SteemMag – Steemit’s Weekend Digest

I’m ecstatic. It is with great pleasure that I welcome you guys to the second edition of SteemMag, a weekend digest for Steemians.
If you missed last week’s launch…then you’ve got to check it out later here…it had interviews with a whale and also another one with a witness plus some other exciting features…

This weekend edition is super awesome and I’m so delighted to have you here…Cos SteemMag just raised the notch higher with another exclusive interview with an esteemed Steemian.
I’m quite sure you would have a great time going through the interview and this edition’s other features….Grab a cup of coffee or a can of drink……it’s about to get awesome…

First, here are some cool reads you will get from this weekend’s edition:
Page 1:

An Exclusive Interview with a whale who owns a bot ---You don’t wanna miss this guys

Page 2:

This Week on Steemit : A Review of the most exciting events on Steemit for the past 7 days
Tools for Non-Native Writers
From the Archives : Articles Worth A Re-Read
And much more

Today’s interview is with an all-in-one Steemian…. He is a whale, a witness, an early miner, and a bot owner….
I’m pleased to present this interview with @steemed to you and I’m sure you would enjoy it.
Read on……..

An Exclusive Interview With @steemed

@infovore(SteemMag): Hi?
@steemed: Hello!

I: How did you get to know about Steemit?

Steemed:
I am an early miner--one of the earliest of the early, easily the first outsider. In fact, I mined STEEM before the infamous relaunch that marks the accepted beginning of the Steem blockchain.

I: You have a bot, right? How many and name(s)?
S:
I have 3 accounts in my bot and they vote together. The accounts are steemed, itsascam, and steemroller. Any of the 3 would be considered a "whale" account.

I: What convinced you that setting up a bot was the best thing for the platform?

S:
First, let me start by saying that I feel like the Steem platform is going to succeed wildly whether I have a bot or not.

From my perspective, my bot serves the purpose of executing salary distribution to my author list. It will probably be hard to convince skeptics of this, but my bots are great for content producers and are therefore good for Steem. My author list is curated by reading content. In that way my bots are intelligent.

I: A lot of Steemians especially newbies have some not too nice opinions about bots. Are they right to think so?
S:
They are not right to think that bots are inherently bad, any more than any other tool is inherently bad. Newbies, and even some vets, often do not fully grasp the dynamics of technology, which causes misunderstanding and distrust.

My bot votes at the 15 minute mark, giving the authors in my list 1/2 of my curation rewards. Other bot owners and even manual voters early-vote me because they know the exact time my bots will vote. When they early-vote me they take some of my curation rewards as well. This all works to the authors' favor, which is the purpose of advertising when my bot votes--I want the early voters. The more people who early-vote me for guaranteed curation rewards, the more the authors in my list make (and the less I make, incidentally). I'm happy for the authors that I have this tidal wave effect.

I'm here for content providers. I like hearing about their successful struggles with adversity, and in somewhat selfish service to my ego, I like to think that my support helps improve their lives. Creative people are by nature slaves to their creativity, and it is important for those who can have an impact to be cognizant of the stresses that unrestrained creativity imposes on artists and authors.

I: Whats a typical day for you as regards your bot(s)?
S:
I check several times a day that my bot is working for my author list. I respond to PMs from authors who would like to be added to my bots. I interact with willing authors on what kind of content might improve their followings. Several times a day, I look to see what my bot has voted on and see if there is any good material to read. I also check to make sure my author list is contributing what I call "substantive content". If they make trivial posts, I bring it up and try to persuade them to publish more substance from the accounts on which I vote. I respond to authors who notice where my bot misses their posts because of things like network latency. I do some manual voting to compensate for these gaps.

