A Proposal ... For the Military Veterans of Steemit

in #veterans6 years ago

A Proposal ... For The Military Veterans of Steemit  


Wikipedia on the Phalanx:

Each individual hoplite carried his shield on the left arm, protecting not only himself but the soldier to the left ... The phalanx is thus an example of a military formation in which the individualistic elements of battle were suppressed for the good of the whole ... The effectiveness of the phalanx therefore depended on how well the hoplites could maintain this formation while in combat.



In theory, theory and reality are the same. In reality, they're not. How Steemit is supposed to work is not how it does. If you wish to succeed you have two options: Invest USD $100,000+ and do whatever you like; or, form an army. Creating great quality content doesn't do the trick. I invite you to go to my feed, read through my articles, and then, somewhere public, grade me for the quality of my content creation. I swear, I will not dispute your assessment no matter how negative. Then, go look at my wallet. Is there a disconnect? 

This is not a unique insight, and hence, the plethora of groups and alliances attempting, whether stated or implied, to become armies. As they soon discover, however, it's easier said than done. The reason is psychological. In each of us resides a deep instinctive imperative: Save yourself. What every great general in history discovered was that you don't need to kill all the enemy combatants. All you need to do is prevent them from working together as one. Once they become thousands of individuals, each attempting to individually save themselves, there is no longer an army. They are defeated. The strength of an army is directly related to its ability to suppress this instinct. 

We all know that there is something that makes soldiers different. The sense of camaraderie that one finds between a Band of Brothers has not been replicated, at any time or in any place, in the civilian world. Honor, Duty and Loyalty. These are words that are increasingly met with derision amongst civilians. Leave Not A Man Behind. I've Got Your Six. We do not believe these words are artifacts of an archaic era that not longer exists. 

"Just words," you say? "QuillFire is a poet."  

@derangedvisions and I met during a contest for one of my posts. We quickly became friends. Soon thereafter, he released a PTSD-related documentary he'd made, War Torn. If you haven't seen it, you should. It is both poignant and profound. But the point I'm making is not to be found in the film, but rather in the comments. There is a comment/reply thread (second from the top) that explains what happened. Go read it.

When you're finished, take a moment to reflect upon what you just witnessed. "Whatever comes out of these gates ..."

Worse than a Bad Plan, is No Plan. Worse than No Plan, is Two. 

Amongst the Great Generals of history, there is a surprising lack of agreement on the most important aspects of strategy and tactics. There is, however, one thing upon which they all agreed ... and they all agreed that it was the most important thing: Concentration of force at the enemy's weakest point.

Everyone running around doing their own thing is the definition of chaos. Hence, I propose the formation of an army. To be effective, we must not only all agree on a commonality of purpose, but also a commonality of execution. The more complicated a plan, the more likely it won't work. Whatever the core, it must be simple. Here is what I propose and why:

1. Join the Veterans Project & The Military Veterans on Steemit Discord Channel

Lines of Communication are imperative. We need to know what one another are doing. And, there must be a definitive list of who "wears the uniform." More on this later. 

2. Assist Three Vets Every Day

Irrespective of everything else we do on Steemit, every day each one of us does something to materially assist three other veterans. 

2. (a) Three is a Pattern

Three is not an arbitrary number. Three is a pattern, and in pattern there is meaning. I'm in advertising and I've spent 15 years studying every aspect of the brain and mind: Our brains are pattern-detection and pattern-comparison machines. The occurrence of any stimuli three times in a row triggers pattern-recognition. It triggers meaning. 

Think of musicians: There are countless One-Hit Wonders. You know the name of the song but not the name of the musician who sings it. There are even a number of Two-Hit Wonders. But there are no Three-Hit Wonders. On the third hit, your brain detects a pattern, "great musician," which sets off a cascade of meaning-making and memory formation. 

