[Steemhunt] Understanding the new posting guideline

Hi, @jayplayco here.
A lot happened last week, and the most significant changes are the adaption of a separated voting system from the ranking. Additionally, the posting guideline has been trimmed to a minimum, and the voting is now done based on the hunters ranking.

Source: Vidar Nordli-Mathisen

To all readers who are new to Steemhunt, Steemhunt is a service built on the platform Steem to enable Hunters to hunt new and cool products and get rewarded on a daily base. If you are new to Steemhunt, you should try first this post. LINK

This post is going into details what the new posting guideline means and what the new hunters level will have an impact for each hunter. Details about the new ABV 2.0 can be found here

0. Repository

https://github.com/Steemhunt/web

1. Posting Guideline

Source:
Daria Nepriakhina

Before we had up to 13 guidelines, but that is now trimmed to seven. Additionally, vague lines, which could be arguably are far more directly explained. Let`s break it down.

Posting Guideline Nr.1

1. Language - English Only
Steemhunt runs a single ranking board globally, so please post and comment in English. Also, the product website should be written in English. If the website offers multiple languages, please use the English page for Steemhunt.
Source

Source: freestock.org

The Title, Subtitle, comments and also the landing page needs to be in English and only in English. Sometimes Hunters ask that their product page is non-English, but you can choose English as language. In that case, please use the right deep-link, so your product link is landing to an English site.

Posting Guideline Nr.2

2. Types of Products to Post
Steemhunt generally covers unique IT or hardware products, including:

2-1. Web services
2-2. Mobile apps
2-3. API, IT solutions, bots, open sources or other types of software
2-4. Tech gadgets, hardware, IoT/connected/wearable devices
2-5. Games
2-6. Innovative Engineering/Design Products (It may cover non-tech products that have been invented based on high-level engineering/design approach to solving a significant problem)
Source

Posting Guideline two is a point where a lot of new hunters have difficulties to match the right products. Hold your breath, as we are diving into each position now.

2-1. Make sure that the service is web-based. As an example, a consulting company with a web page is not a web service. SAAS is right or services available over the Internet (intranet).
2-2 Hunt any mobile apps available on the Appstore or Playstore. Make sure that it is not hunted already. Be aware that we appreciate the brand page rather than the Appstore or Playstore if available.
2-3 Think here about software. Opensource is good, but commercial software is also a valid hunt. If you know the right API solutions or new Bots, go for it.
2-4 Traditional gadgets, as we know them. To make it easy, check if your product has some electronic technology included. Bluetooth, NFC, Wi-Fi, IoT or wearable technology are often hunted products.
2-5 One of the more significant changes came with Games. Before any App game with a valid Appstore link was accepted, but this resulted in too low-quality game hunts. Steemhunt is now taking only Games hunts with an own brand page. No Appstore, Playstore or Steam Link is allowed.
2-6 If you are not a seasoned hunter, this is a difficult category to fulfill. We have seen designed (paper) notebooks or paper engineered books. None of this items would be considered into the IEDP (Innovative Engineering /Design product) category, as this kind of products would be beautifully designed products or even collectibles but not an IEDP. We are verifying products which have a high degree of engineering or product design level approach to solve a problem in a new and innovative way.

Posting Guideline Nr.3

3. Product Link
We only accept these four product links (Your post will be delisted if you include other websites than those listed below):

3-1. Official product website
3-2. Major app store link (AppStore, PlayStore, etc)
3-3. Crowdfunding sites (Kickstarter, Indiegogo, etc) - The project that has failed to be pledged won't be accepted.
3-4. Github, Bitbucket repositories for open source projects

Also, the product link MUST be activated properly. If the link is broken or does not work properly, your hunt will be delisted.
Source

I guess this guideline is not so difficult to understand.

Always look for the original brand page of the product.
No e-commerce site, no blog, etc. E-commerce site only, as an example, when Amazon's Alexa is introduced (as their brand page is Amazon).
For Apps look for the official Playstore or Appstore link.
For Games go to posting guideline Nr. 7.
Crowdfunding sites are also accepted, but make sure that your Kickstarter has been successful.
Open source projects can be linked to the repositories on Github or Bitbucket. Please make sure that you choose the root of the directory.

Posting Guideline Nr.4

Source: mickey970

4. Plagiarism and Copyright
Write a short description and hunter’s comment with your own words. Do not copy and paste from the product’s website or other sites. You can, however, quote some content from a site, but you must use quotation marks and cite the source properly.
Source

Plagiarism is still one of the reasons many new hunters get their hunts delisted. The critical part here is use your OWN words to describe your hunt. Don't copy and paste, don`t use content spinners (our moderators catch that also) and don't try to rearrange few words here and there, as we usually get that too. Plagiarism is not a cavaliers delict but an illegal act and stealing copyrights from other persons. We are here to create content, not to copy it. Be careful as serial abusers are reported separately to @steemcleaners and could also result in blacklisting at Steemhunt.

Another tactic some users are applying is to copy and paste their material from another site than the source (product link) as like from blog entries. Our moderators are using several free and paid tools to check each text and text elements and also doing a manual check, so in standard cases, your hunt will still get delisted.

Posting Guideline Nr.5

5. Quality of the Post
Steemhunt is a “product hunting” site, not a writing curation site. We have a certain format that all hunters should follow when posting a product in order to make a fair/effective ranking chart. Please follow the directions below:

5-1. The field “name of product” should ONLY contain the official name of the product.
5-2. Do not duplicate the product name or use any non-product-specific words in the field “short description.”
5-3. Do not attach non-related screenshot images or videos.
5-4. Do not use low-quality product images.
5-5. Do not share any scams, highly suspicious cryptocurrency/fin-tech, or illegal products.
5-6. Do not share porn or anything under the nsfw category.
Source

PG5 is a short guideline on how to write your hunt from the title up to the hunters' comment.

