Welcome to Episode 4 of The STEEM Engine Express podcast.
The STEEM Engine Express is a podcast produced by Ethan D. Smith that features short summaries of five posts recently shared in the Discord community, The STEEM Engine.
For more information about the group, visit the Steemit account @thesteemengine.
Listen to the podcast in one of the following ways:
► Listen on DSound
► Listen from source (IPFS)
► Download mp3 Version
Listen on YouTube:
Intro music is "Biking in the Park" by Lee Rosevere. Used under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Background track is "Crushin'" by Jason Shaw. Used under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License
Other audio clips obtained via the Internet Archive and also used under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License
Read more about the making of the intro HERE.
Today's featured posts:
- Meet Our Witnesses - @gtg (second round of interviews)
- Post Boosters That Guarantee Returns
- Shibaozhai Pagoda, Yangtze River - Zhongxian, China
- Creating My Steemit Cover Image Using GIMP2!
- 13 Animation - Setting aside the MAIN & SECONDARY Characters (A Slightly Technical Paper)
Full transcript:
We begin today with a look at an important part of the STEEM blockchain: witnesses. STEEM Engine passenger @jasonshick is currently in the middle of his "Meet Our Witnesses" series in which he interviews prominent STEEM witnesses. Witnesses are vital to Steemit because they host servers which produce the actual blocks of the STEEM blockchain, among other things, which enable all of our posting and voting, as well as you being able to visit my blog right now. Jason's most recent witness interview is with Steemit user @gtg, or Gandalf the Grey. Be sure to read his interview, where he outlines reasons why you should use one of your 30 witness votes to vote for him. Jason has done a great job with this series so far, so if you want to learn more about Steemit witnesses, head over to his blog today.
One of Steemit's gray areas involves paid upvote bots. A source of controversy across the platform since they began, these accounts offer high-value upvotes for a set price in STEEM or Steem-backed dollars. In his most recent blog, "Post Boosters That Guarantee Returns," passenger @eonwarped goes through the math of whether it is profitable to use a specific two of these paid services. If you've ever wondered whether these votes are worth it, try using @eonwarped's formulas on your own account, and decide for yourself.
In travel this week, user @coldsteem takes us on a delightful journey to Zhongxian, China, where we see beautiful pictures of the Shibaozhai Temple, which is located on the Yangtze River. ColdSteem recounts his journey through the site, as he and his wife encountered beautiful views, fascinating history, and many merchants, including one who played "Oh, Susanna" on an instrument he was selling. When reading this blog, you'll discover a plethora of new information, including that the entire temple was built without the use of nails. This blog may have you booking travel plans sooner than you think.
Want to make your Steemit profile page look more attractive? Passenger @Mental-extract knows just the trick. In his post, "Creating My Steemit Cover Image Using GIMP2," we take a look at how he constructed his Steemit header image using GIMP, an open-source image editing program. As an avid user of GIMP myself, I appreciate the look into creating a cover image, so I invite you to explore the features of GIMP if you have any future image editing to do. @Mental-extract makes the most of his Bitmoji images in his final cover image, so be sure to check it out, as it gives a great look at his personality.
Finally today, we take a look at one of the technical aspects of animation. In the 13th installment of his animation series, Steemit user @zord189 uses shots from the popular animated film, Despicable Me, to show how animators choose the actions and motions of secondary characters to reflect on the actions of the main characters and enhance the main story line. I've seen many animated films, but I can't say I've ever stopped to consider what's going through an animator's mind when choosing how the background characters behave. "Setting aside the MAIN & SECONDARY Characters" is a thought-provoking blog that every animation fan should be sure to add to their reading list.
The STEEM Engine Express features five of the best posts curated by the STEEM Engine each week across the Steemit platform. The Express is produced by Ethan D. Smith exclusively for The STEEM Engine initiative on Steemit.com
That's all for this week's episode! To read posts mentioned in today's Express or to listen to past episodes, visit steemit.com/@ethandsmith. I hope you'll catch the next Express!
► Listen on DSound
► Listen from source (IPFS)
WHOA! How humbling. Thank you very much for the feature @ethandsmith. I really appreciate how supportive y'all have been. This community just keeps surprising me! (Next time, warn me, I'll do a WAY better job, 😂) It's also cool that you chose that one, because I've been tossing around the idea of a contest... like a Bitmoji story board about themselves. However they wanted to do it. The app makes it super easy to save and use the images in different places. Idk, thoughts? Again,
THANK YOU!
It was my pleasure to include your article in this podcast! It's great to show other users what's possible with open source software, so I'm always on board for that.