The result: Elvis is more famous (is more meaningful) that any song that he sang. Ditto the Beatles, Elton John and Billy Joel. (Notice that I listed three male musicians, a pattern, to increase the meaning and memorability of my initial Elvis argument.) Creating a pattern created a new meaning of the musician, the way in which our brains understand the concept of "what they are," and hence, the category in which they ought to be placed and the manner in which they ought to be thought about.

If you want humans beings to fight for a thing, don't make it easy ... make it meaningful. 

2. (b) Material Assistance 

Material assistance is contextual. 

I have around $100 worth of STEEM & SBD. A divorce and a 3.5 year custody battle prevents me from being able to buy an arsenal of STEEM. The value of my upvote is, monetarily, worthless.  

But not everything of value can be measured in dollars. While I have no money ... I do have words. Perhaps you do to. Or, perhaps, you possess another talent or skill: Graphic design; videography; musical composition, etc. Or, perhaps you have an extensive network of followers or a substantial amount of STEEM. 

Armies need cooks as much as they need combat soldiers. 

3. A Single Tag

We only get five hashtags per post. And yet there are multiple almost identical hashtags to which a post might be entered ( #veterans #veteran #military). We need to choose one. I would be inclined towards creating #vets-only.   

3. (a) Downvoting Non-Members

This hashtag is our home. Once a hashtag becomes popular, the interlopers show up. Just look at #IntroduceYourself. We need a system to quickly identify who gets to be there and who doesn't. Perhaps a bot could send out a member/non-member message when anything is posted to that hashtag. I'm sure there are some tech-savvy vets who could work out the details. 

Non-members would get down-voted by everyone. The tag is rather explicit: #vets-only. If you're not a vet, then it's hard to imagine how you could innocently believe that posting there would not provoke ire.      

3. (b) Daily Visit

All Members are obligated to make 3 Material Assists per day. Most often that obligation will be met by Upvoting, Commenting, ReSteeming and Following. If all posts in the #vets-only hashtag are from Members, then finding three worthy posts would be easy.

While Members will create personal friendships and seek to be mutually supportive (good), Members should also search for newer and smaller members to help out. This ought not be an obligation, but rather a matter of Honor. They too, are your brothers and sisters.   

3. (c) 100% Upvotes

Would you only upvote your children by 10%? Of course not. Special relationships transcend ordinary considerations. We all have multiple people we're trying to support and our upvotes can only be stretched so far. But here's the thing: For our army to work, we need to concentrate force. If we do not achieve substantial concentration of force, then we'll be just another of the countless voting groups going through the motions. The objective is to ACTUALLY assist one another. To ACTUALLY make a difference. 

I'll use my own situation to illustrate the magnitude of the problem and to justify the necessity of concentrating force as I've described: 

Quality vs. Payout:

Steemit Poets United: Daily Dose of Poetry and Prose #52 Payout Poem: $4.94

Quillfire is the most skillful poet in our little group [250+] and he could be the number one poem every day. This poem is a masterclass in poetry and he even invented his own form of sonnet, the Savagerean Sonnet. If you like poetry this is one not to be missed. And I mean this post and this poet! 

 PoetsUnited: Daily Dose Of Poetry & Prose #51 Payout Poem(1): $1.53 Payout Poem(2):$0.72

Our first entry is by this great author @quillfire (A.K.A Poetry Rhymes Lord), the amazing scents of the flower in his poetry works I must say is pleasing to any nostrils. I implore him to also take the baton of writing the daily dose someday. It's a double entry piece again. His first work tells us: Here he compares all daddy attributes (the good and the bad) to that of a Lion and inspires us to celebrate them. Powerful imagery. His words below this poem are strong. His second work here: The poem deals with the importance of appreciation, the teachers are been over looked in many places, which is not supposed to be so because they are the architect of the society. He implores us especially parents to appreciate our teacher tutoring our children, let's show them love, until then we will have a better society. He specially wrote this piece in honor of Mrs. HODGE who tutors his daughter in the elementary class. What a dad!!! @quillfire you are awesome. 

