Confession:
If you know me on Steemit for more than a month, then you should know that I've been stalking you...for months...
oh yeah...
... in a good way.
What does it mean to follow someone on Steemit?
To some, it means "I follow you, you follow me, done." - that is how everyone does it at first.
But as you hone in on what really interests you on Steemit, strangers become your friends, readers of your content, your patrons... it gets complicated.
To me, following is a tool. To follow someone, is to support their journey, to curate their content (on time), to be among the first to comment on their post, to network and to build a relationship. Sure, there are some who I only follow symbolically, meaning I don't really follow them... But there are a few fascinating, creative and informative Steemians, who I consider a must to follow.
So how did 'following' someone became 'stalking'?....
My stalking started as a result of not knowing how to keep track of the people I followed - who I genuinely wanted to support and network with. I've hit "follow" "follow" "follow" on everyone and their dog (there are people here that have a dog profile, you know who you are :D).
And then what?
I see a feed of infinite posts, where more than half were not really my interest. If I was lucky enough, I'd occasionally spot a post from a fellow Steemian, (or in the case of the artists i follow, I'd recognize their art from the thumbnail ), and be able to support and interact with them. However, most of the time I’d miss them, and by the time I would stumble on a new post by them, I would realize that I had missed several posts - failing to follow.
So, in order for me to keep up with the 20-30 people that I wanted to support regularly, I have resorted to deliberately typing in their @ name to go see what they were up to... I had good reasons - I wanted to support their content... but in a world of social media this felt like stalking.
I kept asking myself "why can't Steemit do something more organic?" - where I get notified about what people are up to, and whether they posted anything new. It’s simple, you'd expect the platform that promotes networking to assist you in networking.
Then came the answer.
If you are still reading this, then stay with me, cause I'm about to give you some very useful information. If you are new to the community, or have experienced the problem i'm describing, please check the links below; this might help you a great deal on the platform from here on.
So. After several months of swimming against the current of my own ignorance, I discovered the PAL Server on Discord with some help from @MenO.
PAL (Peace, Abundance and Lambos... no wait, Liberty), it’s been absolutely instrumental in changing how I feel about the social side of Steemit. So many of the people I follow are there, and they are having a collective discussion, showing all the bright colors of their personalities and also being 100% helpful with every question I had regarding Steemit. In a Nuggshell, it helped me meet the people behind their posts, and beyond the 2-3 comments... and of course, they got to know me better as well - in an organic way, and no stalking required.
&...
You need GINAbot!
PAL made it easier to talk with other Steemians, but how do I stay updated with their posts on Steemit? I still missed every 2 out of 3 posts from those who I follow...
I posted this question in Discord, and Voila, just like that, the answer I needed came from @SunRavelMe, who said: "Have you tried using GINAbot? You can list everyone you want to follow and it will notify you when someone make new posts."
GINA (General Instant Notification Automaton) can notify you about pretty much any activity you like to know on Steemit through a clearly formatted direct messages on Discord, and you can customize it to be as specific as you like.
It was developed by @neander-squirrel, and was first used by @inquiringtimes who has also contributed ideas on how to improve and promote GINA.
Personally, I believe that GINAbot should be part of any Steemit 101 post (yes, its that useful). I went through the activation tutorial at @GinaBot, which was pretty easy and managed to customize it to do all the tedious stalking for me :)
I asked for a cup of water and got Champagne Mojitos! Here is a list of all the activities on Steemit that GINA can keep you updated on :
comments
followers, unfollowers
mentions
resteems
new post from any author
new post with any tag
blacklist user(s) (no notifications about blacklisted user actions)
upvotes, downvotes
cancelling of votes
money transfer (in and/or out)
witness vote (with useful details)
* Learn all about GINAbot
* See GINA's new and improved features
Well there you have it! No more stalking (directly :))
Why I made such a long story?... well, its just more fun this way... its flavor before nutrition.
But the bigger lesson I've learned and want to share here, is that most of us face the same difficulties when it comes to Steemit UX. However, that also means that there might be solutions out there, and they can be found if we dig a little deeper and ask others for help. There are people here who are committed to developing the tools you and I need to navigate our way on this new platform. So if you stayed with me thus far, I think your road on Steemit might have one less pothole from here on.
I will leave you here, and go check with GINA, to see who Resteemed my post ;)
I hope you found this post both amusing and informative, and if you have questions, do not hesitate to ask.
Thank you so much for reading!
Very useful information, I will definitely have a closer look at this. Thanks for sharing!
It definitely is, glad I can help! if you have questions, don't hesitate to ask.
Thank you for the kind words, GINA is here to make life easier for anyone who wants it. Really hope people will enjoy using it! I'm doing everything I can to improve her services each day! :)
I dont know how I managed without it for several months. My life is definitely a little easier now, thanks to your hard work!
Thank you for the nice writeup! Gina is very nice indeed. She lets me know everything that's going on, INSTANTLY :-D yay!
its a pleasure! I hope it will bring more Steemians to start using it.
Ginabot has been a godsend, until steemit has all these features it is a wonderful sidekick!
