I joined DEV in June and started doing what I have been avoiding for a long time. Now and then, I hit the publish button and closed the DEV window tab.
Sixteen posts went out that way. They averaged 1.6 reactions. Several of them got none at all. I told myself the work was good and the readers would find it, which was the comfortable thing to believe while nothing was happening.
Fast forward to 24th July, I started actually reading other people's posts and leaving my thoughts in their comment sections.
The twelve posts since then have averaged an increase in reactions and followers.
Then this week, DEV granted me Trustee Member status. I did not ask. I researched what this actually means. I found out their guide lists three ways it happens, and two of them are things I have never done. The one left I suspect is that somebody noticed.
They did not notice my post; I guess sixteen of those had gone out to almost nobody.
Maybe they noticed how I turned up in other people's threads.
That is the thing I would tell my June self. The writing was never the bottleneck. Showing up was.
Thank you to @xulingfeng, whose Stratagems series I have followed comment by comment. To @technogamerz, who leaves every thread warmer than she found it. And to @vinhnguyenthanhdn, who answered a question at the end of one of my posts with a better debugging story than the post itself.
None of you was a strategy. I have found real family here in this community. Thank you all @fellowdevteam , for the trust. I intend to use the thumbs down about as rarely as that guide implies I should.
Full guide, if you want the detail: https://dev.to/trusted-member
Top comments (26)
Congratulations! π
Thank you, Hadil! π This one was more nerve-wracking to publish than any of the technical posts, so the warm reception has meant a lot.
Welcome! π
Congratulations and celebrations,
Youβve earned your Trusted Member reputation!
Thank you! Coming from you, this lands differently, since you are one of the three I named and the reason I know what a warm thread actually feels like. Also, I have not forgotten. More videos are coming. π
Nnamdi, donβt praise Divya so much, sheβll start crying, poor little girl! π
Noted, I will pace myself. π Though I could not help noticing that Divya is the one who brought Divya into this.
Oh, Divya is crazy, just ignore her. By the way, the recipe you sent was really good! The only problem is that Iβm vegetarian. π So, do you have any good vegetarian recipes?
@technogamerz Oh dear! π Apologies, I didnβt note that earlier. And sorry for the rather late response. itβs been a really busy few days, and Iβve been completely hooked on a book about AI, Ego and Regret! π @xulingfeng
But yes, absolutely, animal protein is totally optional. Thereβs a lovely pure vegetarian version of Nigerian Jollof Rice:
Vegetarian Jollof Rice ππ±
Blend tomatoes, red bell pepper, onion, garlic and Scotch bonnet. Fry in a little vegetable oil with tomato purΓ©e, curry powder and thyme. Let it cook down, then add washed rice and vegetable stock. Cook covered on low heat until the rice is tender. Add carrots, peas, sweetcorn or any vegetables you like towards the end.
And please let me know how it turns out! Iβd genuinely love to hear your thoughts or any feedback. π
π« Red bell pepper
π§ Onion
π§ Garlic
πΆοΈ Scotch bonnet pepper
π« Vegetable oil
π Tomato purΓ©e
πΏ Thyme
π Rice
π₯£ Vegetable stock
π₯ Carrots
π’ Peas
π½ Sweetcorn
π₯¦ Any other vegetables
But what exactly is curry powder? π
I understand everything else! π
Thank you so much for sharing such a lovely recipe! π₯°π Iβll definitely give it a try!
Hahaha, I donβt really know anything about marketing or promotion. This older series can only rely on my longβtime readers to help spread the word. I spent the whole day revising Stratagem #27, and now I donβt even feel like sending out job applications π
Ha, this is my favourite question anyone has asked me. π
Curry powder is British. Genuinely. It's a pre-mixed blend the British came up with so they could approximate Indian food without learning to use the actual spices.
You already own everything in it. It's mostly turmeric, which is where the yellow comes from, plus coriander and cumin, and usually a bit of fenugreek, ginger and black pepper.