PoetsUnited:Daily Dose of Poetry & Prose #44 Payout Poem(1): $1.11 / Payout Poem(2): $0.92

The best poem for today is for sure a gem by this true poet in person of @quillfire (I give him the Alias; Poetry Rhymes Lord), a double entry piece. I love the footer at the end of his post, this makes him unique and relevant. This poet is an author to watch out for! The first poem discusses the theme of trust and how betrayal has been a part and parcel of mankind. Another hit is that one should beware of friends for changes is constant to human. The second piece relates to divorce and marriages, misunderstanding and effect to relationship. 

OK ... 3 pretty spectacular write-ups, 5 posts (poems + lengthy accompanying articles). 

Not one made it onto Poetry's Hot ... let alone Trending ... pages. Click on the link. Go take a look at the competition, poems that are making hundreds of dollars per post.

Imagine if the vets could collectively bump me into Trending on Day 1 or 2. That's where everyone's looking, and that's where poems get seen. And, that's where whale-bots look. OK, that's good for me but how does it help anyone else? I, too, have a 100% Upvote obligation. And, as my account grows, so too does the size of my Upvotes for other vets.

There's more. When you notice someone has a Reputation Score of 67, what's the first thing you do upon landing on their page. Be honest ... you check their wallet. And now, magically, there's a lot more commenting and ReSteeming, isn't there? Success breeds success. The success of anyone one of us, becomes the success of all. A virtuous circle. 

Keep in mind that this dynamic would not just effect one person at at time. From Day 1, many Members would begin to benefit.

4. Free-Riders  

Nothing destroys group cohesion faster than free-riders. They contribute little, yet share in the rewards. "Jack, you go collect firewood. I'll go try to catch some fish. Sammy, Dave and Tony ... can you guys get going on a shelter?" That's how we did it (with a fair amount of swearing involved). Everybody was already exhausted from marching all day, but everyone did their bit for the good of the group. Except Tony. Tony's tired and he wants to take a nap. But don't worry, he'll be OK when it's time to eat. 

All organizations need to rid themselves of Tony's. 

Don't get me wrong, I am NOT in favor (and would argue against) continuous monitoring to verify that everyone's met the letter of the law. Our army cannot become a police state or a cult ... and, we are grown men and women. When Honor is the coin of the realm, monitoring for compliance becomes an affront, if not an insult. Honor Between Soldiers requires trust. That said, consistent behaviors emerge and quickly become apparent. Everything's on the blockchain ... there are no secrets. And, when they do, that Member would need to be expelled lest their continued presence spread discontent. The details of a mechanism for expulsion would need to be brainstormed to ensure fairness. 

 *****

So, there it is, my proposal. It is simple and relatively easy to implement. Indeed, much of it could be enacted tomorrow. The only thing stopping us ... is us. 

Brothers and sisters, we are what we are: Once a soldier, always a soldier. 

When the trumpet sounds ... ride to the sound of the guns. 



  • If you are interested in this Proposal, I'd love to get your feedback in the Comments section. The good, the bad and the ugly.


  • Upvote & ReSteem to ensure that a broad cross-section of vets see this post. Until a week ago, I'd never heard of the Veterans Project. And, if there's little interest, then there's little point in moving forward. Let's find out.


  • Be a "Warrior-Poet" ... start by Reading My Damn Poems! It builds mystique and lends an air of gravitas as you snack on champagne and Grey Poupon at cocktail parties. "His exploration of dystopian dialectics is deplorable. Dross, I say, dross." Yes, my friends ... that could be you.


@shadow3scalpel @chairborne @guiltyparties @jackmiller @derangedvisions @rakkasana84 @chira @anarcho-andrei @patriot  

Sort:  

You make some really good points in here and I really wish it was this easy. Our biggest disconnect in the vet's communtiy is that a lot of vets simply just want to be on our "voting list" and don't want to be any more involved than that. My goal with the Military Veterans of Steemit was for vets to come and get to know other vets, and make new relationships. Unfortunately when you go out of your way to help people, you don't always get the results you want. We have some really good members, but there are some "free-riders" as well. I was hoping our veterans would be more interested in helping each other than just helping themselves.

