Application For The Communities of the Month(September 2021) Support Program | Best of India

(1) Best of India Community (BOI)

(1.1) What is the purpose of your community?

The purpose of BOI is to make it a self-reliant community in the long run where the community members through the proof-of-dedication move up the ladder and help each other. Proof-of-dedication can be anything related to adding value to the community.

It's a general niche, so all types of content are being catered to, we are focused more on quality blogging, keeping the basic structure intact, and creating that much-needed social intersection that not just happens by blogging but also by value engagement to foster a sense of community.

(1.2) Is it unique?

Yes, it is.

• Because we are a community where we are focused both on the process and the outcome. Social intersection, Quality blogging, Engagement, etc-- are key to build a better social platform.

• Because we are a community that always looks for a scalable solution, and deploy resources to build those things, which is useful for the entire Steem community. In fact, two of our MODs earn their ranks as MOD by developing scalable tools.

• Because no single person owns this community. Anyone can become MOD (with proof-of-dedication, by adding value to the community), conforming to the principle of decentralization.

• Because we take constructive criticism as a guiding path, accordingly make necessary course corrections.

(1.3) Are there any other communities covering the same subject or area as yours?

I think NO. We(BOI) guide the Newcomers and steer them to a smooth start in Steem Blockchain. We have a setup in place where anyone from India joining Steemit(through the Newcomers community program) is greeted and introduced with BOI vision. So basically Newcomers after their induction join us. Most importantly BOI is a learning ground for naive users, Newcomers.

(1.4) Why should people join your community?

• Because we have created the best avenue for Newcomers to learn the basic structure of blogging, with continuous follow-up, mentoring, etc.

• Because we organize initiatives, contests, etc from time to time and create opportunities for the users to earn more.

• "What comes from people must go back to them"-- We distribute 100% curation reward to our delegators.

(2) Community Team

(2.1) Who are the Admins and Moderators of your community?

Admin- @rishabh99946

MODs- @neerajkr03 @sapwood @starlord28

@bestofindia is the Community Curator Account.

@neerajkr03 & @starlord28 both are techies and developers, so their role is quite specified in the Community. We believe that coding is a cognitively challenging task, hence needs sustained attention, therefore they do a lot in the backend.

@rishabh99946 is taking care of the Newcomers(from India) joining Newcomer Community Program and introducing them to BOI vision, and steering them to a smooth start, organizing weekly contest, etc.

@sapwood is responsible for Planning, Accounting, Engagement stats, Curating with Steemcurator07 account, distributing Delegator's rewards, publishing Community update from time to time, organizing monthly contest, etc.

By and large, all four (Admin & MODs) engage with the users in the Community and keep following up with the users to ensure that the guidelines and the basic structure of the posts are being maintained and followed.

(2.2) What countries are they from and what languages do they cover?

All of them are from India.

@rishabh99946-- Uttar Pradesh(Northen India)
@neerajkr03-- Uttar Pradesh(Northen India)
@sapwood-- Madhya Pradesh(Central India)
@starlord28-- Karnataka(Southern India)

In INDIA, both English & Hindi are the official languages, so all the MODs are familiar with both of them. But we do recognize the linguistic diversity within India, so we do not restrict anyone to publish content in any language they are familiar with. However, we request them to make sure that the language is translatable using Google Translate or DeepL.

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

They are not separately rewarded with liquid funds, but yes, they are being given one full vote from Community Curator Account(@bestofindia) every day and on a weekly basis one full upvote from the Steemcurator07 account.

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

Although we have only one Admin, all the MODs share the private keys of the Community Account. So there is no single point of failure.

(3) Community Curation Account

(3.1) What is your Community Curation Account?

@bestofindia is the community curation account.

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

As on 19th Aug'2021--

Own SP-- 5037 SP (4225 SP in July)

Delegated in-- 52056 SP (50214 SP in July)

Effective SP- 57,093 SP (54439 SP in July)

(3.3) What are your plans for growing the SP of the account?

We are paying 100% delegator rewards. We have kept this structure to attract more nos of delegators. Since 1st Aug'2021, the MODs are contributing 10% of their Author reward.

For the delegator reward we do not power down, rather we chose to publish as many posts as possible to generate Author Reward and the author rewards help us to accommodate the Delegator Reward each month without having to power down the Community Curator Account(@bestofindia). Doing so is helping BOI to add around 900-1000 SP each month.

