I've been seeing my dear friends over at doing this for a couple of weeks and I love the idea - in the spirit of trying to get that trending page to show more original content upvoted by real humans and fewer bots, as well as meet new awesome people within the community,
started the Shout Out Saturdays (SOS) initiative.
If you want to get involved, all you gotta do is pick 5 people that you want to share, do a little write up on each of them, and use the tag #shoutoutsaturdays!
Only 5? Brutal...
There are so many great people on this platform I didn't even really know where to start. Then I decided I'll break it down by general topics that people cover. For volume 1, I wanted to start with community leaders, because without them, this platform would be not nearly as great and addictive as it is. In no particular order:
This Week's Shout Outs:
I first virtually met Ethan on a now defunct discord server, which was a community that was focussed on trying to bring meaningful interaction and discussion with posts. Unfortunately the leader of that particular community started doing some dubious behaviour with the group account, and many of us jumped ship. But Ethan still believed in the cause, and worked to build his own server with the help of some of the others who left:
Not only did he rebuild the community, but he did it with such vigor and genuine care that it grew exponentially fast and has become one powerhouse of a community - and it's by far one of my favourites on Discord. While many people came to Steemit for the cash, I for one came to spread a message about art and gain a real human following for my vlog, and this community is a breath of fresh air.
This guy is a machine - On top of managing a server and community, he's got his own curation podcast, a "Beginners Guide to Steemit" initiative, and a band - all while trying to complete a science thesis!! I'm sure he does even more that I don't know about. But ultimately, this guy is amazing and deserves all the things!
Also known as , this lady is one of Ethan's right hand humans on
- and is in charge of the daily curation posts for that community. But aside from her perfectly crafted and beautifully sarcastic commentary, she also does another curation series of her own accord, and happens to be a great astrologer and genuine human who has been of great help to people - myself included. She's hilarious, and a major force in
.
Crim probably doesn't need an introduction - she's got a presence on almost every server, and helps out as a witness. She's one of the driving forces behind one of, imho anyway, one of Steemit's most important discord communities: PAL (Peace, Abundance, Liberty). She hosts one of my favourite radio shows, Full Force Thursdays, and is also an immensely talented and driven creative in music and photography. She's always helpful, friendly, and honestly I don't know how she manages to keep track of everything she's keeping track of, but she's freaking awesome and deserves all your upvotes! Also, Canada, eh!! <3
I haven't gotten to interact with this lovely human as much as I would've liked to (yet), but aside from our similar political views she's been one of the driving forces in the LBGTQ communities here on Steemit, and I have a tremendous respect for her experience and drive to create safe spaces and advocate change in the real world. I applaud her efforts and love the discord server that she's created, even though I've been more of a lurker than an interactive member (for now....)
Shadows is the illustrious host of PYPT (Pimp Your Post Thursdays), which has become one of the most exciting interactive shows on Discord in a short amount of time. The show has gotten more and more epic with each passing week, and she even goes out of her way to edit down a replay of both shows as a curation effort. She's a fantastic and level-headed moderator, is incredibly helpful, and thanks to her I've met some really fantastic new people on both Discord and Steemit.
One more big thank you to all of these amazing community leaders - without you and all the hard work that you do Steemit would be a very different place, with a lot less passion and humanity.