@rakkasan84,

Rakkasan, that's not encouraging feedback, especially knowing that it comes from someone as involved as yourself in trying to organize the troops.

Admittedly, I am not surprised by the sentiment. I have noticed a tendency amongst veterans to fall into one of two camps:

The first group is like me and @derangedvisions ... and, I suspect, you. The military indelibly stamped us with something that was life-defining. 25+ years later, the label, "veteran," is wholly unfamiliar to me. I don't think of myself as a veteran at all. I am a soldier. It is as much part of my self-definition as my name. My entire moral and ethical structure is built upon the classic military honor system. I've often recounted to my daughter that the years I spent in uniform were the best, and worst, times of my life. Despite some unpleasant memories, for me, the former made a far greater impression than did the latter.

Alas, the second group I would describe as "cynics." The military seems to have indelibly stamped them with something life-defining as well. Something about the same experience has left them bitter about humanity, and life in general. They're angry, and seemingly, angry about everything. And, this is not PTSD. I've noticed it amongst veterans who never saw combat. More than anything, they seem inclined to criticize and complain. There is no transcendent idea, ideal or insight. There is nothing about which one might be inspired. They're unhappy and seem determined to remain so. This is not intended as a criticism, merely an observation.

In any event, I created the post to take the temperature. I spent a lot of time crafting it, and doubt I could do better upon revision. So, if it doesn't inspire vets to coalesce, then I guess nothing will. I guess we'll just have to wait and see. Perhaps we'll be surprised.

For what's it's worth, I am very appreciative of your efforts and the efforts of those trying to organize a veteran community. I also love that Humvee that now shows up on all my posts.

I'm going to be revising my GinaBot settings (once I remember where I put the code that let's me do that). When I do, I'll include @guiltyparties' list of daily vet posts. Gina is my boss and determines my daily routine. Let me know if there's anything you guys need and I'll do my best to help out.

The most thinking first about the own bags/bucks when they got feeded good they start to watch out about friends, maybe when all friends get feeded they try to make some ideas how to feed all others...

THATS the MR X outside...

Your idea is to break this MR X thing , i love this idea and i think there much more who like this idea but then things happens and it get forgotten...

Sry for ym maybe wrong spelling in some stuff i try to say...

We all know at a GROUP YOU GET STRONGER and as much we tolerate others you can get stronger again because you have wide Borders... but then there is the devil inside wide borders give much free rooms and empty places.... If there is anyone in this group maybe didnt get the power he want to have he will take a look on an other edge to get this again, and again and again, thats why humans ever go outside and start to catch that what others have... DEVIL INSIDE....

RAKKASAN ( DOC ) made a nice way to get together... there is a alltime you can... thats why i think it works good... there times when you get active inside the group and times when you do much stuff around steemit maybe take only a short time to do a Post and jump out again... But when you come into the MVoS Discord its all fine anyone is happy to meet each other....

But then there is now a way of you have to do because if you dont, the system isnt working ;)

i love the idea but i see a prob not in downvoting if anyone use the # but isnt a vet i see there more , and thats only my 2 cents the problem in do our post inside the # im doin a niche thing... nothing about beiing a VET , we have 5 tags we can use mostly this 5 are too less for me i want to use....

ahhhh is crazy... still love the idea because it sounds good but i know the fluct. rate of the inet and know its hard to get it work fine...

