My Steemit Plans For 2018
I've been here since April and in that time I've been trying to find my feet, not only in the steemit world but also in the social media blogging world, to which I'm still really new. It's taken me a little while to get to grips with all of the different aspects of these things but I feel now that I've reached a point where I can help to play a bigger and more active role in the community, which I'd like to see grow and become stronger.
So, 2018 will see me commit to spending a more considerable amount of time on steemit than I have been able to until now and I thought I'd begin with a little post to let anyone interested know some of the plans I have for the coming year here.
Writing
First of all, I want to do a lot more writing.
Along with art, writing was one of my passions when I was a young man but over the years, that passion had faded, almost to the point of extinction, until one day I found steemit and realised writing is something I still have the capacity for and I certainly have plenty of things to say. The difficulty I have in my writing is in my lack of confidence but this is improving all the time and I was really pleased with the response to my last written post, Message In A Bottle, which got some really nice comments and gave me a lot of encouragement.
Initially I plan to write briefly on my thoughts about certain subjects and combine this with my desire for a better understanding of the more philosophical aspects of our being in a series of posts I intend to call, The Big Questions.
I don't consider myself to be an intellectual by any stretch of the imagination and I know that I lack a lot in my attempts to think clearly on certain issues, so I plan to try and structure the posts in such a way as to encourage others to share their thoughts and perspectives with me to facilitate discussion which might help myself and hopefully others, rethink, reconsider and/or re-affirm our previously held positions.
I also plan on trying my hand at a little bit of fiction after coming across a post by @adsactly and entering a submission for one of their short story collaborations. Unfortunately my entry wasn't chosen but I plan on developing the idea I put forward and write it by myself. It's been many, many years since I have written fiction, so I'm not exactly sure how this will go but I am looking forward to finding out. If you'd like to see the premise of my idea, you can click here. :)
As well as this, want to further my writing on issues I feel strongly about. I've already written a few posts in this regard but I have a lot more to say on certain issues and in truth, have been held back by the lack of confidence in expressing my thoughts as I want to that I mentioned earlier. From now on though, I intend to overcome this deficiency.
Art
Art is how I got started on steemit, by posting some of my portraits. It's been a while since I've posted my drawings regularly but I plan to do so more in future as well as expanding my horizons a little in terms of the work I produce. I have a few projects in mind for murals, which I'd like to do more of, so plan on recording the process when I do and posting it with the completed work when I'm finished.
Contests
Anyone who knows me on steemit will no doubt be aware that I like to hold the odd contest here and there and that will not be changing in the near future. :)
I really enjoy hosting contests on steemit and try to provide a little value along the way by encouraging others to improve their existing skills or learning new ones, for example drawing in my Learn To Draw With Friends or Daily Sketch contests or gaining experience of trading altcoins on the crypto markets with my Altcoin Trading Championship contest which has just ended, the winner of which will receive 120 SBD.
I think contests have become an integral part of the steemit experience and are a great way for newcomers to introduce themselves to the community. For me personally, they provide a good way of meeting new members as well as increasing my SP and also provides me with the means to give something back to the community by both rewarding those contestants for their efforts by way of the SBD rewards the contests receive and also in hopefully at times providing others with a means of inspiration to create quality, value adding posts.
So contests will definitely have a part to play in the future of my blog on steemit and I plan to introduce a new one in the coming weeks called, 'Comic-Con-Test'. I have a rough idea of how I want to structure the contest but will provide more details when I launch it very soon but there will no doubt be other contests over the course of the year and a second season of the #atc will likely be coming very soon as well. :)
Curation
In 2018, I pledge to spend at least one hour per day manually curating content on steemit. I feel that manual curation is something that the platform needs to try and increase and is often the only way that a lot of quality posts actually get seen. I've been impressed with @clayboyn in this area and plan to emulate his efforts by having my own weekly curation post where I can recommend quality posts that I personally believe add value to the platform or the lives of others.
