Homesteaders and Preppers on steemit : ideas for improving retentio...

I am currently updating the list of Homesteaders and Preppers on steemit.

The last list had 230 members - that was back in the first week of October.

Since then a number of new homesteaders, and the odd prepper, have arrived on steemit to help push the list towards 250.

While pondering this milestone I started checking through the list. As I had compiled the list I had followed every single person I added.

I begun to wonder where many of the people on the list had got to - I hadn't seen posts from them for a long, long time.

I clicked on a few of the names and checked their profile pages. No posts, no comments, no upvotes for 2 weeks, 3 weeks, 4 weeks or more.

I didn't go through every profile. That would take too much time. But I randomly viewed about 3 dozen. Alas at least a third of them appear to be inactive.

This is not totally unexpected and I am sure it is not unique to the homesteader and prepper community. In fact it may well be that the drop-out rate is lower in our community than in steemit as a whole.

But it got me thinking. Is there anything we as a homesteaders and preppers community can do to keep more members active on steemit?

There is already a Discord channel - HomesteadersOnline run by @greenacrehome. There is also a Homesteading ChainBB forum run by @felander.

These certainly help to keep people engaged in steemit and to progress through making connections with other homesteaders and preppers.

But not everyone will find these, and not everyone will have the time to participate fully with them.

What other ways could we nuture new members, keep them active on the platform and build the community?

I don't have a ready-made box of answers. But here are a few thoughts, comments and ideas that might help start a discussion.

Weekly voice chats on Discord - maybe with an invited guest, or around a particular topic
More competitions - with cash prizes
A mentoring / buddy system to help new members when they first join
Homesteader/Prepper of the Week awards, and Newcomer of the Week
Exchanges of seeds, plants, produce??? ( @papa-pepper has led the way on this)
A directory of skills, knowledge, expertise that people are willing to share
Meetups (geography permitting)
Bartering, promotion, sales of goods and services (eg @greenacrehome sells homemade soaps)

Of course many homesteaders and preppers prefer to maintain a degree of anonymity. I understand that. So the level of participation in any of these ideas would be up to the individual.

One idea I would like to try, bearing in mind the previous point, is a series of 'Meet the Homesteader / Prepper' interview posts. If anyone would be willing to be a guinea pig on that do let me know and we can chat on Discord.

I am very interested to hear what people think of these suggestions, and any other ideas you may have to help keep people involved and active on steemit.

The more homesteaders and preppers there are active on the platform the stronger, and more prosperous, we can all be together.

The new version of the Homesteaders and Preppers on steemit list will be coming out in the next few days. If you are not on the current list and you would like to be on the new one do let me know in the comments below. Or if you know anyone that should be on the list likewise let me know below.

You might also be interested in some of my other posts :

[image by @pennsif]

Homesteaders and Preppers on steemit : ideas for improving retention