100%
I have been using @ginabot for about a week now since someone in the #help chat directed me there - I love it! Such a wonderful tool to use while the platform is worked and tweaked. Keep spreading the good word!
thank you for sharing!
Thanks for the info, gonna check it out, I'm already on the discord, not as active as I should be though. A lot of things in life pulling in other directions. Darn shiny things.
oh i can relate to that... same here, too much work, too much to learn, so much i want to create... but Gina definitely made my life a bit easier. I cant recommend it enough.
This is legitimately incredibly useful. No punchline.
This post has certainly inspired me to start using discord ^_^ Thank ya kindly~
join join! :)
My username is the same there as it is here, I did join ^_^
Nice one, those "I followed you, you follow me" kind of guys are becoming more and more. I sometimes ignore, but sometimes get irritated.
I am a member of PAL since I joined Steemit, more for it's upvote service initially, but later I gotta interact with some nice guys over there.
Ginabot is something I need to explore.
Thank you for reading @coolguy123 :) I appreciate your feedback. Definitely give Gina a try, it will help you a great deal.
I will do, thank you. Have a nice day :)
I am definitely trying the GINAbot because my feed has become cluttered to the point that I very often miss posts from my favorite authors. Thanks a lot @ankapolo ;)
Thank you! i'm so glad you found this post, and Gina, its exactly what you need. Hope it works out well!
Hahaha.. seems like the answer to my prayers. Been using steemwatch, which is really easy to set up, but unfortunately its currently not working... looks I should try this instead :-)
That is so great! i'm so glad you found my post useful! Even successful accounts like yours can use a little GINA :) Btw, I just got a notification saying that you resteemed me :) Thank you so very much!
and I been also staking you all this time and with Gina :D
Very useful indeed. Will have to set it up later today. My favorite tool so far is steemworld. The amount of info you get there is just amazing!! Gonna be stalking you back even more ;-)
hahah :) Steemworld is definitely useful! i like all the links that analyze your performance. my favorite one is Potential Rewards :)
Ooooh so that's what that GINA bot is for! I had heard about it but hadn't found an explanation as descriptive as this (Although by reading outsourced and stalking together in the title and this already had my full attention lol).
Thanks for this!
haha, thank you @isa93
Yes, my title is a bit of a click bait, i wanted to share a useful information in a slight provocative way
=(^_^)= ... I'm so glad that it worked!
awesome, have to try this, I've been having the same problem. Your art is amazing BTW!
thank you so much @angusg!
@ankapolo, this is so helpful. I have been here for a while but still confused with same questions, how to see new staff from people I like to see new works..like you :) I will sure look into Ginabot and be more present at Discord. Thanks again for useful information.
Oh this is the best response i could have hoped for! If this helps you (and i know it will), then my mission is accomplished :) Also, i follow you using GinaBot, you are one of my stalkees :)
xaxa, I have to look more into ginabot, but will be there to stalk you too :)
yuus! also would love to see you on Discord some time... its fun but also very helpful community!
well, I was bit confused with Discord since it looks to me that people there are mostly in digital painting and I don't know anything about it...so I felt bit like I don't belong there :)
hmm... ive seen a bit of both... but you're right, there is more CG art than Trad. I'm on Discord mostly to learn more about steemit, participate in discussions and enjoy the radio that is run by steemians. Its a great way to reach new people in a very organic way.
You said magic word, Radio :) I am coming for sure..
great post my friend.. I am using Ginabot its really a great service... :)
Thanks for sharing this never knew what it was doing! Haha might have to start using ginabot soon if cleaning up my followings doesn't do it.
I did that before too for the same reason... bad move! I mean its up to you, but some of the people you unfollow might be using GINA to, and if you unfollow them they also get a notification... and then they will likely unfollow you... its a mess! lol. Though, If they are not active, i totally agree
Haha ok thanks for the heads up! Don't think my worst choices even folllow me though :)
yeah I definitely agree, there are some account that aren't really worth keeping, but i dont even worry about them anymore, since i can totally focus my attention on the ones that i do care about... btw, i think you're is one of them :) meaning, GINA lets me know when u post something new
Clever bot and wow thank you! I'm honored!
voted 250%
resteemed to 750 followers
thank you
i will upvote for you only bcz you are my friend many posts and comments by full votes of 0.03 to 0.05 -----------
I love you
No thanks!
Why not? :)
Hello ankapolo!
We have found your post and the @SteemEngineTeam wants you aboard!
We are the fastest growing content, vote and follower sharing community on Steem. Please see our introduction post for details on how to join and start earning more votes!
thank you, much appreciated!
I've been afraid to go on Discord because I'm distractable enough as it is and the app has so many conversations going on and knobs to twiddle. But this does look like it could be a tool for focus instead of chaos.
I just keep a folder of "Favorite Steemians" on my bookmarks bar and make sure to check in with anyone I haven't heard from in a while.
that's kinda how i used to do it too... but it didn't help me too well, cause i'd still miss posts sometimes... or come too late to the party... plus there are other things, like knowing who resteems your content, who mentions you, you can set up GINA to alert you about a specific word or hashtag in a post... so it can be extremely useful.
As far as Discord, it can definitely suck you in... i get distracted at times too... but its also where people are most helpful and social.