The Beginning
July 2016...
― Pablo, ¿do you know this new website, steemit.com? A friend of mine posted an article there last week and he earned 2000 USD for it! - It was Manu, his younger brother, calling with an unusual level of excitement.
― Really? Who paid for that?
― Well, actually, no one paid for that. It just got upvoted by many people, by the whales, and it was in the trending page for a day. But it's not normal money, it's a new sort of digital money called STEEM.
― Has he seen the money yet?
― Not yet. It's now converted into something called STEEM POWER, it is blocked for two years. But...
― It's a scam! I have to go. Meeting. Bye!- Pablo said.
It was thursday and Pablo was busy, since hollidays was about to start and there were still issues to close. Nevertheless, he opened an account on steemit.com and just in just in case: he wrote his first post. It was the 25th of July of 2016:
A couple of hours later, @gargon published his first post, seeking for answers:
Both posts remained unnoticed and unpaid.
Pablo gave up. “It is a Scam!” he kept saying, but Manu was convinced he would make it and he did not gave up.
It was summer and instead of going to the beach of “Torremolinos” to enjoy the mediterranean sommer, he wrote, and wrote and wrote.
And finally, on the 13th of August, at 03:58:15 he made it it. @berniesanders, followed by other whales, upvoted his post:
― Feelings Pablo! It`s all about feelings! Is about people, real people. - Manu, who has not gone out of his dark room in the whole half of august, was over the moon:
― What the Hell are you talking about?
― Steemit, man! They upvoted me! They loved my post! They love my post about music!
Much more than that!
Soon we realized that steemit.com is not just a content creation website where you can get rewarded. Steemit is a community. Steemit is about people around the world who love to share their life experiences and knowledge.
This community feeling was confirmed by every single attendant of the Steemfest. They all were blown away. @gargon spent in Amsterdam “one of the best weekends in his life”
The problem with the spanish language
Since we joined, we could see the potential of our native language. There are more than 450 million native spanish speakers around the planet. It is the second most used language in the world - after chinese.
Nevertheless, back at that time, 99% of the new posts feed were written in english!.
It was even worse than that: spanish native speakers were forced to write in a (sometimes) broken english in order to gain visibility.
Luckily, the same problem was being addressed by the curation guild: Visibility and content discovery was not only a problem of language, it was also a inherent problem of how curation works and how the stake is distributed among users in the platform.
The #cervantes Project was born.
Very soon we received support and resources of the Steem-Guild Project and their voting power donating whales. The mission was clear:
Since the beginning of the project, we have curated approx. 1200 post from over 150 different authors contributing in the distribution of approx. 25.000 SBD among the community.
Fighting abuse & plagiarism
We have been actively collaborating with @steemcleaners to not only fight abuse, but also to educate the people to use the platform in a way that increases visibility and votes.
At the beginning, many spanish writers didn’t even know about plagiarism. They just copy pasted texts from blogs. We are quite sure many of them didn’t have bad intentions. It is a learning process and we feel very proud to see some of those users becoming good and stable spanish content creators.
Helping newcomers
Same way @andrarchy created his channel "andrarchists" to help new people, we created the channel "hispanohablantes" to guide and support spanish speaking members. There is a boiling community up-there of people supporting each other with tips, tricks, promotion, translations, tutorials, videos, photos and fun.
Community Outgrowth
We keep promoting Steemit as much as our daily job allow us to do so. This is just a msg I sent just today to a friend who is an amazing artist. If you talk to some of our friends they will probably tell you that all we talk about since the last sommer is Steemit related.
Everything counts!
We are also working on different outgrowth initiatives always with focus on the spanish speaking community.
Future Plans
- We will keep curating spanish content as long as we have the support of curating guilds.
- We will keep moderating the spanish speaking #hispanohablantes channel in steemit.chat.
- We will keep welcoming and guiding spanish speaking newcomers.
- We will keep fighting abuse of the platform. An interesting form of abuse is copy/google translating/pasting posts which is actually difficult to detect automatically.
- We will help translating or providing translation resources for guides, faqs, tutorials and application interfaces (please, contact us if support needed).
- We will keep promoting Steemit among our network.
- We will keep communicating our plans and achievements in regular posts.
Being a witness
Becoming a witness node and providing a seed node is our way of showing our commitment to the platform by investing time and money on the setup and maintenance of the servers.
He hope, with the @cervantes witnesses to become yet another pillar of the STEEM ecosystem, in this case, the one on which the spanish community can be supported and promoted.
Witness Node Specifications.
The steemd daemon has been downloaded from the official github repository and compiled with the “low memory” flag. It is running on a high performance virtual server running on Ubuntu 16.04 LTE and physically located in a high reliable north european data center with following specifications:
- RAM: 16G
- CPU: 4
- Storage: 400GB SSD.
