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 ...
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Congratulations! 🎉
Thank you, Hadil! 🎉 This one was more nerve-wracking to publish than any of the technical posts, so the warm reception has meant a lot.
Welcome! 😊
Congratulations and celebrations,
You’ve 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. 😄
Nnamdi, don’t praise Divya so much, she’ll start crying, poor little girl! 😅
Noted, I will pace myself. 😄 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 I’m vegetarian. 😅 So, do you have any good vegetarian recipes?
@technogamerz Oh dear! 😄 Apologies, I didn’t note that earlier. And sorry for the rather late response. it’s been a really busy few days, and I’ve been completely hooked on a book about AI, Ego and Regret! 😂 @xulingfeng
But yes, absolutely, animal protein is totally optional. There’s a lovely pure vegetarian version of Nigerian Jollof Rice:
Vegetarian Jollof Rice 🍚🌱
Blend tomatoes, red bell pepper, onion, garlic and Scotch bonnet. Fry in a little vegetable oil with tomato purée, 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! I’d genuinely love to hear your thoughts or any feedback. 😊
Exactly! And honestly, that’s probably the best advice you can give to any creator here: interact with the community. The people here are so great that it’s genuinely worth it! 😊
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. 😊
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
It’s 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 I’ve spent here, the more I’ve 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 else’s post, leaving a comment, and then ending up in an actual conversation. Honestly, that’s 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, “the writing was never the bottleneck. Showing up was.” I think that pretty much sums it up. Of course the content is important, but it’s not until you’re actually participating by reading other people’s 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.🙂
Congratulations on getting those hidden privileges!🎉
Just as you said, it wasn’t because of your articles, but your active participation and the sincere comments you left on every post. You truly deserve these privileges. Let’s keep pushing forward together.💪
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. 💪
Nnamdi, Congratulations on the Trusted Member status 😀
Thank you, Hemapriya. 😀 And thank you for using my name. Small thing, but it is the difference between a notification and a conversation.
That's cool 👍
Thanks, Ekong! 👍 Still thinking about that cover image from your Comfort Food entry, by the way. It did me no favours at lunchtime.