Further, at the moment the social users in our community are the only investors, and more or less their SP is earned through PoB.

For long-term sustainability, we seek to create an avenue for External investment opportunities for the investors primarily on the premise of investment. That will also add fundamental value to STEEM price dynamics.

That said, the immediate priority for us is to help users to reach dolphin status, and to encourage them to stay powered up and delegated to BOI in the long run. More dolphins mean more will be the effective SP of the BOI community.

(3.4) Are all the post rewards powered up, or are they used for paying delegators or members of the community team?
No. Because for contests and delegator rewards we have to have the liquid rewards at the end of the month. Any surplus amount is kept in the Saving account.

Since 1st Aug 2021, we are also publishing at least 3 posts each week to generate more Author Rewards.

(3.5) Who has access to voting with the account?

Admin & all the MODs have voting access.

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

As evident from the screenshots, our 7 Days voting CSI stands at 12.2, which is indeed a very healthy figure, shows a diverse voting pattern catering to more nos of unique users.

Please do note that we do not self-upvote, as that is considered bad social behavior.

That said, we would also like to highlight that:-

• We do vote delegators from time to time.
• We do vote outside the community as well to encourage quality content(as that helps strengthen PoB)

But primarily our loyalty is with the content(within BOI), does not matter who the author is. Through quality content, we socially intersect with an author.

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

On a weekly basis, more than 150 posts are being published in the BOI community. We are trying to cover as much as we can with the available resources, at present 80%-90% of them are being curated with the @bestofindia account.

(4) Plagiarism & Abuse

(4.1) What measures do you take to check for plagiarism and other forms of abuse (content farming, duplicate accounts, fake accounts)?

We have fought a long and tough battle(precisely a good fight) to deal with the insidious acts of spam/plagiarism and abuse of the reward pool.

We diligently check the Achievement Task-1 of a new user joining Steemit(from India) and BOI. There have been numerous cases of multiple/fake accounts, plagiarism, and abuse of reward pool in the recent past.

But we have been vigilant and working in close coordination with endingplagiarism to ward off any such attempt.

We further believe that geographic decentralization is needed because plagiarism could be contagious. If there are a group of people who somehow manage to leech the reward pool, then the honest user in that group also tends to cheat(even though the honest user has a good record in the past).

(4.2) Do you have designated people in your team for plagiarism checking?

Yes. We do maintain a curated directory of all the social activities including spam/plagiarism cases. From time to time we also publish the list of Repeat Offenders.

At the moment, the code of social conduct enforces the following criteria in BOI--

• First case of Plagiarism-- Suspension for 15 days
• Second case of Plagiarism-- Muted forever
• Multiple Accounts/Fake Accounts-- Muted forever

(4.3) Do you ensure all photos used in your community are copyright-free?

Yes. We are in continuous follow-up with all the users to follow the basic structure of a post and that also includes citing the source(in case it is not the original image) and also encourage them to use copyright-free images.

Basic Structure--

• Proper formatting
• Captioning the image
• Use of copyright-free images
• Cite the source if it is not original photography/content
• Specifying location(if any)
• Proper alignment of the screenshots
• Consistent styling techniques
• Emphasizing text (wherever needed)

(5) Engagement & Commenting

Engagement is the soul of BOI.

(5.1) Does the community team check and comment on every post in the community?

We do check on a day-to-day basis and also follow up with the authors if the shortcoming of a post outweighs the quality. But on Monday and Tuesday, we thoroughly check it and cover all the users when we curate with the Steemcurator07 account. In fact, we used to reward more whose nos of comment in that particular week is more.

We maintain the Engagement statistics on a weekly basis too.

We agree we need a better setup and we are keen to expand our team with a second layer setup in which two curators will be recruited who will enforce all the guidelines and rules in a timely manner.

Steemcurator07 and Booming Curation are backed with tangible data

Supporting with Steemcurator07 is backed with engagement stat and the users generally get more reward who have a better engagement stat for that particular week.

We have introduced another valuable parameter WEMA(Weekly Engagement Moving Average). Since 4th April 2021, we have been diligently updating the Engagement stats on a weekly basis in BOI Sheet, and based on that we have calculated Weekly Engagement Average(WEMA). We believe that WEMA is a valuable parameter to identify the right social vehicle, those who consistently engage with others help to form an interconnected web that is fundamental to a social platform.

