Have you ever thought it would be cool to get paid just for hanging out with your friends?

Not really doing anything, just chattin' it up with each other, and getting rewarded for it? Well hey!!! We have this AWESOME platform here that can allow us to do exactly that! "How do we do that" you might ask? Engagement! Talking to each other! Comments can be Upvoted just like actual posts here on Steemit!

Everyone wants to earn more rewards here on the platform,

but not all of us are creative enough (myself included) to come up with a valuable post that will actually earn Upvotes everyday. Or we are creative enough, but don't have the time to type up something, style it with markdown, find cool pictures and links, etc. Or we don't have any problem with either of those things, we make an awesome post, but it just doesn't get noticed by any accounts with heavy hitting votes. Getting ones name out and being noticed by people with significant votes can be really difficult, especially for the newer people on the platform. Some of the people here with higher SP numbers to vote with won't even look at posts of other users with a reputation score below (50). I don't really hold that against them. Their stake is theirs to vote with how they choose, and most spammers and plagiarists have a reputation below that level. Staying away from those lower reps is a mechanism used to avoid wasting time on crappy posts. Unfortunately for the rest of us, this makes it even more difficult for good posts by new users to be seen. How can a new user get to a rep above (50) if no one even looks at their post because their rep is lower than that? Seems to be a bit of a conundrum, don't ya think?

So what do we do? How do we get our names out there to more people?

How do we get our reputations high enough for those big voters to even take the time to look at our posts? Well, we have to get our reputation up. "But you just said..." I know what I just said. My idea is simple. If the bigger voters that we want to attract to our post won't even look at our posts until we have better rep, then we have to band together as Minnows and help each other get that higher rep. And I want to try to do that in a fun and exciting way! I want to help bring as many Minnows as I can up! Help as many people as possible succeed on this platform. But I can't do it by myself. Like I said, we have to band together and bring each other up.

So here is what I propose. I suggest that we reward each other just for talking to one another.

Providing each other with enjoyable conversation and Upvoting the comments of those who stimulate our minds or entertain us the most by doing so. I'm not talking about Upvoting useless two word comments or spam like "follow me and I'll follow you" or things of that nature. I mean Upvote the comments of people who actually take the time to read a post and make an engaging comment. If you aren't sure what a valuable or engaging comment is, please take a look at THIS POST by @ogochukwu! Pretty simple, right?

Now that I have come up with an idea to help support new users, how do I attract people to it and incentivize them to participate? Let's make this a contest!

"But how are we going to support each other if we are competing with each other?" FANTASTIC QUESTION!!! First, there will be multiple prizes for this contest in various categories. Second, some of the winners of this contest are going to be decided by you, the people entering this contest! This is my first attempt at running a contest, so bear with me as I iron out the wrinkles. This contest is about giving to each other more than it is about receiving. (Don't shoot me, it only SOUNDS like a reference to Christmas made before Thanksgiving)

Rules for entry and participation.

Upvote this post.
The higher the value of this post, the larger the prize pool is going to be. I plan on using about half of the SBD that this post earns as part of the prizes that will be awarded.
Resteem this post.
More people seeing this post means more people can participate. The more people participate, the better the post will do, again increasing the prize pool.
Tell me something I dont know!
That is the theme for the contest. My girlfriend was surfing the web last night and came across a random piece of interesting, but probably useless, knowledge. "Koalas have fingerprints very similar to the fingerprints of humans." Respond to this post in the comments with your own random trivia fact! (Site your source, if it is too outlandish of a claim, I may want to see where you got your information from. I want real facts, useless or otherwise, not made up news.)
Engage with the other entrants in the contest.
After you have left your own comment, take a few moments to look at the other comments. (If you are one of the first people to leave a comment, you may have to revisit this post to do so.) Reply to and Upvote the comments that are facts you didn't know, or that make you smile, or whatever. Engage each other. If everyone drops an Upvote on the other comments, everyone earns a reward, even if they don't win the contest!
Do all of the things listed here.
Upvote and Resteem this post. Drop a comment with your own piece of trivia. Reply to and Upvote some of the comments from other users. If you don't do all of the things outlined here, you will not be considered a valid entry. Entries will be accepted until this post pays out.

Awards and Prizes!

"This sounds good and all, but what do we get out of it?"

Various prizes are going to be given for participation in this contest.

1 SBD or 10% of the SBD earned by this post (whichever is greater) will be awarded to the user who posts the most interesting trivia fact. This prize will be selected by me, using my own judgement of what is interesting. (I may award more than one user in this category, depending on participation and how big the prize pool ends up being, and if I have a difficult time selecting just one entry)
2 SBD or 20% of the SBD earned by this post (whichever is greater) will be awarded to the user who interacts with the most other entrants. That means replying to the comments left by other people on this post. VALUABLE COMMENTS, not just "nice entry". (Again, if you don't know what a valuable comment is, check the post I linked above) This prize will be determined by you, the person reading this post right now. The more people you reply to on this post, the better your chance of earning this prize. I suggest checking back on this post on the fifth or sixth day before payout and see where you stand.
2 SBD or 20% of the SBD earned by this post (whichever is greater) will be awarded to the user who Upvotes the most entries. This prize will also be determined by you, the person reading. Don't be stingy with your votes. Upvoting the other valid entries to this contest could earn you an awesome prize!
2.5 SBD or 25% of the SBD earned by this post (whichever is greater) will be awarded to the user who receives the most upvotes on his or her entry. This prize will be determined by ALL of the participants. I will be looking for the total number of Upvotes received, not the dollar value of those votes. Whoever wins this prize will also receive a delegation of 50 Steem Power for four weeks, allowing that user to earn a little more for curating during that time. (This delegation prize will only be available to accounts with less than 100 of their own SP. If an entry from an account with more than that amount gets the most votes, the delegation prize will be awarded to the entrant with the next highest amount of votes whose account has less than 100 SP. The SBD prize still goes to whoever has the most Upvotes, regardless of how much Steem they have.)

There you have it. The first official @gogogadgetupvote contest!

Just another idea I had for supporting and rewarding new people joining the platform. Tell me what you think about it. I am open to suggestions on how to improve my contests in the future!
I just bought a 2200 SP delegation from MinnowBooster for 4 weeks, bringing my total SP up to about 4600. I will be Upvoting all of the valid entries in this contest. This contest is focused on helping newbies get a hand up, but everyone is welcome to participate. Especially any of you whales out there who may stumble upon my humble contest. You don't have to participate, but your Upvote on any of the entries could really make someones whole day!
If you would like to earn more Upvotes from me, check out my New User Support Project post LOCATED IN THIS LINK, and go try to claim the bounty I talk about in that post.

Thanks for taking the time to read and participate in my contest!

I am looking forward to hearing all of your feedback and reading your entries! Remember, the more people who participate, the better the prizes are going to be! If you are in any groups on discord or anywhere else, tell your buddies to come check out my contest, too. Spread the word to as many people as you can.

I'm @gogogadgetupvote and I'm always on duty!

Engagement Contest #1 "Tell me something I don't know"