Presenting .. ecoTrain
You may have noticed the ecoTrain popping up in your feeds, especially if you are following me as I post the ecoTrain highlights posts each week, the question of the week and other ecoTrain activities. I am the Driver of the train, and we are a group of around 17 people. Just like in a real train, we also have a conductor, and passengers. We also have VIPs and even VVIPs! Before I get into explaining what those roles are and mean, I would like to share with you what the ecoTriain is all about and why I am doing this.
I discovered Steemit in June 2017 (2 short but very long months ago!) through watching one of Jerry Banfield's YouTube videos. I was new to cyptocurrencies and was learning the ropes of trading and investing and listening to lots of YouTubers give their perspectives. I would often watch Jerry's videos. His passion and openness always struck me. When I jumped onto Steemit I didn't really know or understand what it was about. It is one of those things that you just have to experience to understand. You can't explain Steemit in words, because it is about so many things, and many of them very personal. I discovered VERY quickly that there was an amazing community here. REALLY good people and and good mix up too. Sure we had some mainstreemy type people like 
Before I knew it i was hooked! My morning walks in the forest were preoccupied with Steemit thoughts and what I would post about, and I began to enjoy and become a part of something much bigger, and part of the great changes that are so needed and now happening in the world. Once I had realised the real meaning and potential of Cyprocurrencies ... to give the world back to US, the people .. I was telling everyone about it!
The idea of the ecoTrain birthed quite quickly. Within a few weeks I could see the strengths and weaknesses of Steemit, and I felt that we, the users, had to learn and figure out ways to make it work! It was clear to me that whatever we did had to be totally synergistic. We needed to support ourselves, as well as others.. and very importantly everything we did should support Steemit and the spirit of the ecosystem. I put everything that I understood about how Steemit works, and how to be successful together into one idea called ecoTrain. The full name of it is ecoTrain Seva, The word SEVA is a sanscript word that means:
"Selfless service or Seva in Sanskrit (Punjabi: ਸੇਵਾ) is a service which is performed without any expectation of result or award for performing it. Such services can be performed to benefit other human beings or society."
I wanted to highlight the idea of working without any expectation of reward since it's easy to forget when were getting upvotes and money from Steemit, that we are here primarily to give service to the world and the people. What rewards we get are just a bonus! We may make money, but that is not the main goal!
The ecoTrain are a small and supportive community. One of the best things about the ecoTrain train is that we are really engaged with each other. We are all genuinely interested and engaged with each others posts. Therefore, we always have a backbone of support and interest in what we post and are never left feeling 'left out in the cold'. This is much more the case for new authors who are writing great posts, but not being noticed.
ecoTrain Driver
As the driver I do many things. I do whatever is needed to keep the train going, keep the content varied and very interesting, and look after the passengers and VIPs. I have some help from our Conductor to keep an eye on things and give help where needed. We support our passengers and let them get on with writing! We don't want you being stuck trying to figure everything out. We let our VIP's know about things like timing with upvoting, so they can get their curation rewards for supporting our passengers with their time and Upvotes. I help with technical stuff, like monitoring their Steem Power in case they are upvoting too much. We basically are there for each other and I do my best to hold a great and safe space for everyone! I'll happily make you a nice banner header for your account and send it to you, so you don't have to learn how to use Photoshop. Being Driver is quite a job, and so far I've been really enjoying it. I'm always motivated by encouragement, and we've had a lot of it!
Passenger
A passenger is someone who is primarily a writer or creator of great new content. Passengers are the engine and heart of the train and offer us their wisdom, insight, and varied ideas around many topics. A passenger is asked to tag their posts 'ecotrain' as one main category tags, so we can find all our posts easily. We also ask for an ecoTrain logo image and link to our weekly highlights post in their posts. This gives everyone a chance to be notices and get a bit more engagement. We ask a maximum of 5 posts a week tagged 'ecotrain'. If a passenger wants to write more than that, they can choose the one they want to feature on the ecoTrain and tag them. By doing this we limit the total number of posts to a number that our entire train produces, so that we can all really read and engage with them. Passengers do not need to have any Steem Power or investments.
VIP
Our VIP's are people who have bought into Steem Power or already have Steem Power and may or may not also write. Most of our VIP's read and comment and upvote and resteem, and sometimes write. It is their Steem Power that helps to give our passengers a better chance of reaching out, and becoming more visible on Steemit. As we grow and get more Steem Power Delegation and VIP's we can have more effect and really help push some of the better writers to where they deserve to be. We are not only highlighting good authors, but also good causes and topics that are generally good things for people to know about.
Conductor
Our conductor helps to manage the train along with the driver. The conductor is a gentle guiding hand to see things are running smoothly and there is a happy and productive Steem Train moving along! The conductor may post but is generally supporting, upvoting etc and checking on the passengers are doing ok etc.
VVIP
We are hoping to have our first V.VIP very soon! A V.VIP is someone who has delegated more than around 5,000 Steem Power or is committing at least some of their time to looking at the ecoTrain posts and upvoting the ones they like the most. The more Steem Power a VVIP has, the more effect they can have on the ecoTrain. We have removed the challenge of finding good new content by creating it ourselves, and we leave it to you to just sit back and enjoy the read! We know how hard it can be to find great new original content, so we have made it easy for you!
Community
Much of our chatting is done online in a private Slack group. It is there that we co-ordinate things, and offer our help and advice and general chat too. Slack is a big part of the community feeling. There aren't too many people on the ecoTrain so its not too busy and we all get to know each other pretty well that way.
In order to expand the ecoTrain concept I would add more trains rather than have one huge train. These trains can interact and support each other, but the core community of each train would remain small. I think a maximum of around 15-20 people is about right for one train. As more trains come we choose new drivers and even eventually can have a train station and a new role of Station Master. The ecoTrain SEVA can help to support and move new trains on their way.
The ecoTrain is about many things, and the word eco needs explaining. The ecoTrain motto and our definition of eco is:
Things that help to make the world a better place".
That can mean many things, and so the ecoTrain are interested in anything on that theme. Therefore we have a great diversity of posts from our 14 passengers. We cover things like Spirituality, ecoBuilding, Healthy Vegan Eating & Recipes, cosmic knowledge, philosophy, psychology, esoteric writing, story writing, and more! If you would like to see some posts from the ecoTrain you can check our weekly highlights links below. There are quite a few Great read in each post! This highlights post is another way that I try to bring more support and engagement for our passengers.
CLICK HERE TO VIEW OUR HIGHLIGHTS FROM LAST WEEK
CLICK HERE TO VIEW OUR HIGHLIGHTS FROM 2 WEEKS AGO
I hope this helps to give you a better sense of who we are and what we are about. If you have been searching for great posts to read then we hope you will continue to check in with us and read our weekly highlights! To make it even easier and so you don't miss them in a busy feed you can click here to subscribe to email notifications when we post our next highlights post.
CLICK HERE TO
SUBSCRIBE TO EMAIL NOTIFICATIONS
WHEN WE POST OUR HIGHLIGHTS
If you would like to be a part of ecoTrain as a
passsenger or VIP please email me on
steemit.eco.train@gmail.com
DO YOU DIG IT?
We would be honored if you support us
with some Delegated Steem Power.
Help us make Steemit Shine!
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Just copy the code below and paste it into any word editor.
Change YOUR-USERNAME to your username (no @ sign) and then
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