- Network: 1 Gbit/s NIC
- Bandwidth: 1.65 Tbit
- Juniper Routing Technology
- High-Speed Access to All Internet Uplinks
- Network Availability min. 99%
- DDoS Protection
The shared data files are stored in memory on a RAM mounted device (/dev/shm) to minimize the I/O pressure.
Running it on a virtual server will allow us if needed to up-scale the resources or setup a backup node in a matter of minutes.
Witness Parameters.
Following some recommendations, we have set the actual parameters to:
- account_creation_fee: 30.000 STEEM
- maximum_block_size: 65,536
- sbd_interest_rate: 5,000
- sbd_exchange_rate: base 0.168* SBD /quote 1.020 STEEM
(*) The price feed will be updated manually until a automatic feeding script is deployed in the node.
Seed Node.
We have as well set up a public p2p node that can be reached under the following ip and port:
Voting for @cervantes as a witness is voting for the steadily increasing spanish speaking community:
We count with you!!
Your sincerely
Pablo @pgarcgo and Manu @gargon
Amigos!
Que bueno verlos como witnesses, voy a abrirles un lugar para votarlos. Apoyo el crecimiento de la comunidad hispana en 100% por lo que quiero que sepan que cuentan con mi apoyo para lo que sea.
En un esfuerzo para promover los posts en español he creado hace un tiempo atras la cuenta de twitter de steemiobot que twitea todos los post con el tag #spanish o #es, no se olviden en seguirla y promoverla!
Abrazo!
Mil gracias!! Recuerdo que tú fuiste el primer witness al que voté :) No sabia eso del twitter, está genial!
Gracias a ustedes, ya los voté.. mucha suerte!
Eres muy profesional y exacto en tus publicaciones, de verdad realizas un trabajo impresionante, excelente que deja contenido reflexivo. Mis mas sinceras filicitaciones, sigue así, realizas un trabajo estupendo.
Gracias por la el voto chitty!! Llegará el día que el inglés será minoría!!! :)
¡¡¡VAMOS!!!
Gracias a Manu ( @gargon ) estoy aquí desde agosto ¡y no pienso irme!
Manu y Pablo (hermanos Gargonites :) si no fuera por vuestro apoyo muchos ya habríamos abandonado.
¡Muchas gracias! ❤️
Nelyp. Y tú ahí desde el principio! Una de las "alma mater" de nuestro canal y de las autoras más prolíficas!
Muchas gracias @pgarcgo :)
Great news! If I spoke just a bit more Spanish, I'd be curating some of the content as well, but I'm a bit shy on that level. Glad to know you are o the ball with this one. All for one and one for all!!! Namaste :)
Never too late to improve! Dont be shy and just let it flow! 😀👍
Muchas gracias! Much appreciated words of encouragement. It strangely rhymes really well with a saying I use often: "It is never too late to do the right thing." Namaste :)
Happy to know that we have a witness representation with you guys. In few months the community gain a lot strength and presence in Steemit. Muchachos cuenten con mi apoyo y el de la comunidad!
Muy pronto seremos miles!!
Gracias! @handmade. Gracias por tu apoyo y cuenta también con nuestro apoyo!
;)
Damn....great post.
Steem on guys!
Thanks!!
Muy buenas noticias, cuenten con mi apoyo. Es genial tener personas dedicadas a los proyectos en habla hispana, que ha crecido muchísimo en los ultimos meses, Y lo que falta...! Saludos
Saludo y gracias por tu apoyo Catlos.
Aunque mi idioma natal no es el inglés me tomé la libertad de traducir este con google traductor, que aunque no es fiel en esa función, por lo menos me permite entender más del 85% del post, y lo hago porque pienso que Cervantes y todo lo que le rodea a manera de aliados positivos, siempre tienen algo que aportar a la comunidad de habla hispana...y en ese caso, quería saber el contenido del post en consideración. Saludos...
¡Madre de Dios! alucinaíto me tenéis, a lu ci na í to (la í va solita porque es sílaba al ser vocal débil e ir acentuada y romper el diptongo, pero mucho me temo que de eso y otras tantas cosas sabéis más que yo) Intentando comprender, quedo genuflexo ante vosotros
¿y donde esta la versión en español??
Entra en el canal hispanohablantes y te explico todo lo que quieras. La versión la escribí cuando casi no había hispanos. Un saludo!
Acabo de hacer upvote por vos, excelente el trabajo que haces por la comunidad, a pesar de que soy nuevo este es mi granito de arena
Mi leal apoyo a este proyecto tan maravilloso 💕💫👏
You guys have done a great job so far building the Spanish community.
thanks Tom, that means a lot coming from you :-)
Thanks to your support and the great teams working on the steem-guild projects!