As for bitmojis, perhaps I should start using mine more! They seem to fit in nicely here on Steemit. Perhaps you could consider doing a tutorial on how to get Bitmoji set up!
Again thank you, and that sounds like a great idea. Isn't the sign up limited to users of Snapchat or something like that? I can't remember if they let you set up your own account using an email address. They do seem to fit in will here given the personal level. We are all communicating via text for the most part, so a lot of inflection and implication is lost. The emotion and human visual helps people understand tone and such. Anyways, you are very welcome, I'll be seein' ya around Discord. Cheers!
Next post I'd really like to read on how you manage your time to create a podcast, read all the content in steem engine, leave authentic comments! That's a lot of work! But i'm pretty sure it's all very satisfying in the end :)
It can be difficult sometimes! I think the hardest part is combing through all of the fantastic content in the post promotion channel of @thesteemengine group. That's where I curate, and there are always so many fantastic articles to choose from. Once I've narrowed it down to five posts, writing up short summaries isn't too terribly difficult. Then I edit the images for the cover, updating the episode number, and I'm ready to record!
Recording is the most fun part. It usually only takes me a few takes to get everything right, and then I edit it into a pre-existing file that includes the intro and outro pieces. I would say recording the audio is one of the least involved steps.
Finally, I prepare the transcript and podcast description, make and upload the YouTube version of the podcast, and then submit the final version via DSound where it appears on the STEEM blockchain!
That's a small look into the process. It can take a couple of hours, but I work ahead most of the time, so it's not all in one sitting.
I really appreciate you stopping by to listen!
Wow! great stuff! Thanks for taking the time to type all that out! :) I guess to make a great post, a lot of effort needs to be put in!
Very Eye opening Thank you! :)
You're welcome! My process for the podcast is probably another blog in itself. I also blogged about how I made the intro a while back in case you're interested!
Thanks again for stopping by!
Thank you for the shoutout and feature. Really appreciate it.
You're very welcome. I enjoyed your post tremendously! In fact, I was watching an animated movie last night, and I was thinking about your post the whole time, observing the background characters. It's a really nice perspective to consider!
Hahah oh no!!! You should be enjoying the animation rather than all these things! Hahaha But, did u see what I was trying to explain in the movie u were watching?
If I'm being truthful, I hadn't seen the movie before, and I was very engaged in the story line, so I didn't pay much attention. I tried to, but I think it would be better to look for these things if I'm watching a movie for the second or third time. haha
Great show once again, man!
Thaty GIMP2 sounds really useful. Will check it out :)
Keep the great work!
Thanks so much!
GIMP is a great tool. I've been using it for such a long time. I did a post series about free software a while back, and GIMP was one of the programs I highlighted if you're interested.
I'm sure you could make use of it when making graphics for your podcast ventures!
Ah that's great.
I'll check out your post :)
Thanks!
First time listening to your podcast ! What a great way to interact with people especially for those who like to listen more than to read. Love it when u have the full transcript as well. Must have taken quite an effort and time, though i read on one of the comment, u said the recording part is the least effort.. i guess u are right. I think the hardest part is getting the script done.
Hey there @carmenraec! Thanks so much for stopping by to listen!
I'm glad you read through the comments and enjoyed my account of how I make the podcast. Honestly, the most tedious part isn't even writing the script, it's preparing the markdown code, uploading the YouTube video, and getting the links sorted out when I press publish!
It can be a challenging venture, for sure, but it's been rewarding to see the responses I've gotten!
I appreciate your comment. Thank you again for taking a listen.
Thanks for taking time to reply to. Ahh... i didnt thought about that. I am still learning on doing some good uploads on youtube, and i can imagine getting the links sorted takes time. For me, even uploading photo to another side and preparing the write-up with markdown code (now super simple) still takes quite some time for me. And yes indeed the stuff u are creating definitely getting some good responses. Thanks for sharing once again
First time listener. I like it! I actually didn't expect the video when I clicked on the post, but I think it's a fun idea. And you do a really good job. Followed to hear these more in the future.
Thanks so much for stopping in to listen! I've greatly enjoyed hosting these podcasts, and I plan to expand the concept in the future. I wanted to include multiple ways for people to listen, because DSound doesn't load well for everyone, hence the video format. Thank you for your kind words, and I appreciate you following me!
Thanks for the mention! I like listening to these podcasts. You ever consider doing a live curation?
You're very welcome! The closest thing I've done to a live curation is participate in @ShadowsPub's PYPT segment on Thursdays. I was thinking we might try to get up a live curation segment for @thesteemengine though. Perhaps I'll consider it moving forward! Thank you for the suggestion!