I: Personally, as a whale, what do you look for in contents before upvoting?
S:
I look for that personal touch, a potential for serious creativity, post cohesiveness, and reading times in the 3+ minute range. I am especially moved by those who relate their experiences and how those experiences manifest in their creativity. I like to understand how others find the motivation to create things much more inspired than I can, I guess in the vain Walter Mitty-like hope that I could some day match their creative achievements.
I look at authors before including them in my bot and read posts after my bot votes for them. I take reviewing posts very seriously.
Obviously, this backwards chronology of voting then reviewing seems contradictory to traditional curation, but I don't see anything wrong with it. I believe that reading each post before voting on it would be micro-management. In a sense, I am a job creator, vested with the power to appropriate income derived from the block chain reward fund. I acquired this power when I committed resources to mining while the developers were unknown and the project's legitimacy was entirely suspect. In short, I took significant risks and gained rewards consummate with those risks.

I tried to convince many people to mine STEEM in the early stages and most did not want to take the risk. If I would have tried to convince any of those who are now jealous of my holdings to take a risk and mine, they probably would have laughed at me. I could be wrong, but I like to think that the skeptics who don't understand risk and reward, who tend to mock new technology, and who succumb to fear and doubt, tend to be the most jealous and resentful critics later.

I: Apart from steemit, do you have any other life interests? Like hobbies?
S:
I have all sorts of hobbies. Like the authors I support with my voting bots, I am a creative type. I have no musical training, but if within reaching distance of an instrument, I will pick it up and begin composing a song on it, although admittedly my talent limits me to composing only simple songs. I will compulsively repeat the same thing many times until each note sounds most pleasing to me. I've played many sports, in which I always have a competitive attitude, even if deleterious to my physical well being. I have a moderately compulsive personality that drives me to take interest in new things without much attenuation. These compulsions have led to all sorts of struggles as well as successes.

I: Where do you see Steemit in the next 12 months?
S:
I see absurdly high rates of adoption, a series of significant, but not insurmountable, technical challenges resulting from this growth, and a market capitalization of the STEEM cryptocurrency that will turn heads and invite droves of jealous critics (although no one should take what I say as investment advice--it could crash to nothing as well). Even the tiniest of our current minnows might be the focus of jealousy for being early adopters of this technology. In a way, expanding my peer group of "evil whales" will be what I most anticipate. I look forward to bonding with them and sharing our complaints about those who disapprove of our whale status.

I: Your personal message to all Steemians?
S:
You are fortunate to have an open mind and to embrace Steem. Make the most of it and post a lot. This is your ticket to a little STEEM now, which may become a lot of STEEM later.

For the Steem skeptics, not everything that appears to be negative at first glance is what it seems. Don't give into negative group think. Lots of fortunes will be made with Steem. See what you can do with the technology. It is part of a greater technological revolution that has the potential to improve the human condition. Most importantly, fear and skepticism of new technology and jealousy of its beneficiaries now will make you resentful later. Why not just use the technology to make your life and the lives of others better?

Wow. That was epic. Thanks @steemed for taking the time to have an interview with SteemMag.
I hope you enjoyed the interview. If you have any other questions you would like him to answer, you can drop in your comments and I would see if I can get him to give you a reply.

N.B Do you have any suggestions or features you would like to see on SteemMag? Please leave a comment also.

This week has been an exciting one. And in case, you missed out on some events. I've got your back.

This Week On Steemit: 11 Important Things That Happened On Steemit This Week

Here are some of the most important events that happened on Steemit this week.

~ Hardfork 11 was successfully scheduled and implemented for 2017-07-17T15:00:00 UTC (11:00:00 EDT). This added blockchain support for account recovery. The next hardfork is scheduled for next week Tuesday.

~ Robust security measures were put in place with Dan, Steemit Co-founder, announcing the release of a ground-breaking account recovery solution
https://steemit.com/blockchain/@dan/steemit-releases-groundbreaking-account-recovery-solution

~ Poloniex , one of the biggest bitcoin/cryptocurrency exchanges added support for Steem and Steem Dollars on its platform. The result:

~ A unit of Steem exchanged for an all-time high of $4.35

~ User signups were paused and a waiting list was introduced. This was later re-opened yesterday.