Felicitaciones y mucha suerte en este nuevo desafio Pablo @pgarcgo y Manu @gargon, que descarto lo tendrán por ser dos personas extraordinarias.
muchas gracias por el gran apoyo a nuestra comunidad.
Gracias, @jlufer!
Amazing History! <3 We love you Proyecto Cervantes
Best of luck:)
thanks for that!
NP:)
A pesar de que yo solo escribo en Inglés tienen mi voto compañeros.
muchas gracias amigo!
Это очень хорошо! Я радуюсь вместе с вами. Я желаю вам больших успехов в продвижении.
Ustedes son geniales, gracias por poner su granito de arena y hacernos ver, siempre contaran con mi apoyo, todo en pro del crecimiento de steemit y de nuestra comunidad.
Ya está, mi testigo favorito!!
¿Sigue en pie este proyecto?
Si. Como sabes!
Esto es viejo jeje. De igual manera, gracias.
I am new to Steemit but I love Spanish so I have followed you! Best of luck xx
Thanks mate!
Nice one! If you want me to translate it into German let me know! :)
Crees que le interesará a algún alemán que no sepa inglés?
pero por su puesto.
I'm a noobie to all of this, but I believe you are providing a valuable service. You got my vote.
Me encanta que esten apoyando a los habla hispana!! muchas bendiciones.
excelente articulo, bastante completo e informativo.
Excelente trabajo, soy nuevo aquí! felicidades.
Wow! muchas gracias, soy nueva y me ha encantado esta iniciativa. Cuentan con mi apoyo :D
Muchas gracias, cuenten con mila apoyo
mi voto y resteemd
MUY BUENO, EXCELENTE LOGRO PARA LOS HISPANOS. TENEMOS QUE ESTAR ORGULLOSOS DE COMO HEMOS AVANZADO TAN RÁPIDO Y ASÍ SEGUIREMOS POR EL BUEN CAMINO HACIA EL ÉXITO. SALUDOS MIS AMIGOS Y A SEGUIR APOYANDO ESTA CAUSA QUE NOS BENEFICIA A TODA LA COMUNIDAD HISPANA!
Me agradó haber podido leer esto, llevaba tiempo interesado en realmente entender que era cervantes, mil gracias por el apoyo constante a la comunidad hispana!
Listo, es algo genial.
Te acabo de votar. Un saludo. La comunidad hispanohablante requiere de impulso :)
Very nice,,,
My profile
https://steemit.com/@atcexperts
My blog
The most effective method to Achieve Perfect Focus.
Follow me and vote for my blog
keep in touch
I like your way looking at things...keep this frame. You are voted :)
Apoyando esta causa tan grande con la que cumple uno de los mejores proyectos dentro de Steemit ¡Arriba! ¡Viva Cervantes! ¡Larga vida!
exelente
Felicidades por esta excelente iniciativa, soy nuevo en esta red social, tienen mi voto
it is TRULY Amazing To see someone go above and beyond to help others ! You deserver everything that comes to you
Hola,@pgrcgo y @gargon gracias y felicidades por esta magnifica iniciativa es de crecimiento, confianza y apoyo es un gran reto les deseo lo mejor. Saludos desde Venezuela.
El español es un idioma hermoso, gracias por destacar su importancia y permitirle a las personas que usan este idioma tener un espacio exitoso en esta comunidad ♥
Felicidades @pgarcgo y @gargon !! Excelente iniciativa y lo mejor de todo, lo han convertido en acciones claras y precisas. Espero estar cada vez más en contacto con su trabajo, soy nuevo y desde ya me recomendaron su perfil para estar en contacto con todo el contenido hispano-hablante. Mucha suerte y éxito! Tienen mi voto de todo corazón. ♥
La calidad de este articulo me deja perplejo, de verdad... Es grandioso, simplemente genial que exista esta comunidad, mi grano de arena lo aplastare en todo este articulo para dejar mi apoyo a esto! Felicidades cervantes y gracias a la vez!
Gracias por la motivación, aquí mi apoyo para ustedes voto witness de parte de @Godzu saludos y buenas vibras
Excellent post. I especially like that you used the poster for the movie "Witness". HAHA...that was a great film. Anyway, you made a great case for being a witness. I like your ideas and vision for the Steemit community. You've earned my vote for witness as well as my follow. Best of luck going forward @cervantes!
Excelente iniciativa, en hacer crecer la comunidad hispana, apoyarnos como hermanos que somos...
No me cansaré de apoyarlos y retribuir lo que hacen por nosotros @cervantes gracias