Last week, I started writing about the new initiative - Be A Mentor in this post here.
Like all initiatives, this project doesn't just happen out of the blue. This project has been brewing in my thoughts for 2 months already.
- The project is created because of a great need on the Steem blockchain.
- The project is created because of my early experience in the @Utopian platform.
So in this #iamutopian post, I want to talk about these 2 points so that you know where I am coming from as I push forward the Be A Mentor Program.
1. Great Need on Steem 2019
There has been a lot of talks about the Steem blockchain lately especially in the last week. Instead of concentrating on the negatives, let's see what postive contribution we can do to make Steem 2019 great. With the constant development of over 50 dApps building on the blockchain, and something new comes up on the horizon every month, there will be an influx of newcomers coming on Steem. Many dApps are actively reaching out to people via other social media such as Facebook, Linkedin, Instagram, Youtube, etc. New people from outside of Steem will be using these powerful dApps that are already in the works.
When newbies come in, they will be so amazed at the variety of offers in the Steem Blockchain. They will be so lost as to where to go to for help even though there are a lot of FAQ and Discord channels that dApps already offer.
A 'gap' is still missing.
This is where the 'Be A Mentor' fits in for the dApps as I will do a service for them to recruit Awesome Mentors to promote their apps.
Can you imagine what will happen when a newbie is guided by the hand of a mentor in the first month they come in?
2. My Early Experience with @Utopian-io
My followers all know that I am very attached and dedicated to @Utopian-io. For this reason, @elear also created this #iamutopian tag for us.
There is a reason behind why these #iamutopian people are so passionate.
Of course, I am very much motivated by the vision of Open Source Economy and wanted to give back to contribute to FOSS projects because during my time of building websites back in 2006, I have used a lot of these open source softwares. @Utopian-io platform gave me the opportunity to give back via translation and creating video tutorials for them.
The vision before us is important.
More so are the kind of people behind the Utopian platform.
In my interaction on the platform, I went through the following 4 stages:
- I was first a user for the first month in October 2017.
- I was then invited to be a moderator for translation in November 2017.
- In April 2017, I worked as a moderator for the video category.
- Came June 2018, I was invited to be the Community Manager for the translation category in the Utopian-DaVinci collaboration.
The reason why I was able to grow in these 4 stages all have to do with the people behind Utopian.
I was a 3-month-old Steem newbie when I joined Utopian in October 2017. Utopian was also new then but together I grew with the #iamutopian people.
From a tiny seed, I grew into a small plant.
How?
Not alone by myself.
It has to do with the people in Utopian!
Soon, Utopian became a home for me because of the growing community in there.
Relationships are Important for Community Growth
We never knew each before this time. But in a matter of months, we got to know each other in the interaction in the community.
I have never had a chance to express my gratitude to the people in Utopian but today, the opportunity has come when I am pushing forward this 'Be A Mentor' program for newbies.
Even though Utopian never started any mentoring program, but my experience in Utopian gave me this new creative idea of a mentoring program for newbies.
I always remember the initial moderators on the site when I came in as a new user. They were acting like mentors to us.
Initially, @elear moderated all our posts. That was the time I got to know @elear. If you ever have a chance to read those early comments in our contribution posts, you would see that each post has 'personal comments' and directions to help us. @elear guided us and also directed all the moderators effectively.
As the platform grew, I got to know the next moderator, @espoem. Anyone who knows @espoem would agree with me that he is the finest person we have on Utopian. He was skillful and diligent to coach us. I use the word 'coach' because he spent time helping everyone on the platform, moderators and users alike. He did a lot of extra work to guide people in the right path. I remember seeing the first long report written by him where he put case studies before us to learn how to moderate well. This is what a mentor does.
Then @ruah came into the picture when he invited me to become the moderator for translation. He trusted me and took me into his team. As a supervisor, he 'mentored' me the first day when I started the moderating work. Our team expanded under his leadership because he truly cared for each one of us to reach our potential.
Victor who is known as @jestemkioskiem took people in under his wings as Utopian made the transition to having newly appointed Community Managers in April 2017. He brought me into the video category to moderate with @buckydurddle. Jest took care a lot of the Utopian people because he took the time to know us.
When Ilana known as @techslut started interviewing 'People of Utopian' in April 2017, we all looked forward to hearing all these great articles she wrote about Utopian people. Everyone started getting connected because these #iamutopian are no longer usernames but awesome people behind the scene. Everyone was so eager to finally meet and see the mysterious great @espoem!
My interest in blogging grew when @didic came on the scene to moderate the blog category. His moderating work made a lot of users wanting to blog more and more because he 'coached' us in his comments. All the comments were written to guide each specific user to improve his writing skills. I for one benefited greatly from his words. We were all on fire to learn because someone took an interest in helping us to blog well. That's what a mentor does, isn't it? Can you imagine the time and all the thoughts put into writing each comment?
As an observer, I saw @tykee coming into Utopian and how @knowledges took him under his wings to help him along in Utopian. I don't know them too well because we function in different categories but when I see @tykee taking up the task of moderating the blog category with the help of @didic and the fine work he is doing now, I know there is a lot of coaching behind the scene.
These are my limited experience with the Utopian people because my experience is limited to only 3 categories: Translation, Video Tutorial and Blogging.
Time To Give Back to the Community
I have been on the Steem blockchain for 1 1/2 year soon and nurtured by some great Steemians. I am now in the position to be able to do something for the Steem blockchain.
I will slowly share with you how I plan to move this "Be A Mentor" program forward.
Be A Mentor is entirely a service program to the newbies.
The whole idea is to walk a newbie through the first month in a particular dApp or website. The mentor can then move on to help another person while the mentee can move on to another dApp mentor to get the needed guidance to succeed.
We want this program to succeed and to truly work effectively so I will guide the mentors along each step of the way. We want to do something constructive. We want to add value to the Steem Blockchain.
This is a time consuming project but worth the while to spend on it so that as more newbies come on Steem, we can keep them engaging and sailing along on Steem. We need dedicated, passionate and committed mentors on board for Steem.
Will you be one of them?
Please comment below and share your ideas with me,
Rosa
@rosatravels