I think for the time I've had available up until now, I've done a decent job of curating because I actually enjoy reading other people's thoughts and seeing their creative efforts but I still feel that I could be doing more, especially to encourage newcomers. I have tended to stick to my own feed for the last little while since it provides me with a lot of interesting posts to choose from but I think we should all do our part to encourage and support, so I intend to spend a lot more time curating the works of those new to the site in order to further encourage them to continue.
Gain A Better Understanding Of Steemit
I want to find out for example, how to put someone on an automatic upvote as there are a few members of the community whom I feel are doing fantastic work all the time and who I would like to support but until now have relied on finding their posts in my feed or manually checking their page.
If anyone could give me a quick heads up on this one it would be appreciated. :)
Increase My SP
Until now, I have never used my flag and from now on I intend to use it as little as possible since it deprives me of a vote that could have been used elsewhere for a positive post. If I see something I think is abusive or negative to the platform I'll try my best to bring attention to it and speak to those involved but if need be I want to retain my right to counter abuse by using my flag.
At the moment it would have little affect other than a symbolic gesture but hopefully that will change. I also want to increase my SP because I feel strongly that steemit is set for big things in the coming year and I want to be able to benefit from that success as I'm sure we all do, so I plan to earn my SP as I go and hopefully power up a little as and when the opportunity presents itself. :)
So,..
I'm in desperate need of getting fit and improving my overall health, so some sort of fitness diary and writing about my health may feature at some point, in fact I plan to do a couple of posts called One Week Without which, as you can probably tell, will concentrate on my efforts to cut out some of the things which are more detrimental to my health, such as smoking and sugar consumption, two of my worst habits. :)
Also, as much as I'm a promoter of traditional skills and values, I have been known to enjoy the odd game of Fifa or Pro Evolution Soccer, so don't be surprised to see a few dlive videos of me whipping my brother, @son-of-satire at football as he's been trying to get me on there for a little while now. :)
So, I'm really looking forward to this upcoming year on steemit a lot. I think there are big things ahead for all of us and I'd like to be a bigger part of that if I can. I want to try and elevate my position on the platform by being a team player and concentrating on the community aspect a lot more. I want my reputation to grow and be decided upon by individual members of the community based on their personal interactions with me.
I want to try and emulate all of those aspects of steemit which make this a great community to be a part of and help make the platform a better place for us all, so that we can concentrate on using it to make the world itself a better place. I have spoken before about the potential I see in steemit as a force for good in our world and I still believe strongly that this can be the case.
I want to be a part of that and will do whatever I can to help. :)
Thanks for your time everyone. See you all in 2018! :)
Hi Tony,
It sounds to me as if you have some excellent aspirations with respect to Steemit. I've always enjoyed your art, and was recently very glad to see the decent rewards you got for your "Message in a Bottle" piece.
I also agree that good, manual curation is very much needed. I've been personally disappointed to see how the way the system currently works tends to overlook really excellent content. I think it would be great if Steemit had more readers who were well rewarded for recognizing and passing along content of excellence.
I wish you great success with all these intentions, my friend!
😄😇😄
Thank you very much my friend, @creatr. Now that I've committed myself to increasing my steemit output and writing more, it will become more apparent exactly how confused I am in my thinking in relation to certain issues or related issues but I am losing the fear of being wrong and am more concerned with assessing what I believe to be true and I hope you will play a part in the learning process I am about to undergo.
I'm also pleased with my Message In A Bottle post because of the rewards it receieved but more so for the comments I got from yourself and others. As you know, my writing has been somewhat angry in the past and confrontational at times, so I was really pleased to see a different style of writing having more success and while I obviously don't intend to try and just replicate this,it has shown me that there are other ways for me to express my thoughts that I can have more success with in future.
I definitely want to try and get more involved in the community but being so technically backward, I don't think it will be in any of the progressive areas in building on the blockchain etc but I'm sure there's a place out there for me somewhere where I can do my part and curating new members and older members alike should be a good place to start. :)
In terms of quality of posts, my own have remained the same over time, hit and miss. I am more the kind to post what I like and see who else likes it regardless of the rewards but I'm trying to improve the overall quality and cut out some. I have noticed some who were making excellent posts at the beginning of their time here who are now throwing up a photo and getting well rewarded by buying votes, which is sad.
