It all started last year today.

Since I joined Steem, I have always been better at curating rather than blogging. I would blog once in a while but mainly were busy curating primarily for Curie and its gaming sub-community Archdruid. I started seeing Steemhunt posts on the chain, and at first, didn't pay too much of an attention. When I finally did, I loved it right away.

I liked the idea of early adopters sharing new and cool products, apps, games, and tools very much. The Steemhunt app looked amazing, well designed, and easy to use. So I decided to give it a try, and share something that I already use but not many might be aware of it. I published my first hunt last year today. It was ranked second and received an enourmous amount of rewards. Something like $230. That probably was the highest payout I ever got on any of my posts. Of course, after that success in ranking and super generous upvotes, I wasn't going to stop there. It was time to hunt.

I came across this beautiful camping tent that hung on trees. Something interesting happened. Steemhunt has moderators who review each hunt to check if hunt posts fit the posting guidelines. At first, this hunt was approved. Then that decision was reversed due to the product not being a tech related. Being too lazy, at that point I wasn't familiar with the posting guidelines. Within the same day, that decision was reversed again and my hunt was approved. I received the following comment by one the founders @project7:

Hello, first of all, apologies for the confusions. We actually did not have this product category in our Posting Guidelines, and from your great hunting suggestion, we decided to add a new category in our PG.

Innovative engineering inventions
In this category, we will accept some hardware, gears, or items that have a GREAT LEVEL OF ENGINEERING INVENTIONS inside. For example, your tent has a mathematical calculation to make a space shift.

So, your product is verified and got the first rank as the same. Thanks!

Oh and by the way it was ranked first at the point, but later by the end of the day, I think it finished 3rd or 4th. I was happy not because of the approval or ranking, but because something I hunted added value to the project so that they were happy to change their guidelines. At that point, I knew I wanted to be involved more with the project.

I joined the discord, got familiar with the posting guidelines and tried to read up on any information I could find on Steemhunt. I met fellow hunters, made new friends. I absolutely was amazed at the pace and quality of work the team was putting in and improving the platform and how it works every week if not every day. The more I learned about the team, the more I gained trust in their work and vision.

I had a pleasure to meet the team of moderators, who has been with the project from the start, shared the vision, and were volunteering their time to help build the community and the platform. These amazing folks are the pillars of the Steemhunt community. I have learned a lot from them. Not long after joining Steemhunt community there was an opportunity to join the moderation team. I was lucky to be picked as one of the moderators. I joined the Mod Fam, and started contributing more to the project at that role. It was a great experience. Of course, I continued hunting at the same time. Steemhunt grew bigger, the team continued innovating and improving the platform.

At the beginning of this year, I decided to spend less time on Steem related activities, as I had some other projects and activities going on off the chain that required more time and attention. As a result of this, I resigned from a moderator role a couple of months ago. However, I wasn't leaving the project. I am still a hunter and believe in the vision of the team, admire the Mod Fam, enjoy engaging with fellow hunters and love the community.

Steemhunt is not done innovating and building. Reviehunt coming soon, Ideahunt in works, and much more. Steemhunt serves the Steem community as a witness and has done so much so far like introducing Steem to exchanges along with listing Hunt tokens, continuously marketing Steem and Steemhunt on other platforms and rewarding marketing efforts, etc.

I greatly benefited from Steemhunt. Not only by participating, hunting and blogging. But also, I have discovered many products and software tools that I liked. I have purchased some for personal use, recommended to friends, downloaded apps and even bookmarked some for future use. Steemhunt does offer practical use of new and cool products that we may end up using in our everyday lives.

My Steemhunt journey doesn't end here. I continue participating in the community and hunting. I encourage every Steemian to post and share hunts at least once in a while. It is super easy to use, fun to be part of and has great potentials.

To quote @fknmayhem the hunt is on!