More Utopian Thoughts

It's been a little over a week since I mentioned my new gig in Utopian. My position was also announced in In last week's Utopian Weekly, which was very nice, especially as that's a post I help write (I most emphatically did not the part where I was mentioned).

It's interesting, looking at Steem from a Utopian point of view. Both of the categories I moderate, Visibility and Blog, are about promoting open source projects, and it makes me look at Steem as an engine for creating awesome open source things. I've known from the start that such things were happening on the platform, of course, but knowing is one thing. Working on it, even in an ancillary capacity, is an entirely different thing.

I want to talk about how I view the job of moderator. which aligns well with how Utopian views it as an organization. There's the scoring part, which is where you grade a contribution based on certain guidelines, and that part's important because it determines the upvote reward. And I know that for many, that's the main thing. It isn't for me, and I don't think it is for most of the best contributors.

It's about the comments. Every time I score a contribution, I write a corresponding comment with feedback, which also links to details of the score. Our goal isn't just to foster more open source contributions on Steem. Our goal is to foster better contributions. The upvote encourages that, of course. But the comment is where you can gently point well intentioned folks in a direction that will improve their work. Without the comment, the upvote is a directionless push. This, as I say, isn't just my view. It's the organization's view. Which is great.

It is interesting to note the different responses to comments. Some will not respond in any way, and that's fine. Maybe the take the lessons to heart, maybe not. Time will tell. Some will respond with an upvote of the comment, which I hope means they found value in it. Some will respond defensively, which is unhelpful, though it can open a dialogue that becomes fruitful. My favorite responses, of course, are those who take critique as the positive thing it is meant to be, who view it as an opportunity to improve. While innate ability is a real thing, it is trumped by hard work nine times out of ten. The people committed to make better stuff, will make better stuff. Whether it's the project itself, or the blog post talking about it.

Feedback is hard to take, sometimes. I know this personally, as a writer and as a translator. My own natural inclination is to huddle into a ball and refuse to deal. But dealing - specifically, listening - is the only way to get better. So I do the things.

And that's my message to y'all: Do the things.