Greetz from Germany

This post sounds great but it will never work because most of the vets are not really members of the community you speak of. They are off doing their own thing and have forgotten what teamwork is and what it is all about. We could have the strongest community here but we cannot with only a handful trying to make it work. That being said I see many communities on Steemit falling apart along with Steemit itself. This is for many reasons and they are too many to comment on. Many have made posts on many of the problems here and no one is trying to fix it they are just getting while the getting is good. I have struggled here on Steemit for a little over a year along with many others and have really never accomplished much at all, because I did not have a lot of money to fund my blog. Many started and funded their account and started self-voting and making other accounts and funded them and only votes on their own accounts. Whales and most, not all but most, of the bigger accounts, are no real help on anything. Now all the small accounts posts just fall into the void and never amount to anything. The old saying goes the rich get richer and the poorer get poorer supporting the rich in this Steemit world. Wish you well in all your endeavors and good luck. Sorry I am a little discouraged with this platform at this time.

@basicstoliving,

I hear ya.

You didn't write anything I haven't written a dozen times in comments sections around the blockchain. I concur that if something doesn't change, Steemit will get replaced by another crypto that adheres to Steemit's theoretical Central Premise: that Content Shall Be Compensated Commensurate With Its Quality. Once the Central Premise of any organization is breached, its raison d'etre disappears and its continued existence is short-lived.

With respect to Steemit, I hold out a modicum of hope. If Smart Media Tokens take off, it could radically re-order the concentration of wealth within Steemit. I'm very much awaiting Hardfork-20 to see if @ned has been listening to any of the complaints. Some of the whales also know there's a systemic problem that needs to be changed, and they have a lot to lose if it doesn't. Everything at the moment is so opaque that it's hard to predict the future. Indeed, I've been working on a plan for a couple of months that, if I could enact it (50/50), would change a A LOT of the dynamics of Steemit very quickly. The future of Steemit, or any other crypto for that matter, will not be determined by the current cast of characters. The CME and CBOE have already created derivatives for Bitcoin. NASDAQ appears to be interested in getting involved as well. Once all the infrastructure for institutional investment is in place (its close), EVERYTHING is going to change. The plethora of so called "crypto-trading-experts" will get slaughtered as they are introduced to the traders at Goldman Sachs et al. BTW: I used to run a currency-trading hedge fund.

I sent out my post to test the temperature and get feedback. I got a comment by @rakkasan84 that was in the same vein as you've described. Given his centrality in trying to organize vets on Steemit, his words carry weight.

So, here's a thought: Perhaps the net is being cast too widely.

Imagine the following: A system similar to what I described in my post EXCEPT, Membership is by-invitation-only. An initial Core Group of vets (say 25) is created. I guarantee the organizers of the Vets Project already know exactly who these people are. Each of these Initial Members would have the ability to invite outside vets (based upon an agreed-upon criteria). If an invitation is accepted, two other Members would review the invitee's history on Steemit and confirm/deny. Assuming a confirmation, the invitee would become a Member.

Instead of including all vets, and then trying to motivate them to participate once they're in, turn the process around and make them demonstrate a shared-ethos prior to them getting in. This would eliminate a lot of problems.

With a little creativity, we ought to be able to refine the basic idea to make it workable. I'd love to get your feedback. @rakkasan84 and the other organizers of the current Vets Group, I'd love to hear from you as well.

@shadow3scalpel @chairborne @guiltyparties @jackmiller @derangedvisions @chira @anarcho-andrei @patriot

Everyone else, feel free to chime in as well.

Beep! Beep! @shadow3scalpel at your service. I am here to assist all military members on Steemit. This HumVee will be scouting posts from a list of Veterans that is maintained by @chairborne. If you are a Veteran and new to Steemit, and you have questions or want to join the Veterans community, reply to this comment. We got your six, unless you are in the rear with the gear. Ooh-Rah!
Comment by @inthenow. This is a opt-in bot.

Awesome post and awesome idea man. Band together. Looks as though you have the passion to run a project like this. I'll check back for updates.

Ok so this is a lot to take in but i will try to give a few or two cents.

  1. Love the idea
  2. Veterans or VoS = Veterans of steem tag would be easy to sue and simple.
  3. Bots work off action/inaction members names would have to be added into the bot in order to suggest who is or who is not. Some bots like Ginabot can already notify based off tag or keywords so that would help and it works with discord even better.
  4. Curation of vets in a community environments is awesome, soon hopefully steem will release the communities update which will simplify this entire process and make the group able to be searchable with shared rewards members only and so much more.
  5. In the meantime a single tag, and the discord i think is the best path forward to reach said goals.