Oh bother. That's a great podcast! I like that you have a section with direct links to the featured posts. It helps easily click through them. And the summary is always helpful to know why each one was chosen! Keep on chugging along!
It has taken quite a while to get the formatting right. DSound is a great medium for sharing things, but markdown doesn't quite work correctly when entered into the description field when sharing a sound. So I'm having to type up two different descriptions. One for DSound, which I share first, then I come to Steemit and edit the post and paste in the other description. Changes you make on Steemit don't reflect back on DSound, but changes you make on DSound do propagate to Steemit.
I found that out the hard way.
Anyhow, I think I've made it work now so that the links can appear seamlessly in the transcript, so I'm glad it works out for you. This is probably way more than you thought you'd learn when you left the comment, but I just felt like sharing. haha
Thanks for stopping by! Sorry I didn't use any train language.
Bust my buffer. That is so crazy that it is such a pain to go in between the two. I listen on YouTube because for me it's the easiest for some reason. Or maybe it's because I'm used to that one the most. Anyway, they are great and I know people appreciate them! Look at your payouts soar!! :)
Great work buddy, thanks for the shoutout. I really like the idea of this audio series to compliment or written curation trail. Keep up the great work
Much appreciated! I've enjoyed featuring posts in audio format, because it's something different that I haven't seen many other people do. I'm glad I got to feature your witness post. I may start adding segments to my podcasts in the future, one of which would be to promote a different witness effort.
I hope you are able to get interviews with more witnesses! Thanks again for stopping by!
You've built a good foundation to start from, I'm sure adding a little more to it in the future will work well, let me know if there's anything I can do to help
Nicely done, I see a future in broadcasting for you. Nice voice inflection at the proper places. I could get use to listening to these so keep them coming.
I've always said that if my PhD work doesn't work out, I would love to go into broadcasting. I've always thought I'd enjoy doing play-by-play announcing for basketball or football, but perhaps there are other avenues I could explore. Thank you for your engagement and your kind words!
You're so nice for commenting on this post. For that, I gave you a vote!
Thanks for sharing... learn lot's of possibilities
I appreciate your comment, however, I am curious as to what possibilities you've learned from this post. Did you enjoy listening, or did you just read the transcript? Also, did you take the time to go visit any of these posts I've shared?
I checked out your blog, and it looks like it could use some work. You've been a member since September, but your reputation is still 25. I would advise making an introduction post to let the community know what your goals are for using Steemit.
I also give advice to all new Steemians I encounter, so I hope you'll be able to make use of these tips:
Familiarize yourself with the way the platform works by browsing the FAQs.
Check out the Steemit Etiquette Guide for tips on how to interact with others in the community and how to introduce yourself to everyone.
If you'd like some advice on how to make your posts great, take a look at this guide I posted about polishing your posts.
Finally, when it comes to commenting, check out this guide that will get you on the road to becoming a comment expert!
If you have any questions, I'd be happy to answer them.
Beautiful post thanks for sharing
You're welcome, however, I'd love to know what specifically you enjoyed about this post.
I took a look at your blog, and it looks like you still haven't quite grasped some of the main concepts of Steemit. I offer you these links, and I hope that you'll be able to use them to make the most of your time here on the platform:
Familiarize yourself with the way the platform works by browsing the FAQs.
Check out the Steemit Etiquette Guide for tips on how to interact with others in the community and how to introduce yourself to everyone.
If you'd like some advice on how to make your posts great, take a look at this guide I posted about polishing your posts.
Finally, when it comes to commenting, check out this guide that will get you on the road to becoming a comment expert!
Please let me know if you have any questions.
Interesting format. Great job.
Hey @coldsteem, I appreciate your kind words, however, in the future, I'd recommend that you add some more substance to your comments. I'd love to know what specifically you enjoyed about this podcast or the transcript, and if any of these posts stuck out to you.
There are some great examples in this post about commenting, so I hope you'll check them out.
I appreciated the anecdote you offered in response to my thrift store post. I would encourage you to offer up thoughtful comments and stories like that in your initial comment on a post! I really enjoyed reading about your experience, so I'm going to go respond to that comment now!
Thank you for taking the time to look at my post!
Sometimes I have more to say than others. I like the podcast format. Rather than just seeing the list of promoted posts, there is a bit of dialogue on each of the posts in this podcast format. I just wanted to tell you that you did a good job on it.
Great. I completely understand.
Part of what we aspire for in The STEEM Engine is to increase the quality of comments that our members leave on each other's posts. We can't always check behind everyone, but I know I appreciate knowing more about why you liked it, and our other members would, too in future comments.