Thanks again for all of the support and your time mate. I hope everything is going well on your end and that you have good surfing conditions wherever you are now. :)
Hi Tony,
I always enjoy our discussions. I've also been very frustrated to see crap and laziness rewarded on Steemit by gaming the system. And somewhat like you, I have also always tended to post what I feel is important or interesting to me rather than catering to powerful interests. When those things happen to coincide, and I get better rewarded, I don't complain. However, I am frustrated at times comparing the progress and rewards of other Steemians with my own.
I have also been thinking about trying to learn the Steem blockchain programming environment and developing some tools that would help my own account and maybe those of others. I struggle with decisions about "which way to go."
BTW, I've been greatly helped by the kind people at The Writers' Block. You spoke of being encouraged by feedback? Well, I've found some tremendous feedback and editing help there, and I'd recommend that you look into it. There is also what appears to be a splinter group called, I think, "The Isle of Write." In any case, as you start to ramp up your writing, I'd encourage you to look into one or more support groups for positive feedback and encouragement. I've increased my output of fiction with the help of The Writers' Block and various contests.
Thanks for your good wishes. I would like to move closer to the ocean so that I could surf more often, but I'm still waiting for my "ship to come in" before I'll be able to do that.
I wish you and yours a very happy and prosperous New Year, my friend, and look forward to seeing your new efforts here on Steemit.
I'm glad to hear you are going to try your hand at curation! It's very time consuming with the way the platform is currently set up, but it's also very rewarding in its' own way. All the best to you for next your dude.
Cheers mate and to you as well. I don't mind spending the time I have available curating because like I said there are lots of interesting things out there to learn about and find interest in but it's becoming more of a struggle to find such posts, which is probably why it is so time consuming like you say. :(
It's a selfish thing as well in some respects I suppose since it brings me joy to help others. :)
I like your aspirations! I've also been thinking of how I could up my steem game.. Though I'm still trying to figure it out. I wanted to do some kind of contest, but never got around to it.. I'm still unsure. Though reading your plans makes me think I need to think about it even more and try to figure out some kind of plan! Heh.
I wish you luck on your goals and look forward to interacting with you more in the future! Cheers.
Thanks a lot mate. Just as I said in my last comment a few minutes ago, it would be really good to see more of you on here. You've got a lot of interesting things to share as I well know from reading your previous posts. I think it's great that you don't take it as seriously as some others do but you've been here a long time, got a lot of followers and are in a great position if you choose to focus more on steemit. I for one would definitely be glad to see more from you in future and I've run a few contests now so if you need any advice in that area, just give me a shout mate. :)
Take it easy buddy! :)
You're welcome! Thank you to you as well! You've inspired me to take those latent ideas I had of making some kind of challenge and I'm going to make it happen soon. I haven't decided what yet exactly it's going to be about, but I have some good ideas and I'm excited. :)
I think most of my followers are bots by the way and most peoples followers are, that and inactive accounts people don't use anymore.
But I do still have a decent amount of friends on here and I want to grow more, and I want to give back more and I think contests are a great way to do both.
I'm not sure if I need any advice or not, but thanks for offering! I wanna make it something interesting about sharing information like photography poetry philosophy puzzles and finding hidden or rare information and stuff like that.. I think I may do a contest where I give people steem for achieving a different task each week,like one week might be a photography contest another might be tracking down some occult knowledge on the web, and then poetry and other neat subjects, lol. I dunno yet.. But the gears are tearing and I'm excited. Thanks for the inspiration! :0
I actually used to run a photography group on Facebook where I did challenges and it was pretty popular for a while! until it became too much for me to keep up with, lol. Hopefully that doesn't happen again but I think I can keep it pretty manageable. And if not, I bet I could get helpers a bit easier over here than i could on Facebook especially if steem is involved! So.. I dunno.. But it's interesting and I'm thinking about it a lot and Ima go to bed thinking about it and wake up thinking about it. Heh. I think it'll be a lot of fun though!
