For the past few weeks I have procrastinated creating a post that tackles on what this communal account considers quality. Too broad. Too subjective. It seems like the word triggers an allergic reaction or comes off as elitism. Is it really that bad to have a specific preference for supporting content creators that put more than the average effort in their blogs?
One quick look at a post and an average person could get the gist that they are viewing something someone labored over. I mean, if you post under the tag of food photography, I’d expect someone to show some consideration to the quality of the image, angle, lighting, focus, and etc. Instead, we have food pics taken with quick snap shot, add filter, then a short caption. Do these people actually expect that level of effort would pass for quality?
The quality of a post isn’t only limited to the tangible aspect. Good use of the language and grammar isn’t the only thing in the equation that makes something beautiful. You have to consider the objectives of the post, it’s backstory, the performance of the author that goes under appreciated. Authors that consistently make effort on their posts even if they are only receiving cents worth of pay out have my big respect. These people persist and continue to do what they are passionate about.
Meanwhile, we got shitload of shitposters hoping for a post and pray someone will upvote. I don’t see how it makes sense to resort to spam but resorting to it makes cents. Did you just read that? I said something funny and most of you probably missed the funny until I pointed it out.
Quality posts are realistically easy to spot but the problem is having a shortage of them.
An important observation I had with steemit so far is how realistic and predictable the human psyche is online. You’d think that the blockchain can mask who they are by being anonymous or being online can help them hide flaws. People are greedy, envious, and generally unresponsive unless it directly benefits them. How else could one explain the level of voting apathy people have on the platform even if their voting power is given to them freely and it could be used to tip someone without any real expense on their side.
There’s more merit to upvote the self compared to others [this is how the current system works]. Success in the platform is largely dependent on how you engage with the right people that can fill your wallet with SBD or steem. That’s a reality. There’s no need to make effort when you got a whale upvoting your posts. Whatever shit you make you earn and you definitely want to earn more. [Greed]
Other people are making more money and that’s not what you want unless you got a piece of the pie. [Envy]. It’s demotivating how rampart the SP abuse is on the platform especially from the people that can make a lot of great changes for the better in the platform. But what can we do when it’s a reality that altruism is not a financially feasible and practical thing to observe in crypto?
For people that sunk so low enough not to bother putting more effort on their post because of this reality, that sucks. But for people that persists on creating meaningful content regardless of how much cents they earn, you da real mvp. Because it’s people that make a lot of effort refining their posts that add value to the platform and this value raises the platform’s crypto value.
I have been babbling nonsense for cents up to this point. So let’s just take on what quality means for BOPH. Quality posts reflect content created from an author’s resources used right. What? It just means you made the best content possible with whatever you have at your disposal at the time.
Skill
Naturally, if you were not yet proficient at editing videos or photos, your output would not be near the level of a professional digital artist. However, authors that consistently improve on their chosen craft would have noticeable progression of quality in their posts. From stick figure drawings to semi-3D outputs, you get what I’m saying?
I don’t care if you are not a pro and produced a stick figure drawing. If that drawing tells a unique story beyond the average post, it’s quality made. If a 6 year old were to create a stick figure drawing and made a post describing their day using silly comics or detailing their process for drawing those stick figures, that’s quality for me. Why? The author used skill appropriate for their level and exerted more from what is expected of them. 6 year old children don’t usually do that. That is a hypothetical example of course.
Circumstances Prior to Creation
Usually, people hardly ever consider what goes on beyond the post. A photographer can take several hours trying to find the right focus, timing, and lighting for that perfect shot and the audience will just see the output and not much of the story behind. If one was able to describe some unique circumstances about their post creation, then that’s a plus point. It’s an intangible factor that raises a post’s value.
Basic Format
It’s an eye sore to read an entire post made completely from a wall of text. A few basic coding when creating a blog post would go a long long way. I’m actually contradicting this suggestion since I’m not not even putting effort on formatting this post in terms of spacing, alignment, and tiny details to enhance the visual appeal. But who cares really? I highly doubt readers would even reach this far.
Basic grammar
There’s no need for extravagant words if one isn’t adept at the chosen language. Knowing the basic grammar is the only thing you need to reach a wider audience that being extravagant on terms you don’t know.
Value
Topics that trend have high value because they exhibit something the masses could relate during a specific period. Artists answer to the need of entertainment brought by art. But not all artists have a generic audience. There are several forms of art and countless audience possible for each form. Anime posts will be popular than sports post if more anime fans are present on the platform. Get what I mean? If your post provides entertainment for your target niche then it has more value than a generic posts from bloggers that have random content going on.
So why is it really difficult to understand that most people aren’t fitting this account’s curation standards? It’s not that difficult to fulfill those standards since we have already upvoted several authors before.
Bonus Rant: Posts I usually ignore.
Long ass thank you footers that rival the post’s real content.
Seriously.
PS. Best of PH is on Hiatus with it's curation works. This account has too low SP to even matter. Whatever this post earns will comeback to the delegators. I, 