Curator Cat on Caturday: Building Communities is about CONNECTING!

in cats •  6 years ago 

Happy Caturday, everyone! 

Yes, it's that day of the week again, so roll out all your cat pictures and cat stories for the world to see! Because — after all — we all know that the true purpose of the Internet is to look at cat and kitten videos and photos!

Above all, let's not take it all so seriously... life is too short to not have fun! Or take naps!

Cat
I love the backs of chairs! Yes, I know it doesn't look comfortable... but it IS!

A Couple of Thoughts on Building Community

In my few months here, I have been pretty "active," as Steemians go. According to my latest stats from Steemworld.org, I have posted a little over 100 top level posts and commented somewhat more than 2000 times. That's in the course of about five months...

Cat
No, I am not cleaning my privates! This is a SERIOUS Yoga pose called "playing the fiddle!"

People talk a lot about Steemit's problems with "member retention" (let's be honest: it sucks!), and how they don't seem to be "getting anywhere" when they join here.

We seem to forget that communities are not built overnight.

We also seem to forget that building communities takes work!

People get on places like twitter, or Facebook or Instagram, and they often spend months and years posting and interacting with "interesting" content before they establish a following. One of my Humans has a small charity organization. Sure, it has 6000+ followers on Facebook and twitter... but it took eight years to do that!

Why would Steemit be ANY different?

Cat
Obligatory Curator Cat (sleepy) selfie!

No matter where you are — Steemit, Facebook or even moving into a new physical neighborhood — it takes time and effort to become part of a community, and to help build it. And it isn't just going to drop out of empty space, simply because you "showed up!"

"But the rewards!" you say...

Why would that make any difference? You joined a social content site. You didn't apply for a job, with an expected and reliable paycheck. Just think about that, for a moment... because if you thought this was going to be "like a job," that's all in YOUR head, not in reality!

Anyway, just needed to get that off my chest!

Now go out there and have a marvelous day! I'm off to do the Caturday "rounds!"

=^..^=


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Beautiful cat!
I like black, but I do not have a cat of black color.
I especially liked the photo of the cat on the back of the chair.
You can not hide anything from a glance!
A great place to watch!

Thank you! Our other cat is white, with just a little bit of black. I do really like the backs of chairs, because it is quite high up, and I can see things!

=^..^=

:-))

The same rules apply here as you stated but we also have to remember that the user base on Steemit is much smaller then Twitter or Facebook which makes it harder to succeed since there is only so much good content those with SP can upvote + bots rule Steemit ATM.

True enough about the bots, @rentmoney... they do seem to have taken over the landscape. Which makes me a bit sad, really.

With a smaller community base, it does take a little more time... but I've found that it's actually pretty difficult to actively keep up with more than 100-120 people. Or 200, tops.

=^..^=

Playing the fiddle

HAhaha

Yes! It's a "classic cat pose," you know... of course, the Humans aren't top happy I do this so close to the kitchen counter...

=^..^=

Who cares if they aren't happy with it, I wouldn't care :D

Great message! I think people forget that this is about making connections...not just posting pictures with instant results.

It is social media, after all! Which means there is more to it than just posting something pretending the "social" bit takes care of itself.

=^..^=

Good point!

I am happy I joined steem! I get to meet lazy cats like you!

Likewise! And it seems the volume of "cat content" here is slowly growing... in the beginning, everything was very tech-blockchain-crypto oriented.

=^..^=

You look like a black panther perching on the back of that chair!

It feels that way, sometimes. And when our other cat BeBe walks below, it feels like I can drop in on her!

=^..^=

I think exactly the same. It must be because we are both cats.
Well, I admit sometimes I feel disappointed, but it happens.

Indeed! I think cats have a lot on in common... particularly the desire to be able to take many long naps, on a regular basis!

=^..^=