To clear any doubts and make the guidelines as transparent as possible, Curie reviewers will use this post to go through each of them in detail. Do note that some of the variables are regularly updated. Please keep up to date with the guidelines in #curie on Steemit.chat. The general spirit of Curie is to promote and reward promising undiscovered authors that create engaging and quality content. The type of content that may attract new audience to the Steem network.
Breaking down the guidelines
New and verified authors only, who have been persistent without much success. Brand new authors who have one or two posts without verification do not qualify.
Authors who have made a few good posts, but haven't been discovered yet. Someone who is actively involved with the community by upvoting and writing meaningful comments on other people’s posts etc. If the author was already rewarded by Curie, it’s less likely for that to happen again.
General guideline for "new author" would be between 27 Reputation and 52 Reputation.
You can submit posts by authors up to 52.9 Rep (which still says 52 on Steemit), but not 53. For lower Rep authors who have presence on other social media, make sure they are genuine and not impersonators. For example, someone sharing a music video should have link to their Steemit profile from youtube/vimeo, photo verification or similar proof of authenticity. Finally, be wary of scammers, or people who write just to milk rewards from the network.
Posts must be more than 150 minutes old, but less than 24 hours,
Note that top curators earn the right to submit posts after 45 minutes.
with maximum $1 pending payout.
Maximum post payout at the moment of submission needs to be less than $1. Be careful when submitting because the platform does not enforce the hard limit. Post that exceeds $1 between the time of submission and reviews are closed and do not affect curation score.
Author must not have earned more than $25 on a single post in the last 7 days.
Look back through the author's profile, if they have a single post with pending payout higher than $25 within 7 days from the time of creation of the post you’re submitting, pass on it. This is a minimum requirement. Ideally, author should be without any significant reward, or at least recently. For example, if the author’s previous post was 3 weeks ago and it had a significant reward, it may not be approved. That’s in line with “persistency without success” guideline.
Only original content.
Original content, created by the author of the post.
Articles, art, poetry, videos, recipes, etc. that appear first on Steemit. (I.e. no reposts of older work) Please check for plagiarism and reposting before submitting.
Reposts of older work do not qualify. For example, author might share music video from 2014. or travel photos from June 2017. These posts do not qualify. Look for something that’s fresh and made exclusively for Steemit in the last few days to maybe a week. Also, make sure they are not translating/plagiarizing content from other languages. If the grammar reads funny, it’s safe to pass. Look for engagement with quality comments that could confirm authenticity.
Avoid posts by authors who are writing a series or milking the same topic. Curie is unlikely to reward multiple parts of the series or a repetitive topic. Pass on the posts that are too long or indulgent as they likely won’t have any audience.
Content must be exceptional and unique.
This one is subjective of course, but keep the following in mind -
Fact-based articles must be properly cited and with author’s personal take on them. Simply paraphrasing other sources without adding anything substantial does not qualify, even if properly cited. Photography and travel posts must be exceptional with expertly taken photos and an informative story that goes with it. Photos-of-the–day-I-took-with-my-phone or sharing personal vacation photos do not qualify. Same goes for recipe posts – it can’t be what-I-made-today with mediocre photos and without something original in the recipe itself. Simplistic self-help / motivation / philosophy posts do not qualify either. Of course, stand-out posts from any of these categories are welcome. It should be something that would look good and not out of place on a professional blog with a significant audience. It’s fairly easy to distinguish bloggers passionate about what they write about from those who are just milking the community for rewards.
No Steemit-related, religious, introduceyourself or political posts.
Pass on anything that has to do with Steemit or Steem. Also politics, religion, propaganda or any similar sensitive topic that could be offensive to someone or cause division. Political posts that are historical and objective might be OK, but no political rants.
English posts only.
Be careful about bilingual posts – submit only if both versions are exceptional and original. Same goes for authors that are making 2 posts for 2 different languages - make sure they are posted simultaneously and that one is not just Google translated version of the other.
Conclusion
As mentioned above, quality is subjective, but all the previous reports show that finding exceptional posts in Curie’s spirit is a skill that can be learned. If you are having doubts or want to improve your curation, go through the posts Curie is resteeming. Those are the ones that would always be approved. Also keep track of the vote strengths by @curie and keep in mind that borderline ones with low strengths may not be approved next time.
Of course, some exceptional posts that do not follow one of the guidelines above may be rewarded. But it’s a risk and you shouldn’t take your chances unless you have unlimited submissions and 100% approval rating for the week. What’s best is to only submit those you are absolutely certain will be approved - give the reviewers an offer they cannot refuse!
You only need to find 1 great post per day and it will get you to top curators, and within touching distance of qualifying for reviewing and direct curation. Even if you don’t find 5 posts for the week, the worst that will happen is you having 15 submissions - even if you don't submit a single post a certain week!
This is the ultimate secret of every long term top curator – an absolute commitment to quality over quantity.
Finally, as an example for everything said, here are selected posts Curie resteemed in the last couple of months that you can always come back to as a reference of quality.
| Post title | Category | What's great about it |
|---|---|---|
| My recent trip to Iceland, filmed with a Mavic Pro | travel, video | Amazing footage, creative, well produced |
| Israel & The Palestinian Territories in 35mm | photography, travel | Fascinating photography of a fascinating part of the world |
| 7 years in the making [#1] Rebuilding and restoring a 30 year old BMW - twice. | cars, restoration | Cool project, very well documented and presented |
| OPEN MIC WEEK 38 - Tamar&Netanel - Peace of mind (Original Song) | music | Beautiful, original song, well presented and performed flawlessly |
| Minecraft, Bewitched, and Creative Mode | gaming, life | Creative personal story with interesting metaphors and superb writing style |
| [7 minute video] Why We Crave Adventure Even When it Means Pain and Hardship: a Story About Summiting a Mountain | adventure, video | Extraordinary hiking adventure with amazing footage, voiceover and story that goes with it |
| A cynical man and his bathtub - Understanding Stoicism: Historical context pt.1 | history, philosophy | History and stoic philosophy made fun in this story about Diogenes. Creative, well structured with sources cited |
| An Artist's Review of the 2017 Surface Pro | tech, art | A detailed and thorough analysis with personal experiences, relevant for every digital artist |
| Drawing Rembrandt - A study in 4 colour chalk - Original content for Steemit | art | Briliant piece of art, accompanied by multiples progression steps |
| Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus hands-on: Masterful mix of brutality and humor | gaming | A thorough and professional preview for an upcoming game |
| My first home - Concept to completion part 1 (Exterior) | design, architecture | A great architectural design documented over a period of time |
This report has been compiled with personal views from reviewers @alcibiades, @kevinwong and @liberosist.