So skip the jar. Use turmeric with some coriander and cumin, heavier on the turmeric than the rest. Or honestly just turmeric on its own. In Nigerian jollof, the curry powder is there for warmth and colour, not as the main flavour. The thyme and the Scotch bonnet do the real work.
And Nigeria picked up the habit from the British too. Same colonial route, different destination.
Yes, we have plenty of it here, so maybe it will turn out really good. Thatβs why Iβll ask my mom to make it. I was thinking of going on Sunday, but I have some work afterward, so Iβll go tomorrow instead. The office people only gave me four days! :( But itβs okay, thatβs enough.
Exactly! And honestly, thatβs probably the best advice you can give to any creator here: interact with the community. The people here are so great that itβs genuinely worth it! π
You said it all @sylwia-lask. The only thing I would add is why it works. This community is full of kind people who will share what they know, and people that generous are usually paying attention too. They can tell when you are not being genuine. Thank you for reading, Sylwia. π
congrats!
Note though, it's not a content or visibility problem, it's a reputation problem. The Forem system uses a score system to determine if you get advertised or not. You start off with 0, then as you use the platform, comment, engage, etc. that score climbs. If your score is under 100, you dont really get advertised, which is why everyone gets underwhelming engagement on their first post, because they expect it to push them, same as it does everyone else, but it doesnt... You have to engage first, then post. Which is why once you went about and commented, you gained traction and your posts get alot more views and given about only 10% of views are actually people (look at the time read graph), your engagement climbs, because the people you follow and who follow you back see the notification and feel inclined to comment. That's how you build community, by finding your people.
Thank you @unitbuilds
That reframe is useful, thank you. Content problem versus reputation problem is a completely different diagnosis.
The shape matches my experience either way. My first posts went nowhere, the ones after I started commenting did far better, and I'd assumed that was the writing improving. Probably wasn't.
Honestly, I never realized it until I wrote DevGuard as a PR for Forem to help out on the bot problem. Going through the codebase, I found that the real value that actually determines it, isnt even visible to mods? It's literally a hidden value that nobody can see, so you have no idea it's actually what determines everything on Dev.to
Itβs really easy to treat DEV like a place where you post something, close the tab, and just hope people find it. But the more time Iβve spent here, the more Iβve realized the community side of it is a huge part of what makes it good.
Some of my favorite interactions here have come from reading someone elseβs post, leaving a comment, and then ending up in an actual conversation. Honestly, thatβs made DEV way more fun for me too. It feels a lot less like tossing articles into the void and more like you actually start getting to know some of the people behind them.
I really liked the line, βthe writing was never the bottleneck. Showing up was.β I think that pretty much sums it up. Of course the content is important, but itβs not until youβre actually participating by reading other peopleβs work and leaving comments, getting involved in the discussion, that DEV becomes a community rather than another site to publish content.
And congrats on the Trusted Member status!
Thank you, @sizzlebop, for reading this one properly, Jessica.
"Tossing articles into the void" is exactly right, though I had the
reason wrong. I assumed those sixteen posts went nowhere because they
were not good enough. They went nowhere because nothing pointed at
them, and a comment is one of the few things that does.
Also, "perpetual project starter" might be the most honest line on any
bio here.π
Congratulations on getting those hidden privileges!π
Just as you said, it wasnβt because of your articles, but your active participation and the sincere comments you left on every post. You truly deserve these privileges. Letβs keep pushing forward together.πͺ
You are part of the reason this happened, and I mean that literally.
Your Stratagems series is where I started writing comments that took more than thirty seconds, because your posts do not allow the lazy kind. Thank you, my friend. Forward together. πͺ
Nnamdi, Congratulations on the Trusted Member status π
Thank you, Hemapriya. π And thank you for using my name. Small thing, but it is the difference between a notification and a conversation.
That's cool π
Thanks, Ekong! π Still thinking about that cover image from your Comfort Food entry, by the way. It did me no favours at lunchtime.