In Curie chat, the curators have a term for having a terrible time finding posts to submit. Desert. We are wandering in a desert, looking for an oasis of a Excellent post to save us.
I know, I know. Everyone out there is posting incredibly worthy stuff, and if we would just find it, we'd have such an easy time curating!
But the truth is, most of the posts in the new feed (where I dwell) are not exceptional. Most of them aren't even all that good. You can spend 6 solid hours looking through every new post that gets submitted and not have one post worthy of a submission.
Most of the time, what we are looking at looks more like this...
I decided to put my hard earned art skills to the test today and do a little piece for you guys to enjoy! Check out the proof of work process photos below!
I call this piece, "Man Walking Home". It is an image of myself, after a long day at work, headed into my house for some piece and quiet.
So here are my tools. I used college ruled paper in a 7"x10" spiral notebook, a mechanical pencil, and black ink pen.
I started with the first line. This was really the hardest element of the piece. Figuring out exactly where on the page to make the initial line, and how long to make it, would dictate the eventual size of my character. So it was of the utmost importance to get this line done correctly.
Here you can see the image coming together. I'm sorry, I was too lazy to edit the photo in this shot to make him standing upright. But you can see the oblong head, obviously facing toward the right (or down as this picture depicts...)
It's time to give my figure a face. Adding some detail so that it is easy to tell which way the man is walking. Here I also define the hair line, and give him a little smile.
Let's add the surroundings. Of course my man can't be walking to a house that isn't there. so pencilled in the house, and the front door he would be entering.
Time for some pen work and inking everything. The details really start to emerge as the pen adds so much to the paper.
In the end, I decided the piece needed something on the left to balance. I broke the rules and didn't pencil in the tree, just going straight to ink. But I feel like it came out okay.
What do you think?! I know it is a little rough since I haven't drawn anything in awhile. But rusty art skills come back right?
I'm going to be auctioning off this piece, and will send it out to the highest bidder at no additional charge, anywhere in the world! Happy Bidding!
Oh! And don't forget to upvote, tell your friends to upvote, and then resteem, and follow me for more great art!
Okay, I'm through with that. Whew. That was hard work!
There are some amazing artists on the platform, and I am not trying to say anything negative about the artistic community, I just wanted to find something illustrative of my point that I could do a post about. And have a little fun.
I also thought I would take an opportunity to give a little visibility to #steembay, which is a pretty cool new feature for everyone to check out. I'm going to start an auction here in this thread, and if anyone really feels inclined to try out the system on a totally inexpensive test basis, I'll gladly send stickman to you. hahaha
I hope you enjoyed a little parody to lighten your evening!
the thing is, the cryptoblock is so ornery that when you ask anyone to show proof of work so you can turn in a decent curie post, or make any comment about a lack of documentation or quality of work, peeps get so ape shit. some go so far as to point to a piece of my poetry as proof that i dont put out what they feel is quality work (ignoring how long i might have spent writing, or every long ass post ive made), and act like they are being oppressed by my opinion.
how do i prove that i sit at my desk close to 12 hours a day curating, reading, awarding? taking selfies every hour to post would be boring. truth is with a little extra work artists can provide proof of process/work. but then we have no idea how long any artist or writer actually spends doing the work unless they volunteer the information.
for instance i know for painting, there's usually a down time while you watch paint dry. there's time to prep, mix colors, clean up, and add to that the job of posting on top of that. for writing, it's editing 1001 times until it's perfect. for photography, driving out to the shoot, waiting for the light, editing, uploading.
then there's the risk of odd duck that comes along and says your work isnt worth the money you have earned, so you get flagged.
the problem is sometimes while the work is good, the post is not, and people just don't understand this aspect of it. documenting a good post takes time - writing in html or markdown, formatting, finding the right photos, resize them, note the sources, creating to headers and banners and logos that make it stand out, etc
and then factor in the cost. time away from kids, work, chores. if you live in a less developed country, cost of internet and electric versus the return you get on the investment? people are losing money. we won't even mention trying to write in a language that isn't your native tongue.
what i am saying is that maybe we are expecting a bit too much when we curate. we are rewarding people that have the time and resources to create some amazing post, while ignoring the people who simply can't compete. end result? the people who can't compete drop out of steemit for lack of incentive.
i'm not offering any solutions here. just saying, maybe we need to look at curating a bit differently.
You are, of course, correct in that the proof of work aspect is very difficult to work with. There are some of the guidelines in Curie that I would change if I was in charge, but I am not, so I have to do the best I can with the tools I am given.
Poetry is a tough one. I am sure you have spent way longer on your poems than I ever have on a short story. So why did my stories get curated while your poems didn't? Does length of a written piece equate to proof of effort? No, but again, that's where we are.
Hopefully the platform will work itself into a place where more open opportunities exist for curation. Where we can consider posts by people with a reputation 55-60 (because that is where a ton of great content lives that I can't touch).
Curie may or may not be the group that expands those horizons to open things up. It is where, to this point, I felt I could make the biggest impact on Steemians due to the large upvote value, so that is where I applied. If a better organization comes along with more open parameters and as much weight behind the vote as curie has, then I will be happy to go and work for them.
And maybe communities will help with curation as well. Who knows. The future is impossible to predict!
