A conversation between @mrprofessor and I on Discord is the reason for this post.
Source: Michael Gaida/ Pixabay
We both are cyclists and want to find all the other cyclists on Steemit and build a healthy cycling community out here, who help and support each other. That is easier said than done though. We can use tags like #cycling #cycling4steemit #mtb etc. to try picking them out of the woodwork.
There are a couple of challenges that I forsee in doing that:
There is no standardised tag. Members use a variety of tags and therefore difficult to find 'em all.
You either use a bot to do the hard work, else manually you spend a lot of time.
So instead of searching for the critters in the dark, we do the opposite. We attract the moths towards the light. And there is one thing which gets peoples attention. Money or steem in this part of the virtual world. Where there is an opportunity to earn steem/ sbd, there will be people interested. And to do that, we need to hold a competition/ challenge etc.
That cycling challenge is what will get people together.
Hadn't this been done before!
Yes.
@Holm and @thankyoubicycle have attempted doing this before. The former is on a cycle trip across the globe. The latter has grown silent over the last couple of months.
Therein lies another challenge:
An individual cannot a community make! We need a small team of regular Steem cyclists who are willing to give a bit of time and energy to help this grow.
If one person is unavailable for any reason others are there to pick up the slack. So the wheels (the both of them!) roll as smoothly as that of your bike.
We need cyclists who can pitch in with their various skills off the bike as well. Be it writing, technical knowledge of bikes, technical knowledge of Steem, steem power and well you get the drift... You are smart, you ride a bike!
We can have weekly challenges like:
- The maximum distance ridden in a week (strava will be the monitor)
- Weekly climbing challenge
- Best photo clicked with your bike
- etc.
This is just a rough initial list, we can think up a storm when required!
I am tagging all the cyclists on my followers list. I sincerely apologise in advance if you feel that you are being spammed. This tag isn't in the hope of an upvote, but a discussion on promoting cycling out here. Your comment will be valued more than any upvote. Thanks!
Before I start the tagging spree I must first thank @robmolecule, he is currently the only person I have seen who is actively promoting cycling posts of members out here.
@glennolua @ultrabiker @piotr42 @alexbeyman @browery @captaincanary @annabanananz @danielveazey @erikaflynn @jasui @jctdesign @dejan.vuckovic @marc02mpg @miniinthecity @mollyparti @nofatnowhip @insaddle @numbnut68 @sina-adventure @sjsbikes @stortebeker @vesytz @bezean @japalekhin @jeremiahsvaren @nosb @PregoRoll @riverdance @wilkostrongly
If you find this interesting, please tag any cyclist friend of yours in the comments. Thanks :)
Great initiative!
Add me to the group @santigs
Great to meet another cyclist. Cheers :)
Oh! I love this idea!! I'm down!
Cheers :)
Excelent idea! I think you forget or didn't seen @gural0000 challange #bike100kkm, here is link to starting post and summary from seventh week currently he is doing 2 weeks bike trip from Szczecin to Kalisz along polish west border from Szczecin to Kalisz.
And I see that you misspelt one guy @jasiu.
Thanks @browery :)
Yes, hadn't seen it. Thanks for pointing it out and the spelling error :)
Are you on Discord? We can continue the discussion there
yes I am on Discord? Is there any cycling group? my Discord tag #7476, please send my invitation to discord group. TIA
Sounds great. I am interested in helping with the effort...and I just resteemed to help spread the word.
That is awesome. So you have a Discord account? If not, please make one, will be easier to start off the initial discussion there. Thanks :)
Yes, I am jctdesign#0073 on Discord. I just sent you a friend request. Hopefully we can get a good group together there.
Definitely interested! In the matter of fact this idea has been going around in my head for a while now :) Would you guys be available on discord for a group conversation any time soon ? :)
Ha. Great minds think alike :p
Yes we have been having the discussion up until now on Steemit Travellers Discord channel for cycling. We could either continue with that or make a cycling specific one, depends on what the majority of interested people decide
Hey @twowheeledmonkey Sounds great. Count me in.
Gaz
Awesome Gaz!
Yes please, count me in!
add @aktivsoul as well
Thanks for tagging more people :)
I love this idea! I can put time toward this. I have a discord account, so I could try to chat sometime. I've never really used before though.
I was counting on you :D
Yup, we are currently discussing it on Discord. On the Steemit Travellers channel for cycling. You can join in there!
Did I miss the discord invitation in your post? :-)
Yup, because it's there in the comments :D Added later!
Rob! There are some amazing ideas going on that I'd like to share with you, if you find a little time hop on Discord - Steemit Travellers.
How do I find you on there? Is there a link to a server I'm supposed to use? I'm sorry but I don't understand how Discord works.
No worries, you can click on the banner, it'll direct you to the Steemit Travellers.
There you'll be able to talk on the Welcom channel, then I'll give you access
OK. I think I'm in there. I really am not a fan of chatrooms. It says I can't post in general. Which room am I supposed to go to?
We can use #cycling for chatting, or in private if you don't feel like using the server. Let me go there to explain some ideas.