Lastly - I will guard my post from flank to flank and not take shit from any rank.

Salute!

Hi :-) First and foremost, nice to meet you, in an internet kind of way.

Secondly, I am all for supporting our fellow vets in any way I can. However, I need to point out a few things to you.

  1. You will never get rich making posts on Steemit.
  2. The problems on Steemit are never going to get fixed.
  3. The trending page will ALWAYS be flooded with Crypto & Junk Posts.
  4. A lot of people are on here to rape the system, and that is just the way it is, and they succeed daily.

You seem to be a poet with some good skills. And as such I suggest that you join the Writers Block, if you have not already. There are a lot of great people in that discord that can help you in your Steemit journey.

As for making a mint on Steemit I gave up on the idea long ago. ;-) I do what I do and if it gets votes cool, if not, meh no biggie. I give most of what I earn here away anyways, and I built my Steemit up from scratch with no investment just like you are doing. If you want some tips on getting your account in a better place, you can hit me up on the discord any time.

Now onto the helping other vets part, I am down with that. We would need someone, preferably the Chairborne followers list on SteemAuto for a curation trail. Then any interested vets can follow the trail and vote on posts automatically, at whatever % they feel like voting.

As for other ideas, you can always hop on the discord and let it rip too. Getting us all together is a grand idea and would be great, in theory. In reality another story, but I am willing to give it a go and let the chips fall where they may.

Have a great night. :-D

I do think you have some great ideas. It can be very hard to engage a community on steemit, but your right when it really succeeds and catches on it can be a game changer for your growth and success on steemit.

For me personally I’m just spread way too thin, I’ve found so many things to be part of here and rarely find time to engage in chats these days or even manually curate many blogs. I wish I was a more active member of this group and others I’m part of as well.

For me I usually try to find passive ways to support communities I’m involved in through delegations and following trails.

Don’t get discouraged and definitely keep at it, as for getting rewarded on steemit, I would just say keep it at and it will grow eventually, keep your rewards on the platform and you’ll start to get noticed.

@quillfire, your suggestions definitely resonate and I agree, in principle. I think @rakkasan84 and @guiltyparties do a fine job of onboarding and maintaining our member's list. Directly through that list, I have had the pleasure to make acquaintances with other vets, and many of whom I would not have ever met IRL.

On the tag, yes we should choose one - if possible, and begin to tag all our posts to it. I also belong to The Writers' Block and we do ask posters to remove the tags if the post is not relevant to the tag or community. It definitely takes time and effor to police. We've had mixed results with it and had to downvote a few to make our point.

Having a community comes with a mix bag of personalities and involves a social graphic ladder that has the following (in order, bottom rung up):

  • Inactives [we either move these folks to spectators or trim - or find out why they are inactive]
  • Spectators [most valuable, should target to move up to Joiners]
  • Joiners [keep engaged and look for future collectors, critics, creators]
  • Collectors
  • Critics
  • Creators

It also comes along with what makes up the "sense of community." This goes towards what we are trying to build and sustain.

  • membership,
  • influence,
  • integration and fulfillment of needs,
  • shared emotional connection.
    *** - rewards (crypto)

Members move along the ladder, depending on their interest. In my case, I'm involved in several communities (maybe too many) and slide up and down the 3 C's rungs (there's your threes again) in each of the communities, depending on what's going on in my life (I think this goes for everyone.)

I think that Steem is an interesting social-graphic ecosystem that I'm still trying to figure out how it plays with the social graph. That's why I have the last starred, "rewards."

Not sure if any of my comments help, I do think your comments and suggestions are inline with building community and establishing someguidleines that allow for the movement of members along the ladder. Definitely something that should be discussed further as the vet community grows.

great article and idea

upvoted and resteemed

Lets talk more about this.

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