They all sound like excellent ideas for contests and I'd be happy to take part as well. The thing I've found by holding contests is that it gives others the inspiration to make a post when they otherwise wouldn't so it's great for getting people involved who are not sure what to post.
I really like the idea of the photography contest as I'm starting to really enjoy that myself and even though there are a few already, if you can find the right angle or theme, it's sure to do well but you're right in that you should definitely orient it around something you enjoy yourself. I'd love to see some sort of etymological contest or similar but not sure how you might go about running a contest based around that sort of idea. :)
Really glad that your excited and positive about life mate. It can be tough when you have a clearer idea of reality than most but it says a lot about you that you can rise above and still face the world with a smile. :)
I really wanna do an etymological challenge as well! Though not sure how it will work yet! Heh. I sorta thought I responded to this message already, but I guess I didn't. Glad to hear you'll be a part of the challenge! And yeah I think it's going to be beneficial in numerous ways.
There's definitely going to be some good photography challenges in there!
I appreciate the enthusiasm and positive energy! Hopefully this is the start of something really amazing on steemit and in the world in general with new technologies, but.. The powers that be rarely ever give up their power without a fight. It's probably going to get darker before it gets more light.
Yeah.. Sometimes it can be tough, but I haven't lost my smile yet. :)
Cheers bud! Much love.
Oops I only just saw this through a resteem from your bro!
Sounds good dude! Getting tore in as it were, it will pay dividends.
If you want to auto vote most people user steemvoter. There is a newer one called steemauto which isn't as reliable but I prefer it because steemvoter had had a bit of a chequered past. I only auto vote a few people and mostly manually curate. It's better that way.
Good luck dude!
It's not often someone like me gets the chance to get in early on something like this :) so I really should be trying to make the most of the opportunity, which up until now, I really haven't. There's only a couple of people I want to put on the autovote anyway. I like looking around myself and finding new posts that capture my interest, its just pretty hard to find at times. :(
I definitely need to up my game a little and try to stick to doing what I want. I've lost count of the amount of posts I've written and not posted for whatever reason. :)
Any news on how our friend is doing??
Hehe, I would post them posts you have written. I would really get stuck in in the new year. You are a very reasoned seeming, sound guy. Well at least you come across that way, you know what it's like, the internet. You could be a stone cold killah ;0)
It will get harder and harder to get so as the price goes up so you are deep doing the right thing.
Remind me about our friend, I have a mine like a fucking drive!! Lol
Cheers for the support mate and advice mate. :)
I was talking about @dreemit. I sent her a message on chat but no reply. Just wondered if you had heard how she is?
I haven't since yesterday, tough time for her. :0(
This is very inspirational! Everything looks very well planned :)
Good luck and your health should definitely be your priority :D Take care of yourself! ^^
Thanks a lot Kristy. It all sounds good in theory but I'm well aware of how life can get in the way of even the best laid plans so if don't get round to all of them I won't be to hard on myself but it's good to try and set a few targets. :)
I do really need to start taking better care of myself and that will definitely be the priority. :)
Any sort of improvement is already worth the previous effort ^^
Plans can definitely change, but getting started is the hard part xD
Hi, I have plans which are in some areas similar to yours, and in others I think I will not even attempt them as it's out of my zone of interest. I may put my plans on line but I'll see about that. It's forming nicely in my sketchbook, line by line.
It's nice to have a plan and going through with it. Follow through :)
I've recently started curating manually when I have time and I can say that is so difficult. It eats up a lot of time and voting power as well. I need more SP :)
Keep it up! I would like to see more of your work :)
Thanks a lot @zneeke. I appreciate your time, my friend and whatever plans you have, I hope you find success with them in whatever way you measure it. :) I think we all could do with a little more SP. :)
Hope the holidays are being good to you and yours mate. :)
Happy New Year@tonyr
restim me and upvote mi help mi