I completely see your point. I think we face a lot of challenges when it comes to steemit and communities. While cycling4steemit and others is a great start, it's still so far away from what I wish it to be. I will soon start to have a bit more time on my hands to brainstorm some ideas to what can help us. But it's not ideas we need, it's people(including myself) to take action.
Right now it's about uniting the community and sadly steemit don't have the tools for that just yet, although they are working on it. But do we wish to wait around for so long? Of course we can look outside of steemit and begin to use other means of uniting us abit more such as discord.
In the end its about creating a place that is attractive to go. Both as you suggests through challenges etc. :) I love to see you have stated to take some action yourself!
Cheers man!
Thanks man :) It is a joint effort. There are people who are interested in helping. Trying to make something work out
This is awesome!!! Add me to the madness if you wouldn't mind, tyvm!
Great to meet another cyclist here. Will keep you posted.
Im in! And my friend #juzzsara will be down too!
Cheers. Will keep you posted.
Yeah @twowheeledmonkey, you know I'm in! I can have one milion ideas and I'm here to help.
What I find more difficult is a curation project for cycling - Since my favourite one @travelfeed is travel related we do need one for us all.
As for now we have a room for cycling inside the Steemit Travelers channel, which I think is very cool.
Yes sir. Could you please invite people to that particular Discord channel? All those who have shown interest in this. Is it possible to share a link to the channel? Asking you to do this since i am new to Discord myself
Trying, trying!!! This week I'm running like a scared cockroach, an insane amount of work to do both online and offline.
Hahaha. I have already shared the Discord link. One thing you can strike off your list :D
Uff thanks a bunch man, I'm totally quitting my job soon. How I'll leave? I don't know, but I'll have plenty of time to use my creativity hahahaha
When you quit your job, half your time will be productive creativity, the other half of the time you will be worrying about earning a living :D
HAHAHAAH yeah, pretty much exactly pin point that! But I'll hit the road so all I need is food. Hope I'll survive.
We can start with a Strava group, similar to the cycling4steemit group on strava that I joined recently?
I think we can continue using the same Strava group. Since that doesn't make much difference, the action will be out here on Steemit :)
If you are on Discord, we will be discussing there
I think it would help to get a dolphin/whale to support a weekly or bi weekly contest. I don't think it should be based on length or elevation, but a post based on everything and anything cycling related, creativity, story, photos, cafe stops, lunch, etc....
No dolphin/ whale will be interested in supporting, if they aren't interested in cycling. At least that is what i think.
I agree with your ideas about the contest though.
Are you on Discord? We will be discussing it there to whittle it down to a more workable idea.
The healthsquared page landed a whale and she has no posts on health or fitness.
I've been on Discord, but seldom go there...
Rob has done a good job at supporting the cyclists on here. Maybe we should delegate some SP or send SBD's to him to pay for lease costs.
These are the sort of points we need in setting it up. Discussing there will be easier, since much easier to do a back and forth there, with everyone in the loop. Comments out here are only seen by the poster and postee!
Once we have a working model, you can stop being active there again!
https://discord.gg/hu2P62u
Please use this link to find the Steemit Travellers Discord channel. There is sub-topic within for cycling. It will be easier to discuss there.
For those who don't know, Discord serves the purpose of a chat room.
@mollyparti @jctdesign @piotr42 @cheese4ead @ultrabiker @browery @jasiu @santigs @robmolecule @full-measure @mrfantastik @glennolua
thanks, having trouble accessing discord - internet issues -, but will get there as soon as I can. As I'm still fairly new here on Steemit, can I ask how can you get notifications when you are tagged?
thanks man, appreciated
There are multiple apps which provide everything that the basic steemit website doesn't. I use eSteem app to get notifications on the go and for posting from my phone. It gets a bit buggy at times, but it still gets the job done
Thanks again @twowheeledmonkey - couldn't get eSteem to work, but now using steemify and so far, so good
Great initiative!
Thank You Bicycle was my project, but two friends who were involved and did a lot of coding and exploring decided to leave SteemIt. Without them, I could not find enough time to run it properly. @thankyoubicycle is currently on hold, but I do plan to activate it in future, as soon as I finish build phase of some other projects I am currently involved in. However, I will strongly support your initiative!
Thank you and glad to meet the person behind thank you bicycle. Cheers :)
i'll be following this thread and idea....
Glad you are having this conversation - I would like to follow developments and may have a few ideas as well. I had a conversation with a script writer about the possibility of a bot which monitors a tag eg. cyclemiles or cyclefeet - the participant would have a link to his GPX in the post, the bot downloads the gpx from RWGPS or elsewhere and extracts the releavant data.
Of course, when participants are few, there is no need for automation - but a bot could also distribute payouts, rewards and so on, not to mention draw a lot of interest on steemit. Bringing everything into the steemit platform ought to be the goal, as opposed to having data monitored on some other platform.
Yes, we are discussing that. But very few people actually download or upload gpx data. Everyone isn't a data driven cyclist. Also gpx is quantitative, we are thinking along overall lines of post quality. Not just numbers.
You can check out the Discord link and hop on board :)