I'm glad you like the podcast format. I've enjoyed it tremendously. Thank you for your kind words. I'm glad I got to include your post in this podcast. Admittedly, I did have to go find one of my Chinese friends to ask him how to pronounce the words in the title. haha I think it was worth it though. I'm looking forward to more travel blogs from you!
read your post, your text very pleased me.much useful information thank you to you large
I'm curious to know what your favorite part of the post was. Did you enjoy listening to the podcast or reading about the posts I shared? I would encourage you to visit the posts I highlighted, because they are all very interesting!
thank you now I will look just))
am new to steemit, so reshared this so I can read it .... thanks
Hi there @nattynamedropper. Thanks for stopping by this post. Also, I'm glad you let me know that you're new to the platform! I have some links that I think you'll find helpful!
I always give the same advice to all new Steemians I encounter:
Familiarize yourself with the way the platform works by browsing the FAQs.
Check out the Steemit Etiquette Guide for tips on how to interact with others in the community and how to introduce yourself to everyone.
If you'd like some advice on how to make your posts great, take a look at this guide I posted about polishing your posts.
Finally, when it comes to commenting, check out this guide that will get you on the road to becoming a comment expert!
If you have any questions, please let me know!
Looks amazing man your post very nice I like it
Thank you for sharing bro so please vote later 👏👍👆
What did you enjoy about the post? I very much enjoyed putting this together, so I'd love to hear your thoughts on what makes it amazing!
Please bro vote later
This is not the kind of response I was looking for. Nothing you've said so far has shown me that you actually listened to the podcast or read the transcript, so I feel no motivation to visit your blog or give you a vote.
I encourage you to re-evaluate how you comment on other members' posts in the future. Here's a great guide to what a good comment looks like. I hope you'll read it and use the information to enhance your presence on the platform!
Great express podcast. You do a fantastic job @ethandsmith!
I'm always curious to hear what you enjoyed specifically! If you have suggestions for future podcasts, don't hesitate to let me know. This is a work in progress, and I'm glad so many people have enjoyed it thus far!
It just flowed so well and naturally. You are a great speaker and at explaining each post that was mentioned. I will keep it more specific to know what is work and what to improve for future podcast episodes.
Thanks for the kind words. It's really been a lot of fun to put these together, so I'm glad you've enjoyed it. I'll keep an eye on your blog for future episodes. Perhaps one of your posts will land here soon!
Yea I sure hope so! :D
your awesome well done bro, i hope to check you podcast out more. be well brother
Thank you for the kind words! Episode 5 has just launched over on my blog, so you can check it out if you like. Thank you so much for your support. I appreciate your comment!
Alright will check it out thanks and your welcome..
Now I got it now. The steemtrain is where I promote the best of my works?
If you're referring to a specific channel in our Discord, we don't have a channel called steemtrain, but you are more than welcome to share your posts in our post promotion channel!
This podcast is an extra curation effort I do to bring more exposure to some great posts in our group. I exclusively curate posts from our post promotion channel in The STEEM Engine Discord, so as long as you're sharing your posts there, you have a chance of making it into this podcast!
Thanks @ethandsmith. That is the STEEM Engine Discord. I have been following your curating at it is impressive. Just a little confused at the car names. Post promotion is "baggage"?
Yes! The baggage car channel is the post promotion channel. We got a bit carried away with the train theme. haha
I'll have to tune in next time! I am sorry I missed it!
Hey @deadgrlsuppastar! You actually didn't miss anything. This isn't a live program, it's just a podcast that I share here on my blog! You are just in time.
In fact, Episode 5 has just been posted, so feel free to check it out!
Awesome!
Congratulations! This post has been chosen as one of the daily Whistle Stops for The STEEM Engine!
You can see your post's place along the track here: The Daily Whistle Stops, Issue #`22 (1/20/18)
The STEEM Engine is an initiative dedicated to promoting meaningful engagement across Steemit. Find out more about us and join us today!
Absolutely refreshing to find your channel! I really enjoyed the content especially being a noob here and still finding my way around. I have some catching up to do... Thank you.
it is a very nice pic and very exprync
There isn't one damn picture, I suggest you quit spamming and learn what this steemit community is about. You have been here since Oct. 2017, there is no excuse for your behavior.
Interesting postings and certainly many who like.
Hopefully the next post is more interesting and useful.
Take a hike spammer, you wouldn't know interesting and useful if it slapped you in the face, which isn't a bad idea. But since I can't literally slap you , I got a flag for you, stick it where the sun don't shine.