When I first signed up for Steemit it took almost a week for me to get that approval email. I was so eager to join that I spent a lot of time browsing the platform while patiently waiting. Even though I couldn't hit the follow button at the time, I had a few followers of my own. I watched someone who was less than a month into Steemit that I was mentally following get flagged and their reputation taken down. Why? Because they were doing things against the Steemit rules and they simply didn't know any better.
I thought to myself, f *ck that I'm not going to join just to have my hard work taken from me just because I didn't follow the rules that I didn't know about. Then I had another thought, actually yes you are, Kim. You have a family that will benefit from any extra help. You can do this.
I do see that it usually takes a lot to get a flag but there are some I have seen that have gotten one for something that could have been corrected or discussed first. Those were just my initial thoughts while I was still looking in from the outside.
I have been a stay at home mother for almost 4 years now. I love it but it puts a lot of stress on my husband financially. Joining Steemit gave me excitement because I was given the opportunity to take a little bit of that weight off of my husbands shoulders and I am able to help provide for our daughter. Not only that, it gets lonely as a stay at home mother with no human friends. Steemit gave me the chance to make friends and express myself in a creative manner.
Sticking through those tough days has been one of the best decisions that I could have made for my family. I am so incredibly thankful that I have found initiatives that give back to the community. People that have been through the trial and error stage and can now help new users work around the mistakes we made. If I see a new user do something that could get them flagged, I try to step in and very politely attempt to correct the situation. Something that should always be done before a user is flagged (given the reason behind it). I will add that I am a fan of the flag option, I know why it is there and I believe it is necessary for the true stranger danger spam situations. Knowledge will forever be power and it is wonderful to have initiatives there to spread knowledge.
One time I was out doing my meet & greet as a Greeter Volunteer and a very new user posted their link on my comment. They just wanted to be seen, I know it and understand it, I have felt like that too. I read their post and loved it. Went back to the comment and engaged in conversation with them. I talked about topics in their post and gave them so much encouragement. I also added in my comment that it is considered spam to do that with links, especially when you have zero other words besides your link. I gave them advice on how to get their link out there without it being considering spam. You see, a lot of people don't notice that your comments and what you say in them can and will be held against you in a court of law (of Steemit).
I went back over to their post, engaged in conversation there and encouraged them to join a contest that was active at the time. We all know that I am a firm believer in contest being a great way to engage with the community. If you don't know, I will tell you soon. Wouldn't you know, they won that contest with that same post they were trying to get out to the Steemit world. Instead of flagging them or letting them get flagged in the future, I helped guide them to find creative ways to get their post seen. If they follow the advice in the future to avoid spamming, that is completely up to them.
Now you know in more detail why I do what I do everyday to give back to the community. You will see me mention a lot that I join these initiatives because we aren't helping just one other user. There are more people involved in it than just them. I mentioned this yesterday in my post about @greetersguild.
Not only that, majority of us all have a family at home. We join Steemit to help better our situations and our families income. By guiding a new user to provide great content, we are also helping their family. I feel so honored to be a part of this.
Let me shed some light on the importance of why I say this. When my post get hit with a bigger payout, I have to be honest with you and admit that I shed a few happy tears. Maybe it sounds silly but my family, my daughter, benefits from every little bit. We are not just helping one single newbie or giving just a shout out to a Steemian. We are providing motivation and support as well as helping them grow here. Then that trickles back down to their family at home in one way or another. This is just my personal view on it. So if I can help at least one person get the attention they deserve than I am happy because I know personally that it helps in more ways than what we see. No, it is absolutely not all about money. It is about the community but let's be honest here, at the end of the day we all do check the Upvotes that our post received.
Right now, there are three initiatives that I am happy to be apart of.
#greetersguild
I start from the beginning of times with @greetersguild. This is where we greet new users mainly in the #introduceyourself tag and let them know that it can be hard to get started but always worth it. Any new users should know that they have our full support and we are here for any and all advice needed. For this initiative, every Tuesday I write a Contest Tuesday post. I try to search for contest that have meaning behind them, I make a list of them and I focus on encouraging new users to join in on the fun. This is meant to hopefully help new users engage with the community a little bit easier. It is also for experienced users to gain exposure with their account and contest. Starting this coming Tuesday, I will be adding @greetersguild as a beneficiary to each Contest Tuesday post and they will automatically receive a percentage of the the SP that the post earns. It isn't much at this point in time but everything starts small and I hope that even the slightest bit will be able to better help them, help newbies learn, earn and grow.