Since 9th Aug'2021 WEMA is being expereimented for Booming curation. So the top 35 users(WEMA) are being supported with Booming on the alternate weeks. Thats said, the general criteria, quality content, talent hunt, etc continue to prevail in BOI and accordingly receiving Booming support. So it's a balanced mix of Engagement & General criteria as far as Booming curation is concerned.

_{WEMA Sheet (Last updated on 8th Aug'2021), top 35 users are being supported with Booming curation on the alternate weeks}

(5.2) If not, approximately what proportion of posts are commented on?

On average 10 to 12 posts are commented on.

(6) Plans & Updates

(6.1) How often do you post plans and updates for the community?

We generally update the community's progress on a monthly basis about the overall progress. But we do update the community on a weekly basis on the nos of active users & Engagement statistics, Booming Roster, Weekly contests, etc.

(6.2) Do you post these through the community account?

Yes, all the announcements and updates are always posted through the Best of India(@bestofindia) community curator account.

(6.3) Do you have a roadmap or long-term plan for the community?

Yes, we do have a roadmap. We take this opportunity to brief you on the long-term plan of BOI.

Economy

• We organize at least one weekly contest and one monthly contest w.e.f. 1st Aug 2021.
• There will be a second layer setup(2 Curators) along with MODs who will work in tandem to ensure engagement and activities in BOI at any given time. We have already planned for it and will recruit on 1st Sept 2021.
• All the MODs set 10% benefactor reward for BOI w.e.f. 1st Aug 2021.
• The immediate target is to achieve 0.1 Million SP, but the long-term goal(perhaps 2022) is 1 Million SP. (SP to be read as Effective SP). We are keenly following up with the investors to bring fresh investments. It's just a matter of time.
• We will open up a separate marketing channel for both Quality Bloggers and Investors. We have already outlined a roadmap on the recruitment drive and we will have a Task force ready by the end of this month who will exclusively look after the marketing part.

Curation & Enforcement of the Rules/Guidelines

As we have stated we will recruit two curators from the BOI community and we will go for deep engagement in the BOI, all the areas of improvement( in the context of Basic structure) will be closely monitored.

We will also maintain one more sheet which will feature the possible areas of improvement.

Here is a sample.

S No	User	Areas of Improvement	General Feedback
1	thakur9520	Detailing of the subject	Needs to pay a bit more attention to his posts. The diary game gives authors the freedom to express themselves and in turn meet like-minded people. By not providing details, this user is missing out on a lot of amazing engagement
2	roopk97	Proof-reading	This user makes use of markdown well. Adding more details to everyday posts and also doing another round of proofreading along with the use of Grammarly, the quality of posts can be improved. The user's engagement stat is amazing though.
3	layersinn	Proper Formatting	One of the most active users with regular engagement. While his posts do have something new every day, it needs the right formatting to make it more readable. By formating his posts, he would surely attract more readers.

On a weekly basis, we will keep updating it, following up with the users to make necessary improvements, and accordingly reward the users.

Further, when we curate a user, we will drop valuable suggestions/feedback/remarks to each of the posts(whether it is curating with BOI account, or Booming Account, or Steemcurator07 account).

Here is a sample.

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You have been upvoted by @sapwood, a MOD of the BOI community. We are curating original content that is being produced in the Best of India Community.

Engagement is essential to foster a sense of community. Therefore we would request our members to visit each other's posts in Best of India and make insightful comments.

Pay attention to the Remarks/Feedback(Basic Structure), we have also provided the resource which will help you to make it better and/or fix the issue(if any).

Basic Structure	Yes/No	Useful Resources
Captioning image	Yes
Copyright-free images, citing the source wherever needed	Yes
Proof-reading	Yes
Specifying Location using What3words(if any)	Yes
Proper Markdown/Styling	No	Link
Proof-reading	Yes
Free of Spam/Plagiarism/Fake Account	Yes
Any other Remarks

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Thank you.

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If all the columns are showing YES, that means the user has kept the basic structure intact, if not, then it is the responsibility of the MOD/Curator to provide the links of the resources so that the user can learn it. If the resource is not available the curator will immediately intimate the same to the MOD and the resource material will be published on a priority basis.

