Answering the questions about the #promo-steem Voting Guild

Thanks to everyone in the community who sent specific questions about the new voting mechanism. I hope to answer them all here

The first thing to say is this... The guild system is in its infancy at the moment. It is going to be expanded on, but right now we are in the first phase of testing. We are aware that there are features and elements to build into the automated system, and we are addressing these. We do very much appreciate comments and thoughts about it, and we will try to answer them all.

Earlier today I put out this post which explained the Steem Ambassador programme is coming online, and how the guild system will work.

So here are some of the questions which are being asked today about it, how it will work, and what it will mean.

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Do the Steem Ambassadors get to do anything different from any other user?

No. All that happens is their upvotes are used to determine which posts are upvoted by the @steem-ambassador account. The goal is to grow this account, both through delegations and author/curation rewards it receives to help grow the rewards for great quality promotional work.

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How many Steem Ambassadors will be required to trigger an upvote from the @steem-ambassador account?

At least three. This may change after testing, and over time, but for now it's set at this number

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Will Steem Ambassadors be able to post their own promotional blogs which can receive upvotes from the @steem-ambassador account?

Yes. It's just their upvoting themselves will not count towards reaching the threshold for a triggered upvote. They still require 3 Steem Ambassadors to upvote them (excluding themselves)

When will @steem-ambassador upvotes happen?

Once a post receives at least 3 upvotes from Steem Ambassadors, then it will be added to the next voting round list. The voting rounds take place once per day, when the voting power fully recharges to 100%. So it may take 24 + hours for you to receive your upvote from Steem Ambassador. We are aware this means that posts which are upvoted by the third ambassador after 6 days might not derive any rewards, although we can reasonably expect these posts will be few and far between at this stage.

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When will the @steem-ambassador account get some serious SP in it?

Hopefully very soon. We need you to get the message out to the community, and help us to bring in delegated Steem. The upside for delegators is that they will receive a percentage of the curation rewards for delegating to us, and as we grow, so will the curation rewards.

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What happens if a Steem Ambassador downvotes my promo post?

Well, probably your post might be a bit spammy to say the least. And the short answer is nothing. The system only works on the basis of upvotes, not downvotes. It's the sort of thing that we will be tracking. I can't really seeing it happening too much, because the Ambassadors have a track record of positive and proactive voting behaviour.

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How will you stop spamming using the #promo-steem tag?

That's kind of the job of the Steem Ambassadors. They need to be aware of what they upvoting. These people have put it out there that they can be trusted to do what's best for the #promo-steem community, and they have chosen to curate intelligently and with integrity for quality. If they don't, then the community can remove them as Ambassadors.

Secondly, we will have a way that you can report spammy/plagurising accounts. We will monitor them, and eventually with the agreement of the ambassadors, they will be blacklisted for a month, so they would never be able to earn rewards from @steem-ambassador even if they did the best promotional post ever! Eventually, it won't be worthwhile being spammy, because those people will just end up being all sad and lonely with nothing in their wallets.

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Is the system fully operational yet?

It's in the testing phase. Over the next few days as the Steem Ambassadors start to come on board, we will begin rolling it out. You won't have to do anything different. Just tag your posts #promo-steem as normal (preferably the first tag, but it doesn't matter too much if it isn't)

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Are you manually reviewing the system at the moment?

Short answer...yes. We want to make sure there are no mistakes in the code. It will also be getting updates over the next week or so.

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Will the SteemAuto curation trail follow the votes of @steem-ambassador

Yes. So when @steem-ambassador upvotes, it will be because it has undergone manual curation by a number of trusted individuals in the community. Following the curation trail is dead simple, and if you aren't doing it already, please consider joining it. Instructions here

How do I become a Steem Ambassador?

Go to the promo-steem website and have a look at the Ambassador page. Full instructions are there on applying. Please note, we have had a huge number of applications, and will be putting these all out in the next few days. We are reviewing each one to make sure it meets the criteria for application and then the community can approve (or reject). See the @steem-ambassador account over the next few days and you will start to see these appear.

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Thanks for reading. I'm sure there will be other great questions come over the next few days. I will try to answer them all.

Love, light and laughter.
Anarcotech x