entry.

So overall, I am using all my votes in the community itself.

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Plagiarism & Abuse

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• What measures do you take to check for plagiarism and other forms of abuse (content farming, duplicate accounts, fake accounts)?
  In order to have an entry validated, the contestant need to produce at least one photo with their name and date on a piece of paper next to their entry - or else it is rejected.

With one different theme each week, it is near impossible for someone to send plagiarized post in our community.

If anyone caught doing wrong things, they are first warned and if repeated, they are banned!

• Do you have designated people in your team for plagiarism checking?

Myself and the top bloggers of the community do help and communicate with me on discord if found anyone doing wrong!

• Do you ensure all photos used in your community are copyright free?

Up to now we have received only original posts and photos, I don't think we will get such problem in our community.

The punishment is harsh if anyone found raping the system!

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Engagement & Commenting

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• Does the community team check and comment on every post in the community?

I comment on nearly all entries each week and I can see the contestants doing same also. This is really amazing to see how everyone is supporting each other.

• If not, approximately what proportion of posts are commented on?

Over 95% of posts are commented on! Even more!

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Plans & Updates

• How often do you post plans and updates for the community?

From @steemit-ironchef account , I post minimum 3 times a week. And there's also major updates that are posted from my main account regularly.

• Do you post these through the community account?

Yes from the community account as well as from my main account.

• Do you have a roadmap or long term plan for the community?

My main goal of this community is to have 100s of top professional food bloggers united - this is the first step of my long term plan!

If you look around on all social medias, food contents normally dominates a big part...my dream is once we have all the 100 or more top food bloggers on Steemit Iron Chef, we will approach famous chefs from around the world and have them join the platform...

Now that most chefs/restaurants have been deeply affected by covid19 - this is the time to get these social medias kings on Steemit and show them how they can start earning on the blockchain...

But first we need good support from curators to be able to poach them and also a nice team around the world!

Another action that I want to achieve with time is to regroup restaurants/bistrots owners and make them start accepting Steem/SBD as payment - I already to it in my bistrot!

If I get maximum support from Steemit Team, I will share my full roadmap with you all!

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Promotion

• How do you promote your community?

With the help of @pennsif and the curators, the contest/community is getting nice promotion overall!

Contestants are encouraged to share their post on Twitter and all other social medias.

• Do you promote your community outside of Steem?

Yes on Twitter mainly as on Facebook our posts are hidden!

• Do you have a Promotion or Marketing Plan for your Community?

All of this will depend on the support...But in fact in Steemit Iron Chef, we don't want to have 100 of thousands of users...we want quality over quantity.

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Anything Else

Please include any other information you would like us to know about your community, and why your community should be selected for extra support?

Steemit Iron Chef definitely needs to be selected as this will be just the beginning of something great! We are the community where you will find only original posts and serious food bloggers united.

With the help of this support, we will grow very big and be the example of all blockchains around!

ps. The quality that is present in SIC...hmmm not many platforms have such quality! I am a chef and I am so proud of everyone building this community!

We will reach very far and the world will hear from us soon!

• Any other special features your community has?

With time, our community will keep on developing and organize some cooking contest...live...maybe during the Steemfest or another occasion...the opportunities are immense!

• Do you encourage only #steemexclusive posts in your community?

This is one of the main rules to get yourself validated in SIC!!!

ONLY ORIGINAL AND SERIOUS FOOD BLOGGERS IN SIC!!!

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So here we are with our application for the communities support of the month program!

I hope to get some positive feedback from the Steemit Team and further support from members!

Wish you a great day/evening ahead!
If you wish any additional info, kindly let me know below!
Best Regards!
@progressivechef