Further, the Curator will follow up with the users to make necessary improvements in the next blog.

We want to enforce this w.e.f 1st Sept 2021.

And this will be applicable for all the posts that are being published in the BOI community.

With this approach, it would truly feel like learning and developing the skills of a professional blogger, the overall average quality will greatly improve which will further strengthen PoB and will be rewarding for all.

(7) Promotion

(7.1) How do you promote your community?

At the moment, we are doing this off-chain/off-line. But we are keen to bring more users through Twitter promotion.

(7.2) Do you promote your community outside of Steem?

Yes, we do. We do engage with users in other mainstream social media like Facebook, Twitter, etc, promoting Steem. But crypto is not as straightforward as the legacy centralized system. So it generally takes a lot of time to persuade them.

(7.3) Do you have a Promotion or Marketing Plan for your Community?

Yes, we do have a plan. In fact, we are already in touch with the moderate level Youtubers, who are struggling to get that recognition and reward from Youtube(despite producing useful content). A few of them might join us soon.

Further, we are in touch with a few coaching institutes to conduct interactive sessions and Q&A activities on a weekly basis. We will host them and all the participants will receive rewards from BOI. That way the students will also get exposure to the Steem ecosystem.

Steemit has made many students self-sufficient, particularly in the last year. We can ensure significant traction if this materializes. Not to mention, many students have developed better writing skills, professional authorship qualities, etc which will also help them in their mainstream career.

(8) Anything Else

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

We are a pan INDIA community catering the active users from India. The MODs of the BOI community have developed useful scalable tools for the entire Steem community(not just for BOI), #SUT, #TAGSEARCHER, #SCRIBE, #SIR #AFFABLE, #AVERAGEDELEGATION, etc. We are developing a few more(already in progress).

In terms of quality, we have never degraded it. We have always believed in organized writing, we have also been mentoring users how to produce quality content, how to keep the basic structure of a post intact. We have produced a number of tutorials on the same.

That said, BOI is not without shortcomings. We are one of the most organized communities in the backend, but in the frontend, there are a lot of things that need to be put in order, to make it even more organized, and being the MOD of the BOI community I take that responsibility. We have already implemented a few things in the month of Aug'2021.

W.e.f 1st Sept 2021, we will introduce a second layer setup and will pay 50 STEEM as salary(+full upvote from BOI) each to two curators so that we can address each and every user in the community on a daily basis. Earlier it was planned for Aug, but we have postponed it to 1st Sept.

Major events in BOI(Aug 2021)

• Effective Average Delegation feature has been added to the scribe tool(by @starlord28, a MOD of BOI community) which will make the job of Community Leaders super easy and now it is fully automated. So it benefits not just to BOI but also to the entire Steem community.

• Booming Roster with a framework of WEMA and General Criteria enforced on 9th Aug 2021.

• One monthly contest running and two weekly contest have been already organized in BOI in Aug 2021. Two more weekly contests will be organized in Aug as per the defined schedule.

(8.2) Any other special features your community has?

Yes, we are unparallel in identifying the right social vehicle for Steem Platform. When we say the right social vehicle, then it does mean that social activities always remain unabated by the price dynamics of STEEM.

We have very often observed that with the rise of STEEM price we witness an influx of Newcomers for obvious reasons. But the euphoria dies out during adverse market conditions or bear cycles. So the real asset for Steem Blockchain is the one who believes in consistency, blogging is a passion for him/her. Those who believe in the idea of delayed gratification. We use tangible data to figure out such users.

We do use the moving average of the engagement statistics to identify the right social vehicle for Steem Blockchain.

(8.3) Do you encourage only #steemexclusive posts in your community?

Yes, we are very particular about #steemexclusive content. The curated directory, trending page of Steem becomes the tangible intellectual asset if #steemexclusive content is being produced. It also adds fundamental value to STEEM.

Producing #steemexclusive content could be laborious, time-consuming but it always creates a sense of brand(Steem).

We encourage our users to produce unique content in Steem Blockchain, in particular, #steemexclusive content.

Thank you.

Cc:-
@steemitblog
@steemcurator01
@steemcurator02

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Cc:- @neerajkr03 @rishabh99946 @starlord28

Unless otherwise stated, all the images, infographics, charts, tables, etc(if any) are my original works.

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Benefactor Reward-- 10% to @bestofindia