While this wasn't the first contest of it's kind, the September 2021 Leomarkettalk Comment Giveaway was an absolute beast of a competition. Going into this contest, I was going to see how things were and take it from there. 3 weeks into the contest I saw I was in a position to earn one of the prizes. At the end I finished in 4th place, good for 10% of the total prize pools. Whether I finished in 4th place, last place, or first place, there were several lessons I learned from the September 2021 Leomarkettalk Comment Giveaway. I wanted to share them with everyone here.
Images made using HTML and CSS for banners and edited with MS Paint. Graph came from @amr008. Base image featuring burnt car came from Pixabay.
Many Thanks and Acknowledgements
to @taskmaster4450le for organizing the contest, establishing the criteria, and keeping the participants on track.
to @amr008 for providing daily statistics after we began needing them.
to the human participants no matter how many comments each participant made; without them, engagement would have been minimal to non-existent.
to the bots which participated as well since some of us handed out engagement tokens, especially for "!"PIZZA from @pizzabot.
to abh12345 who oversees the Hive Engagement League; during the final full week of September I had placed first in the HEL standings for the first time, and with that finish came 15 HP. That 15 HP came at a critical time for me.
Finally, many, many thanks to everyone who had either invested in or upvoted the Daily Crypto Markets Live Blog-- formerly known as the Leo Market Talk-- from the days when @leomarkettalk had balances of 0.000. A contest this huge needs to have prize pools to match, and it took essentially all of LeoFinance to make that possible.
I apologize if I left out any other contributors who made this contest possible, but I want to give you many thanks as well.
The Goal
| 10,000 comments in September 2021 for Daily Crypto Markets Live Blog |
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The goal was to give out final prizes if we satisfied that condition.
Since September has 30 days, this meant each of the 30 editions of DCMLB needed to average 3331/3 comments and then 1 more comment to put the comment count over the top.
Less than 10K comments, no prizes for September 2021; the contest would have rolled over into October 2021. All of us stepped up-- new faces as well as old-timers-- and we posted comments like fast-typing kittens at a small computer:
Some days featured many comments, other days were anemic in comparison. In the end, the numbers worked out to show that the 10K comment milestone has been reached and passed.
The Stakes
When September 2021 started, these were the balances that the wallet for "@"leomarkettalk had:
| Asset | Amount | Winners |
|---|---|---|
| LEO | 760.683 | 1-4 |
| HP | 429.214 | 1st Place Only |
| HBD | 145.945 | 1-4 |
Needless to say, these balances would be higher when October 2021 started.
Winnings from the LEO and HBD pools would be distributed to the top 4 finishers this way:
| Place | Percentage |
|---|---|
| 1st | 50% |
| 2nd | 25% |
| 3rd | 15% |
| 4th | 10% |
For the HP, the 1st Place Winner would receive a delegation for that amount which would last through November 2021.
With numbers like those, I thought it was worth it to go for one of the prizes.
Lessons I Learned
Small Changes Make a Big Difference
| Finish | Participant | Comments | C/Day |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | @finguru | 1,740 | 58.000 |
| 2nd | @tfranzini | 1,645 | 54.833 |
| 3rd | @jfang003 | 1,546 | 51.533 |
| 4th | "@"magnacarta | 1,470 | 49.000 |
Would I have been able to make 58 comments a day for 30 days in September 2021? That's hard for me to say. It's possible, but seeing how things turned out, I would say not.
Would I have been able to make 3 extra comments a day in September 2021 for a total of 90 extra comments? I think I could have been able to do that. I don't see where, but I think at least in theory it was doable.
Had I been able to make extra comments, would the other comment counts stayed as shown in the table above? While that's possible, it's also possible their counts would have increased as well.
At some point each of us had days with 99 or more comments. I can't speak for anyone else, but I can say I may be able to reach 50 comments per live blog consistently. An extra top-line comment promoting LeoFinane content, another top-line comment related to the topic of the day, a top-line comment that's a question or an observation-- those could have been the extra 3 comments a day right there.
As it is, I finished in 4th place, which qualified me for 10% of the pools. If there's another massive event where I can participate, I expect to have better numbers even if the final outcome remains TBD.
Every Comment Counted (Even the Silly Ones)
Before September 2021 (and after), there were comemnts I would let pass without comment because I wasn't sure what to say in reply, I wasn't adding any value with what would have been my reply, or I just skipped them for whatever reason.
I was already in the habit of replying to comments addressed to me directly. Someone took time to say something to me, I wanted to return the courtesy. That's just basic engagement we learn during our first days as Hivers.
For those comments which I normally let pass, I needed to find different ways of saying the same thing. Anyone who collects CANDIES from CoinGecko and DIAMONDS from CoinMarketCap knows what I'm talking about. Some days the discussion surrounding CANDIES and DIAMONDS would go 15 to 30 comments deep, so these made up a significant portion of the 10K comment goal we needed to reach.
For comments where it looked as if I wouldn't add value, some times that was still the case. However, I made an effort to find a way to add value with my replies to those comments. If I managed to find a way to add value with my reply, I went for the comemnt.
There were some moments where things were getting too serious or touchy. I picked my spots in those situations and made comments meant to steer the discussion to a more freindly or fun mood. We all did.
