Building The Community
Hey Everyone,
As I said yesterday, I've been going through some of my original posts and walking down memory lane. It is funny how far we've come but I still come across some old posts that still seem relevant.
If it bothers you that I am reposting, please consider I made .40 cents on this the first time around!
:)
We Are Building A Community
What is a community? According to Dictionary.com:
1. a social group of any size whose members reside in a specific locality,share government, and often have a common cultural and historical heritage.
We can take that definition and apply it to the residents of Steem”. We reside at least part of the time on Steem, although we are decentralized, there is definitely a power structure we could call government, and our cultural heritage is what we are currently creating. We have somethings in common - at least some amount of computer skills, blogging, reading, and whether it is new to us or we are experts the element of Steem as a currency is also involved.
Despite what we have in common, as with any community we have many different personality types, we have different goals, and different visions and approaches on where we want to see SteemIt go. Personally, I think those differences are good and ultimately add value to the platform and will help create a diverse and interesting social media platform in the future.
In our diverse community we have people from different nations, socio-economic backgrounds, vastly different careers, ideologies, politics, etc. We have suspended our differences to come here and participate. As vast as our social differences are our motives for being here. Some are here to express themselves via, blog, vblog, cartoons, jokes, art, political statements, investigations, programming or coding, we all have a medium. Some are here to make money, blog in privacy, or without advertisements, some do not want to be censored and some are just “testing” the waters of something new.
If you have ever lived in a small town you can imagine the different personalities there. The nosy mail lady, the old men who have coffee at the cafe every morning while they discuss world issues, the sweet lady down the road who has an ear for anyone who needs it. The anxious PTO moms trying to make sure the kids get everything they need to be successful. The grumpy old man who lives on the corner and yells at the kids, but if you dog get’s out he will walk “Fluffy” home. After you live in the community for a while you end up with a respect for all the personalities, especially if you take the time to understand their point of view.
Recently, there was some conflict in our community and some are distressed by this. My position is we are ironing out our different roles and finding our place in this community. We are getting to know each other, we are learning to manage our expectations, we are seeking what role we can play here, and we are questioning the structure of the very community we live in. Some like visibility, some like quiet, some hate conflict and others use it as a way to find their place. Everyone wants to achieve or accomplish what they came here to do. Things rarely go as planned, so when you plan isn’t working out, adjust. I won’t say Beta, because I get tired of hearing it. I will say this is a young community still building a culture.
I am a people watcher, I love social dynamics and I am always curious about what drives other people. I am not of the “Everything is Perfect” so, just sing praises crowd. Yet, I am certain the phase we are in is necessary for growth and the overall health of the community. As a community if we just keep the conversation going, keep participating and keep respecting the experiment as a whole we will find our places, our roles and our voices. SteemIt is to each of us, whatever we make it. I see people say, “I have faith in SteemIt”. I do not have faith, faith sounds kind of passive and as if someone else is going to do it for you. I have commitment for SteemIt and I believe with effort, participation and yes, even some drama we can be successful.
To each one of us, that means find your niche, experiment, speak up, if you are wrong apologize, if someone wrongs you forgive, if this isn’t your thing, people come and go from communities all of the time. If you need help, find a mentor, ask for feedback. But, remember, not everyone was meant to live on the Block Chain. However, many of us are.
@whatsup,
Yeah yeah, one day I will build my house top of a blockchain lol :D Yeah we all addicted and this time, this addition could change our lives in a good way! That's what I believe!
Cheers~
It is very good post. Filled with words of encouragement to the whole community.
Maybe that's why it got to 40 cents the first time.
I don't think any of my posts has ever got to 40cents
Do you have connections to the people that unbuild certain parts of our community? lol I have been threatened with having my account completely destroyed/fla**ed into oblivion. :(
Did you poke bernie? lol
lol No some random user got mad* because I upvoted my reply to him even though I did upvote him. I should be OK but he did report me to the executioner bots so you never know.
I thought my comment was great and witty but I think he just only got mad at my self upvote.
haha, Well you can always upvote yourself on my posts. I think it is smart
Yeah unless the bot owner decides that is an illegal offense. I think the bots typically flag every single post or comment someone makes so the account is completely destroyed.
There's probably been 1000's of accounts killed by the fla--ing bots. Maybe 50% deserved it but a lot of foreigners probably didn't know that their account would be destroyed if they shared an article or share a pic without citing a source. -elfvotejustic* is currently being fla--ed I think for upvoting himself but he owns all his Steem Power and doesn't seem to care about being attacked and losing a lot of Steem.
I don't know of any bot owners who care about self-upvoting. I wouldn't worry at all if I were you.
It's your stake, use it how you want.
Thank you but I think you may be wrong on that. mcbotjr is attacking @selfvotejustice. Maybe they consider him a spmmer or something though since he often reposts stuff that gets downvoted into oblivion.
Your upvoting of your own comments is stark and plain to me. Many take offence to it. I have noticed this behaviour by you, but that's your choice.
Just imagine if everyone had a sense of community before focusing on a sense of self. What a great place this could be!
And it's so nice to see you getting more than .40 cents on this kick at the can :)
Yeah the ones who focus on the community will be the ones who benefit the most in the long run :)
My first posts tended to be shorter but I still had some good ideas that were not seen by many.
Still, I don't think I'll do a reprise, though some kind of re-write.. maybe a 'special edition' would not be out of the question?
"To each one of us, that means find your niche, experiment, speak up, if you are wrong apologize, if someone wrongs you forgive, if this isn’t your thing, people come and go from communities all of the time. If you need help, find a mentor, ask for feedback. But, remember, not everyone was meant to live on the Block Chain. However, many of us are."
I like that passage a lot. People come and go, it's best to be kind to them while they are here and offer help when we can, or ask when we need.
:) Yeah, I say let those who want to get rich quicker than this allows, come and go.
The last time I reposted something, some account with like 17 SP accused me of "committing a violation" and told me that I had better never do it again lol.
"The grumpy old man who lives on the corner and yells at the kids, but if you dog get’s out he will walk “Fluffy” home." Haha I identify with that guy a little bit. I have never yelled "get off my lawn" but I have thought about it before.
"Things rarely go as planned, so when you plan isn’t working out, adjust." I agree. Being able to think on your feet is much more important that people give it credit for. Both here and in the real world. This is moving away from the topic here but given the amount of crap that the schools teach, I wonder if people's educational needs would be better served if some time was dedicated to cultivating that improvisational skill set instead of making them take gym every year or something.
"To each one of us, that means find your niche" I might add that if no niche exists, one can always carve it out. It might take some time to build an audience but it is a great opportunity to be creative and to differentiate oneself from the others.
Excellent points and additions.
I love those new young accounts that login and tell us how to act and what to do. I once have a noob call me a scum bag... It was actually pretty hysterical.
Haha any insult that ends in "bag" is always a fun thing to be called.
Still as relevant today as when it was originally written.
Interesting that despite the time lapse, this remains very relevant! Particularly with the recent hardships faced after Hard Fork 20. If we focus on adding value as a whole to the community, we would all benefit in the long run as more users are added and engagement increases. Great to see you getting more than $0.40 this time around! Well deserve as consistency and dedication should payoff!
Haha, as I was reading it, I thought I could have written this today! Yeah, I wish we could cultivate an attitude of we are all in the same boat.