~ A rise in custom-made tools for Steem. A lot of awesome tools were released and if you’re struggling to catch up
on them, @roelandp created SteemTools – a collection of tools and services for Steemit … There are 22 of them as at the last count. Whoop!**

~ Number of transactions processed a day reached a new record of 122 498 on Wednesday 2016-07-17

~ Number of daily votes reached an all-time high at 81 058 on 2016-07-17

~ Post, replies and edits daily count all reached a new record high on 2016-07-20 at 30 065

~ Steemit’s media coverage continues with the most popular article about Steemit being:
Steemit May Become Killer App As It Looks to Draw 1 Mln Bitcoin Users Yearly
https://cointelegraph.com/news/steemit-may-become-killer-app-as-it-looks-to-draw-1-mln-bitcoin-users-yearly

Quick Tips: Tools For Non-Native Writers

This feature is a new one. Every week, I would be sharing with you some quick tips to make your stay on Steemit better…. It’s no news that Steemit is rapidly expanding and naturally the larger percentages of newbies would be non-natives.
British English is the official language where I live. But after several hours of working with U.S based clients including taking a number of U.S English tests especially on Upwork, I can use either of the two well. I still make mistakes like switching ‘learnt’ for ‘learned’ but the tools below make it easier to detect and help my writing overall.

Hemingway Editor::
This app makes you write bold and clear. It grades the readability of your words and gives suggestions. I highly recommend cos I use it every day.

Grammarly Editor:
Here is my second favorite tool. Grammarly checks your text and ensures its error free while providing optimized suggestions… I combine this with the Hemingwayapp for all my written works.

Stackedit.io:
One of the major complaints of new users has to do with learning the markdown format. I initially struggled with this and had to use this site for all my structuring. It’s better now as I’ve memorized most of the tags needed.

That’s all for now on Quick Tips…. What tools do you use in writing on Steemit? Would love to hear from you?

From The Archives – Posts Worth A Re-Read

As stated in last weekend’s issue, pre-July 4th witnessed a lot of amazing posts. And efforts were made to curate the best of them every week. I, however, believe there are some hidden gems that deserve a re-read from us. And this weekend’s feature does just that.

How I became the Shitcoin-Singer (3 weeks ago) by @fyrstikken
https://steemit.com/bitcoin/@fyrstikken/how-i-became-the-shitcoin-singer

Black Bean and Quinoa Salad - this one’s a keeper! (1 month ago) by @tmendieta
https://steemit.com/recipes/@tmendieta/black-bean-and-quinoa-salad--this-ones-a-keeper

Steem Money Machine – Fungraphic (1 month ago) by cass
https://steemit.com/steem-branding/@cass/steem-money-machine--fungraphic

BLOWING OFF SOME STEEM IV: Dear SOCIAL MEDIA, F Your BS T&Cs... Here are MY Terms & Conditions! (1 month ago) by @nanzo-scoop
https://steemit.com/funny/@nanzo-scoop/blowing-off-some-steam-iv-dear-social-media-f-your-bs-tcs-

Confessions Of An Ex-Self-Help Junkie: The Motivations Behind An Addiction To Information, Ambition, & The Quest For Truth (1 month ago) by rok-sivante
https://steemit.com/life/@rok-sivante/confessions-of-an-ex-self-help-junkie-the-motivations-behind-an-addiction-to-information-ambition-

30 Days That Changed My Life (3 weeks ago) by cryptogee
https://steemit.com/biohacking/@cryptogee/30-days-that-changed-my-life

What I've Learned Blogging Everyday for More Than A Year for No Money...and Why I'm Grateful For It (3 weeks ago) by cryptoctopus
https://steemit.com/life/@cryptoctopus/what-i-ve-learned-blogging-everyday-for-more-than-a-year-for-no-money-and-why-i-m-grateful-for-it

A SPECIAL NOTE FOR YOU

Thanks for the support so far. Though it took a lotta time, I had fun getting the interview ready and curating all these information together.
I hope you do enjoy it and gained a few stuff from this weekend digest. Next week is going to be even more exciting.