I totally understand that poetry is a lost and underappreciated art form, so people hating on it doesnt phase me. I even disagree with a majority of the "poets" out there who insist that poetry must rhyme and be in a standardized form. I can usually tell from use of a specific word or lack of precision and clarity in writing how long someone has spent on poetry, because I have spent years working on my own. And while it might be less time spent than on a short story, what confuses me is why my poetry earns more than a huge article that took me 12 hours to write. The payout then has less to do with the evidence or proof of work, and more to do with how much people see worth in the work.
my idea of curating is showing the people who are less talented, who have less access to tech and education, that their work has value. what i also try to do is educate as i go along. drop an article about html, sources, whatever. if someone does not understand the difference between copy/paste and plagiarism, i tell them. this is one thing i think that the community is failing to do; helping the people who are coming here with english as a second language and trying to post. there are some truly sincere people who just dont understand what curie requires. and I don't see any long articles (hint hint) defining what "proof of work" entails, examples of how to cite correctly, links to html.
actually i have meant to do that for a long time.... hmmm.
I call this the huck finn measurement of good poetry :-)
Hi Mike! I actually enjoyed your post a lot! I'm working on my first tutorial, which I will post soon here on Steemit, and I'm very curious if Steemit will like it. As a newbie I guess I have to learn more about how to post successful content here :) And patience will help too I guess! :)
Thanks for the kind words shiny! I've enjoyed your posts so far. You have real talent with a pencil. Please don't take my post as any sort of knock on what you are doing, you are doing great!
Content is only half the battle. Your content can be the best in the world, but if no one is seeing it, it won't get the votes. Keep doing what you are doing, get out of your own blog and go out and engage with people in their posts. That will help bring them to your blog to see what you have going on.
Best of luck to you! Looking forward to seeing what you have in store.
Thank you Mike! You are very supportive and inspiring. I will definitely do as you suggest! I am looking forward to more of your posts, I had a really good laugh! :) Cheers :)
Tutorials are nice when properly formatted and pleasing to the eye
I'll do my best! :)
I know your pain! Curating can be tough- but especially when curie has such strict rules for who they can curate!
it is tough certainly, But it is also what I signed up for.
I guess for every person who thinks how easy it is, they should open up the new tab and scroll, and scroll, and scroll, and see what they come up with. Once people actually LIVE the experience, maybe they will feel our pain a bit better. haha
Thank you that was good for a laugh. That post is actually much better than most that I've seen for curation. My wife and I see so many awful posts. The write-ups are easy, just finding a decent post becomes the challenge. @ironshield
Yeah, it is a big time challenge. I am not sure if you are better or worse off being with Buildawhale since you have a specific set of posts you are considering versus the wide open new post feed. But you are also limited by what has been submitted for a vote.
I really like the BaW initiative, finally even had one of my posts submitted for the digest last week. I don't BaW all of my posts, so I guess that's a part of why it has taken so long to get into the digest, but it was a really nice feeling!
Maybe I should submit this post for BaW and see what happens. hahaha
Considering the quality of posts, this would rank quite high. There are actual original photos. It tells a STORY. It's making a point. All good qualities. @ironshield
Haha, that whole process with the stick man made me laugh. I have heard from a few curators I know, someone else that does curie as well that it is quite difficult. It is so wonderful that you do do what you do to help curate but I have to admit it certainly is a tough job. Thanks for making me laugh and I do hope it gets easier at one point.
Glad you got a good laugh out of it.
The fact is, it really is an interesting thing to do. There is so much out there that you see, that you would never encounter in your daily steem life if you weren't curating. The problem is, half the brilliant posts out there are plagiarized, and the other half are reposts from a person's blog from 6 months ago that also are not submittable.
Curie adds an extra layer with the scoring system, where you can gain or lose submission privileges depending on how well you did the previous week.
It's a job for sure. haha
Proof of whatever can be done in many ways. @papa-pepper, for example, always signs his posts with a photo showing himself involved somehow. I always sign with my portrait. My latest post, seen here, uses what I feel may be unique proof. The photographs ___must___be mine. Who in their right mind -- I know, I have no cause to claim to be in my right mind, but please humour me -- who in their right mind would steal such crappy photos.
Trust me, I'm a doctor.
I guess the real auctions have #steembay as the only tag, so mine didn't start because I suck at tags. LOL
:p
you only have to use it as first tag...
(will be needed later for communities AND a sorting system)
gotcha. thanks for sharing! I'll know better for next time. Good thing no one would pay for this stick drawing anyway. hahaha
Hahahahahaha... awesome post @mikepm74. Had a good laugh. Thanks
Haha... I like your stick-man :-)
And, yes... I spent 1 hour in the "New" section trying to find a nice post... but not that easy :-(
I bid 0.01SBD for your artwork, haha
Thanks for ending my OCD Desert ;)
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Oh dear god, yes. Go for it. have a blast. LMAO
If it gives other curators a laugh, then it was well worth the hours of effort in drawing up my stick man. ;-)
O thank GOD! you helped me make the deadline today by 10 minutes.
Not that this isn't an awesome post, but it's much appreciated lol :D. I really wish steemit had a sticky function somehow so I could pin this post for others to see. Great howto / parody.
Wow, great post!
Could you explain a little more about the mechanical and creative processes that get you from the second image of the work in process to the third? It goes from a simple circle to a fully detailed and life-like face! I feel like if I knew a little bit more about what went on there that I could perhaps stand upon the shoulders of a giant like yourself and improve my own meager skills. I know I can't hope to imitate this, but just trying it, it gives me hope and a purpose like I've never known.
Thanks, again!
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