Stay in the know
We have BOT updates, new channels, role updates and an important new SafeLink post.
React!
This week we have introduced a basic reaction system to our POST POOL channels so that it is easier to see how users are interacting with the posts. The reactions feature unlocks for you when you progress to the Guppy rank. If you are a Tetra and you want to use reactions in #post-spot, you can send us a direct message and we will give you permission (any misuse will result in a channel mute, further abuse resulting in a de-rank to Shrimp).
We have BOT’s set up so that the instructions for the reactions pop up at certain time intervals:
There is no rule to say that you have to use the reactions, it is totally up to you. Just remember that it’s easier for us to see how involved you are by scanning through the channels and seeing your reactions pop up.
SafeLink
We have introduced a safe way to share our community with everyone, and if you haven't seen it already, make sure you head over to this post for further information.
This is an effort to try and detach ourselves from the phishing drama that has swept the Steemit platform. We are concerned for everyone's safety on the system and we hope that by using this SafeLink to direct people to the community, we can disassociate ourselves from anyone trying to use the BuddyUP name for ill-good.
Our SafeLink is a post that has the definite Discord link stated on it. This post is to be used whenever we leave a comment for somebody directing them to the BuddyUP community. By using this post, we remove the external symbol from our comments and disassociate ourselves from anyone trying to use our BuddyUP name as an attempt to phish details or spread malicious intent.
Here is an example of how we leave comments for people who have popped up in our servers #post-spot channel:
showing how it's done on her first day of the server1UP?
A couple of weeks ago I had told you all about 1UP and how we are going to be incorporating the system into BuddyUP. This is so we can have another way to reward each other with a focus on all the community being a part of it. Well, the good news is that we are going ahead with this and I’ve been in talks with 
The bad news is that it might not be for a few months because we have different things to figure out and organize; plus the 1UP team also have their own project to focus on and prioritize. They need some time to achieve that so in the meantime we will focus on getting our trail account set up and ready to rock and roll as soon as the system is in place.
I am very excited about this getting implemented in the future and I believe it’s going to be a brilliant way to reward everyone further for their efforts within the community. I look forward to getting this 1UP ball rolling.
Further information about the 1UP system can be found in the posts below:
Weekly Art Contest
This was meant to start on Sunday (oops…)! We already have the logo contest running right now and I feel like our efforts will be better spent promoting that and then bringing over any participants to the weekly contest if they want to get involved.
The weekly contest is going to feature a different fish role every week and we will be asking you to come up with some artwork for whatever fish is chosen. The artwork will be used in our community posts and the artists will receive credit and a link to their blog everytime we use their image.
This is to help bring more artists into our community and to give them the chance to get their work seen by anybody checking out the BuddyUP posts.
Mormyrids?
If you’ve been on the server for the past month you might of realized that we have a new role sitting there. There hasn't been anything written about it in #start-swimming so there has been no real purpose given to the role yet. This role is the Mormyrid and it was initially created as the helper role. They manage the #fish-out-of-water help channel and they answer any questions brought up by newcomers.
I found that this role was pretty vague and certain help can be dished out by any member of the community. You don’t need to have a specific role for that and because of this, I wanted to give Mormyrids more purpose and a better reason to show up to the BuddyUP server.
Our Mormyrids are going to focus on connecting with the inactive/new users on the server. We aren’t naive to the fact that people have a handful (some people have two hands worth!) of Discord servers. It’s hard to stay involved with them all and when you first join BuddyUP, if you aren’t excited to get involved straight away, it can be a little bit overwhelming; especially for newer users.
To try and connect with the users and get them off to a good start, the Mormyrids will be reaching out and making sure they are getting an encouraging start. We want to give everyone the benefit of the doubt and get them involved with us. We learn more when we get a mixed input from everyone!
Post pool feedback
The introduction of this channel is very exciting. We currently use #post-link as a similar approach to The STEEM Engine's baggage-car-post-promotion channel; where we upvote, comment, and leave a discord message on people's content in the channel before we can post. There is also #post-drop where we leave detailed feedback for the person before us and then drop our post into the mix for some advice ourselves.
These are both great self-promotion channels that we enjoy using because they help us improve our writing and allow us express why we like certain posts created by others.
& 
At the weekend, we introduced Post Pool Feedback. This is a voice/text channel where we can have 1on1 (or group) real-time feedback about the posts that have been dropped into the POST POOL channels. This gives people the chance to edit and improve their writing with the assistance of someone else on the other side of the microphone.
We currently have 4 Curie curators in our server and I think that this channel is going to be a hotspot for these guys. In the future, we will be creating a post that will give you a rough idea of what guidelines the curators follow, so that you can aim for the high-quality benchmark they are looking for.
More?
The fun just doesn’t stop over here at BuddyUP and we are always trying to evolve ourselves (and the server) so that you can all benefit from it. There is a learning curve to get over when you join Steemit and it’s not any different when you first join our BuddyUP server. There is one thing I can guarantee though, if you ever need to ask a question about the community or if you aren’t sure what you are meant to do, I will be there to help. You can message me in Discord and we can figure out what is up.
This is a marathon, not a sprint and we are all in this together. Let’s learn and transform ourselves into fantastic human-beings that support and encourage all of those around us. That’s what life is really about, isn’t it?
, thank you for reading.