Hivers Helping Hivers, and Leos Helping Leos
Flashback
Rewind a bit to June 2021. At the time I had trouble with Resource Credits to the point where I had to wait days in between posts and I could barely comment on posts I had read. I mentioned my situation just to explain to another new Hiver what it's like being stuck in RC Jail. Without expecting anything, I had received a 50 HP from @taskmaster4450le so I could catch up on a backlog of posts I was making to my personal blog as well as to begin posting content at LeoFinance. That boost in HP-- and the Resource Credits associated with them-- got me in the Hive blogging game and I haven't looked back.
Return to Present
Early in September "@"finguru ran into difficulty with Resource Credits because most of his HP had been delegated and he didn't have enough for a little while. Knowing how it had been for me, I delegated 15 HP to him, enough to help him until he got back more of his own HP. Since I was reading comments in top-down order, I hadn't seen the comment where "@"taskmaster4450le had delegated him 50 HP for the same reason. Both delegations were temporary, and they were revoked within days.
There was a Saturday when live blog activity was slow, and most comments came from "@"tranzini, "@"jfang003 "@"finguru, and me. We posted as many top-line comments as we could and replied to everything we were notified about. When we went to bed at different times, the live blog looked relatively inactive. When we returned to post, activity had picked up. It didn't look good for us that day, but those comments helped us reach the 10K goal.
Meanwhile, I had been commenting like there was no tomorrow, and not just short comments either. I wasn't paying attention to my own situation until the final 7 to 10 days when I discovered my RCs dropped down to less than 30%. I decided to monitor my situation, but I still commented at an insane pace for myself. With several days left in the month my RCs had dropped below 10%. At the pace I was going, the 10K goal looked like it was in jeopardy. "@"finguru was concerned that I would be out of commission before the month ended, so he decided to give me a temporary delegation of 50 HP. This allowed me to continue my pace and to even increase it a bit.
By the time September ended, the 1,470 comments I made for the DCMLB contributed to my RCs dropping all the way to 1.68%. It's not easy to achieve RC Blowout with 250+ HP, but I managed to do it.
September 2021 had confirmed for me that if Hivers and Leos are in trouble, there are Hivers and Leos willing to lend a helping hand. As we helped each other in our times of need, we contributed to reaching the 10K comment goal along with all the other participants in this giveaway.
Comment Length Can Compensate for Lack of Posts...
Once I began posting frequently courtesy of the 50 HP delegation I had received from "@"taskmaster4450le, I had asked @abh12345 to add me to the Hive Engagement League (HEL).
We're in the habit of thinking that posts are a such a big factor in the HEL standings that no other factor can overcome that, and for a long time that was my mindset. So imagine my surprise when I saw for the first time ever my name in first place in the HEL. Despite "@"finguru having made 7 posts to my 1 post during the previous 7 days, my score put me in first place.
It was at this point that I began to consider the possibility that I could take first place with the 10K giveaway. (After seeing the comment output of prolific commenter "@"finguru and comment ninja "@"tfranzini, that dream for me died.) First Prize for 1st Place in the HEL is 15 HP, and every Resource Credit associated with it it came in handy that week.
It's not enough to make hundreds of comments in a week or thousands of comments in a month in the HEL. Standings in the HEL depend on 10 cetegories. Usually "@"finguru places in the top 3 regularly in the HEL, and that week was no exception. On this occasion, he beat me in 9 out of 10 categories. The only edge I had over him was in CL, Comment Length. And yet my total HEL score of 16719 beat his of 14819. I had proven that it's possible to take 1st Place in the HEL with minimal or zero post activity. It must have happened before, but it's not a usual occurrence.
... But It Takes a Lot of Typing To Do That
I don't set out to do this, but many of my comments are longer than some people's posts. While I need to figure out how to get more posts made and more often, this is where I am in my development as a Hiver and Leo. As it is, I type what I think is enough to provide context and insight into whatever questions I answer or whatever positions I have.
All that typing comes at a cost. What does it cost me?
Resource Credits.
If I can be briefer in my comments, maybe I can make even more comments. I don't know if it works out that way. All I know is that if I publish more posts at a faster rate I will do better in the HEL to the point of being in the Top 10 consistently instead of the Top 50 as I had been before.
In Conclusion
It wasn't easy keeping up with the rest of the DCMLB crew, but I held my own well enough to earn the 4th Place prizes.
This week I finished in 1st Place in the Hel for 2 weeks in a row on the strength of my commenting in the final days of the September 2021 Leomarkettalk Comment Giveaway. With the givewaway in the record books and my depleted RC allotment needing to be replenished, there will be no 3rd week in a row 1st place finish from me; it will be a while before I finish in 1st Place in the HEL again.
I don't expect to make 100+ comments at the live blog each day or even 100+ comments total across all front-ends. However many comments I had been doing daily before the September 2021 Leomarkettalk Comment Giveaway, I'm pretty sure I will do more than that consistently as I develop other my overall engagement game.
Many thanks again to everyone who made the September 2021 Leomarkettalk Comment Giveaway possible and a success.
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| My main focus is cryptocurrencies from a number of angles (educational, commentary, observations, even pop culture). A secondary focus is sharing my discoveries about the world of Hive Social. Most of my posts can be found at these two locations: ● LeoFinance : @magnacarta ● Proof of Brain : @magnacarta For posts I make at other tribes or communities, start here to locate them : ● Ecency: @magnacarta/posts Follow me at this D.Buzz-only account : ● D.Buzz : https://blog.d.buzz/#/@magnacarta.buzz-- note the ".buzz" at the end! I also expect Festivus to take off in popularity in the coming years. |