New users can come to us at anytime with any questions that they have. If one of us doesn't know the answer or feel that another member can help you better, we will direct you to them. For example, you can say to me-
hey@magicalmoonlight,howdoIspacemywords?
I will then send you over to the Tutorial Guru and head of Greeters Guild @terminallyill, he can guide you step by step on how to space those words of yours. After that, all members will continue to support your quality content that we have guided you to create.
#newbieresteemday
@newbieresteemday is where we put a lot of focus on getting quality post written by newbies out to the community to be seen. This is very important as well. We aim to really help those in their first 30 days or those that have a reputation of 40 or less. For this initiative, every Monday I write a Magical Monday post. This is where I give shoutouts to three newbies of the week and I share 10% of the SP that the post earns with every Steemian that is featured. I like to always give back to the community as a whole so I always add one Steemian of the week, they also gain 10% of the earned SP. @newbieresteemday will also start receiving a percentage of the SP to help their account grow. Magical Monday is there for new users to leave their links to be seen and for anyone at all to suggest a new user by leaving their link. I also encourage more experienced users to leave their links to a contest and I will feature it in the Contest Tuesday on the following day.
#shoutoutsaturdays
I will now make my complete circle with the Steemit community and join in with @crazybgadventure on his initiative. This is where I will engage with more experienced users throughout the week and showcase different users every Saturday. It is great to join in on conversations and make new friends, I feel that this is the perfect way to do so. After all, we can't make new friends by just sitting on the bench not saying a word!
I think of this as a party. Typically, Saturday is considered a party day but the party is really during the week. All week, we mingle with users that we have never met and get to know them. #shoutoutsaturdays are like the moment after the party when you tell all of your friends how much fun you had and talk about the key moments that happened during the party.
This week has been a fun party and I'm ready to tell you all about it!
@lynncoyle1
This user is like that sweet neighbor that you can always count on whenever you run out of sugar or milk. Please do not use that statement as ammo to ask her for anything other than advice, unless otherwise directly stated by her. That was just an expression to show how sweet, friendly and helpful she really is. Her post are always full of quality content and her comments are always very thoughtful. She is a true pleasure to have as a friend and you won't regret going and meeting her yourself. She is vital to this party of ours. Speaking of parties, check out this post of hers where she goes into great knowledge about genuine comments. She uses the perfect example of a party in her post there. That post is past payout but it is worth reading. Do you want to REALLY see what I am talking about when I tell you @lynncoyle1 is amazing? Read this recent post by her husband, A letter to @lynncoyle1 as I inch closer to death from Cancer. Go grab your tissues before you click that link, I promise you will need them.
@amariespeaks
Such a lovely and important part of @newbieresteemday. I did just what #shoutoutsaturdays is suggesting we do and trying to really personally engage with users. I reached out to her during one of her amazing Tarot Tuesday post. We talked on discord and she gave me the most accurate Tarot reading and pulled extra cards as needed for more clarification. After talking about the reading, we realized that we have been through some very similar situations. I then found a new friend that I can go to for advice if I ever need it and I know that she will be there to do what she can. She is incredibly friendly and so easy to talk to. She loves to give back to the community and tries her best to help out in anyway. Here is a recent post from her that is worth your time, 9 Points on Divine Feminine and Masculine / Some Thoughts on Feminism.
@djfugly
Alright, if this were an actual party than I imagine @djfugly being the life of the party for sure. Anytime I see that they have commented, I automatically know that I will smile by the end of it. This user is such a fun person to follow. They include humor in their post and truly know how to keep you engaged and wanting to read more and more! You definitely will not regret getting to know @djfugly and I promise you they will brighten your day in some way. Check out this recent post of theirs That Club Banger Wasn't Produced By Diplo.
Sooo...this sounds like a fun party, doesn't it? Yes it does. How do I join the party? Join us in meeting new users that you haven't met yet, engaging with their post all week long. We will each meet back up with our Shout Out Saturday post showcasing the awesome people we have met. Use the tag #shoutoutsaturdays and have fun!
@crazybgadventure started this to not only help people get more involved with other users but also to help bring more activity to the weekends. You've managed to snatch up my Saturday's but you will not get my Sunday! I'm kidding, you guys can't get rid of me. See you tomorrow! I will at least be engaging with you awesome people through comments.
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