Anyone who has been participating of this platform for more than a month knows, at least partially of the existence and mission of @curie. The idea of the project is simple and fantastic, to find the best content on the platform and to reward these would be Steem Creators with an amazing incentive to continue their steemian journey. However, there is a problem, and it may be more our fault than we would like to admit.

Did I just clickbait you?

Not at all, as a matter of fact I suspect you've been thinking about the same issue, just standing on the other side of the argument. Allow me to explain this a bit more before you decided to click away. But first, lets get the obvious out in the open. What do you think is the main purpose of Curie?

• (a) To find the best undervalued content and reward it
• (b) To support the best content creators and give them income
• (c) To show new users the potential behind our blockchain
• (d) To get the best content into the trending page

I suspect that just on this very question we could have a heated debate, discuss as to why all of them should be the answer, but some of them seem not that accurate. I would also suspect that even among the curators of @curie you might not find a true solid consensus. Why would I say this? - aside from the human condition being a factor, I also say this because I've observed it serve all these functions, but not consistently, because it realistically cannot. (refer to human condition on wikipedia)

However....

None of us can the deny the positive impact it has had on thousands of Steemians. At the expense of being too anecdotal, I will share that when I got a @curie vote about a week or two in, my eyes where opened, and I became a believer of the platform.

This is to say, there is hundreds I'm sure of Steemians who found this place, got discovered by a hard working @curie curator, dispelled their doubts, found communities, became super active, and the rest is on the blockchain (as we will one day say). Out of those hundreds of Steemians that where discovered and stayed, I wonder how many more hundreds left soon after being curied, as we refer to it now.

Yes, that's right, I'm sure you've seen it too. Someone brand new to the platform makes an amazing post, a curator finds it, and summons @curie and the mysterious mega-whale @hendrikdegrote along with the hundreds (as of writing this post) of trailing votes. The new user is overwhelmed, he/she can't believe this is happening, that night pizza is ordered, people get drunk, someone gets slapped, you know exactly how all that goes down, you did this too.

Then, as if it was some cruel joke life played with the new content creator, the very next post is a whopping 0.01 payout. The new user gained a few followers, being most of the spammy spammers of the spamland kind. The new steemian does one more, two more posts, until the excitement dries up and regrets of buying the pizza, the slap and getting drunk.

And This is how we fail Curie

And I'm including myself in the bucket, because I've been guilty of it too, even thought I'm trying to change my ways. What am I talking about? - In one word "Guidance". People need a little bit of guidance, someone to tell them - "Hey @newuserwithinternet you are awesome, your post was amazing... hey listen, there is a bunch of content creators like you participating of this over here, and you should come join, its awesome, we got internet, we got pizza, I mean... not the size of pizza you just got, but we got some.... come join, its awesome"

If we don't follow up

They will get the wrong idea, have unrealistic expectations, not understand what in the hell just happened, thus they walk away disappointed, feeling cheated. And this could be chugged to a direct result of inaction from established Steemians. Am I wrong? Have you not seen this yourself? Why should you care, you say?

Where to even begin?

This list is ridiculously long. If I seriously started to list all the reasons why we want and need good content creators on this platform, I would need a week to write this post, and possibly no one would read it all the way through. It might be enough to say that many of the steemian cultural changes we want, will come from having better quality content creators participating of the platform, but lets get a little crazy with this post.



You want a better trending page?
Great, then we need to get good content creators constantly producing amazing content.


You want more investment?
We need good content creators, that give our platform legitimacy, constantly producing content so they attract more money to the platform.


You want more development?
Well, for that we need more investment, and to get more investment, we need good content creators, that give our platform legitimacy, constantly producing content so they attract more money to the platform.


You want a better distribution of Steem?
We need more development, SMTs, better user experiences, and what-not, so we need investment, but for that we need good content creators, that give our platform legitimacy, constantly producing content so they attract more money to the platform.

As you can see, my semi-ridiculous line of questions could make a blockchain on their own. And I submit to you If I'm off I'm off grammatically, but not logically. (watch the gramar bot that I hate show up)

So, how do we not fail?

Great, awesome question my friends. We stop failing by engaging with these new users, by empathizing with the fact that if we just let that one post trend, let all the spammy spammers spam with their random irrelevant comments, and do nothing. We are effectively braking our logical blockchain we just made here on muh post, thus perpetuating the very thing that annoys us the most.

So... Be on the hunt

You see a brand new account get a @curie, freaking celebrate. Don't think like a loser and be - "Well, they got all this money and attention already, they don't need my 0.03 upvote and comment... they are good" - Don't BE that person. Seize the opportunity, think of the platform as a whole, think of the little logical blockchain we just made here and invest some kindness, I promise it has a great ROI.

Don't believe me yet?

Ask, ask around, ask those who quit, those who got a @curie and got abandoned. They will tell you that, because that is exactly how they felt. Ask... Don't believe me, who am I? Ask...

Don't forget to ask those who had a different experience, someone like @lillywilton... and tell me If I'm on to something or if my lady just spiked my coffee. I seriously don't think I'm wrong on this one.