10,000 Minnows and Beyond: Looking for QUALITY Content? How About SINCERE Content!

I often ponder the greater question of "What are we all DOING here?"

On the surface, this appears to be a "Social Content Platform," but sometimes it even seems like that is open to interpretation: More than a few insist this is just "a place to develop apps for the Steem blockchain."

What sort of place are we building here?

I'm going to refrain from commenting on that last observation, because there's enough material there for an entire dissertation on short-sightedness and myopic paradigms, so... ONWARD!

Back in my early days on Steemit, there was often a raging debate over "Quality Content" and its importance in growing the Steem ecosystem, and the debate often decended into an "Us vs. Them" stalemate between self-proclaimed "Content Creators" and developers/blockchainiacs.

As I Have Said Before...

In my opinion — and I have said this many times before — quality content is probably both overrated and unrealistic in an environment such as this. Instead, I suggest asking the question whether or not something adds value to the community.

Of course "value" is a pretty fluid concept, as well... but I think most of us can more readily determine whether any given contribution might lend some value to some community or niche here, as opposed to actual quality. Both, of course, are subjective.

There's also little doubt in my mind that "Steem-as-Dan-saw-it" and Steem as it exists today are two very different things. But I'd also submit that we're in a similar boat to Webster's Dictionary: Ultimately, language depends on actual usage, not on what we want it to be.

Pensive seagull on the pier

"Minnow Making:" aka Growing the Community

So now we have these new initiatives increasingly popping up, centered around the idea of community building through — in not so many words — "Creating a larger Steem middle class."

A number of somewhat prominent Steemians have taken different approaches and angles... but all basically with an eye towards very similar goals.

Prolific blogger @tarazkp has long written about the idea of building a middle class as central to not only having a strong community, but to help with our little *"retention problem."

Meanwhile, there's an upsurge in community activity — and, by extension, bringing Steem to more people — as manifested by initiatives like @theycallmedan's recent polls to determine organizations worthy of large delegations, and even @nathanmars's twitter hustle efforts.

Now, a new generation of initiatives are coming online, spearheaded by @steevc's "10,000 Minnows" project which has subsequently given rise to the @steemcommunity witness' challenge to mint 250 new Minnows by the end of March.

Where is our ship sailing to?

Great Ideas, BUT...

Back to "What are we doing here?"

The greater story arc of building a larger "Middle Class" here is certainly a worthy one, even though not everyone necessarily agrees.

The open question, though, is whether we are doing this for its own sake, to somehow move the Steem power base around a little bit... or are we truly doing this as part of an effort to create a more active/interactive and vibrant community?

Hopefully, it's the latter... and hopefully, that means these efforts at "Minnow Creation" aren't purely about pushing people past the "magic" 500SP level... but also about being somewhat selective about who gets pushed, with the broader intent of building a more active and vibrant Social Community here.

So here we double back to the quality question, and I'm not suggesting we look only for quality content creators; rather we should focus the minnow building efforts on sincere content creators — enthusiastic, happy to be part of the process and community, but might create all sorts of sincere content.

Red autumn leaves...

Bottom line: For Steem to keep growing and thriving in the long run, we don't just need "members," we need active members!

But then again, that opinion is predicated on my belief that this is a Social Content Platform. And in order to thrive... we have to be social!

Thanks for reading!

Comments, feedback and other interaction is invited and welcomed! Because — after all — SOCIAL content is about interacting, right? Leave a comment-- share your experiences-- be part of the conversation!

(As always, all text and images by the author, unless otherwise credited. This is original content, created expressly for Steemit)
Created at 190309 13:17 PST
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