Only write the name of your product into "Name of Product/Title." No brand, no adjectives like "awesome" or additional describing words. Just the product name.
Everything like "awesome" or additional describing words can be put into the "short description". Don`t need to repeat the title here.
Images needs to have a decent resolution. Sometimes there are images uploaded in the size of a preview icon. That is resulting to too low quality on the screen and would be a reason for delisting your hunt.
Use only screenshots, videos, photos and text elements related to the product. Uploading an own footer could result in delisting, as long as it is not associated with the main product.
Illegal products, products using illegal content, crypto or fin scam products, a scam in general, pornography or products from "Notsafeatwork." will get delisted.

Posting Guideline Nr.6

6. No Duplication Allowed
Steemhunt does not allow the same product to be posted twice. The website automatically checks the URL, but it is still your responsibility to check that the product has not been posted previously. If your product has already been featured from the same brand/maker, the duplication is allowed only when the product is a newer model (V2) or has been majorly updated from the original one.
Source

Before even starting a hunt, this would be the first step you should take as a hunter. Use the search function at Steemhunt and look for your hunt.

To be sure check following parts in the search bar.

product name
product brand
combination of name and brand
category
Unique selling proposition Keyword
ex) Drone: 4K Folding Drone => search 4K folding or folding drone
combine things together

Our moderators are using the same search engine at Steemhunt do find duplicates. So with that method, you should be on the save side.

You might upload the same product if it got a significant update. For Apps, this would be a version change in the number (ex. Ver. 1.2 to 2.0) with real significant functional changes. For gadgets, this could be difficult, as they usually make a new product than using the same product name. (An exception could be Apple's iPad?)

Posting Guideline Nr.7

Source: Glenn Carstens-Peters

7. Games
There are countless games worldwide, and many of them have narrow target customers. If we accept all new games in Steemhunt, our ranking board may be dominated by games. So, Steemhunt will ONLY accept games that have their own website. Please note if you use any app store or game platform (e.g. Steam) URL on the game product link, your hunt will be delisted.
Source

The critical part here would be only that PG 7 overrules PG 3 (product link) and that Appstore links and Playstore links for Games would not be allowed anymore and delisted.

Other parts

Source: Melanie Pongratz

Moderation
All hunts posted on Steemhunt.com are verified by Steemhunt moderators first. Once our moderators check that your hunt meets all the criteria in the posting guidelines, your hunt will be approved and considered for the ranking competition and @steemhunt's upvote based on your hunter level.

Your post will be hidden by the moderators if it does not meet the posting guidelines, in which case your hunt will be delisted from the ranking board. Due to time constraints, posts may not be processed before the cutoff time. In this case, your post will automatically roll over to the next day's competition and will be verified that day. Also, the moderator may ask you to edit/change some of the content. If you don't respond within 24 hours, your post will be hidden permanently.
Source

As mentioned, our moderators check each part of the posting guideline and after that leave a comment that your hunt is either verified or not. In some cases, the moderator is giving the hunt another chance and ask for an edit and in that case, it is mentioned in the comment of your moderator. If the hunter does not respond within 24hours after the moderator's comment request for an edit, the hunt will be delisted. This is mainly because we had a lot of hunts in a "non-edit black hole" for too long.

We get often the question from hunters "When is my hunt reviewed?". As our moderators work as volunteers around the world within their available time, we have (as like other Steem projects) no SLA (Service Level Agreement) for reviewing a post. This means we work the queue line from old to new and depending on how many moderators are active that day it is going to be faster or slower. So the honest answer to your question when your hunt is going to be reviewed is when a moderator grabs your hunt from the queue line. :) But don`t worry too much, because when your hunt is not reviewed in the same KST (Korean standard time) window, it will be moved automatically to the next window.

Blacklist
Steemhunt is running a blacklist to maintain a fair community platform. If you commit any of the following actions, you will be blacklisted.

Leave comments multiple times with irrelevant content to receive Steemhunt's upvotes.

Constantly plagiarise your content.
Even if you are blacklisted, you can still use our platform (posting, upvoting, and commenting), however, you won't be able to get upvoted by Steemhunt for 30 days. If you receive "permanent blacklist" status, you are not eligible to receive Steemhunt's upvotes indefinitely. We announce the blacklist via the #blacklist channel in our Discord Group.
Source

We are running a blacklist to keep spamming, milking under control. If we see or get a report about a hunter making meaningless comments for an upvote or effortless comments just for the upvote this hunter will be blacklisted. It has to be mentioned that a blacklist does not mean that the hunter's activities are in any way compromised. The only difference is, that the hunter will not receive any upvotes from the Steemhunt Bot.

2. Conclusion

Trimming the posting guideline is giving much more products the chance to be featured at Steemhunt and also reduce the objectivity of a hunt and the interference between moderators and hunters. In fact, the moderation speed has as an example for me almost doubled, as we don`t have to check too many aspects of a hunt like the age of a product, availability, launching date, etc.

On the other side, the quality of hunts has been decreased over the last week, as we now allow more products to be verified. But for a long run, my personal feeling is that the Hunter level in combination that the pressure of getting a higher ranking is much lower than before, Hunter`s community will make the ranking organic and well curated.

By the way, tweaking on Hunter`s Level is still ongoing and it is nothing special when someone's level is going up and down during the tweaking.

"Keep the hunt on"

Thanks for reading!