Earn higher rewards as you keep sharing your photography
Introduction
I love blockchain technology, photography, Steemit and games and for this reason I have decided to build a game on Steem which is based on sharing photography. My main account is @juliank and I have been sharing my photography for a while now while also hosting several photography contests. I have paid out over 1000 Steem/SBD to fellow Steemians for sharing their amazing photography, but I noticed that I only reach so many people.
Eventually the same people tended to take most of rewards for their amazing photos. So I set out to think of a way to reward everybody participating more equally. Whenever you learn something in life it takes time to grow, a lot of time and I want to reward that time spent. For this reason I have decided to take away some of the prize pool money for the contests and invest that into a bot that upvotes all participants, based on their history of participating and engagement in the community.
Short version
Every time when you share your photography you can use one of the hashtags that my bot filters for (see list of hashtags below). My bot will reward you with an upvote and XP for doing so. You can get up to two upvotes each day. The height of the upvote is determined by how much XP you have collected so far. XP can be earned by posting photos, commenting on photos from other Steemians and winning in my photography contests. Combining manual curation and automated voting over time to build a credible rewarding system.
Beta phase
The bot has been running in alpha for the past 4 days and is now ready for the Beta phase. Join the already huge community of people sharing their photography. In the last 4 days the bot has rewarded:
614 unique users, 1086 photos and 1070 comments
Automated response with account overview
Every time you post a photo with the correct hashtag you get a reply from @photocontests, which tells you if you entered a hashtag with a running contests on it, if so when the deadline is and gives you an overview of your account stats. Btw, the prize pool for the daily contests is over 300 Steem per month.
Daily stats
To prevent spam only your first 2 photos and 5 comments will be rewarded every day. Per photo you earn 5 XP and for each comments you earn 1 XP.
Multiplier
Every consecutive day you post or comment your multiplier goes up by 0.01 until the max of 1.30 is reached. Every day you do not post you loose 25% of your multiplier.
Account level
Your level is based on the amount of XP you have and will determine the height of the 2 upvotes you can earn each day.
| Level | Total XP | Payout |
| 0 | 0 | 0.05 * base vote |
| 1 | 100 | 1 * base vote |
| 2 | 200 | 2 * base vote |
| 3 | 400 | 3 * base vote |
| 4 | 800 | 4 * base vote |
| 5 | 1600 | 5 * base vote |
| 6 | 3200 | 6 * base vote |
| 7 | 6400 | 7 * base vote |
| 8 | 12800 | 8 * base vote |
| 9 | 25600 | 9 * base vote |
| 10 | 51200 | 10 * base vote |
Base vote
The height of the base vote is determined on how much voting power the account holds. Basically whenever the account dips below 90% voting power the base vote will go down every hour. When the account goes above 90% voting power the base vote will go up every hour.
In theory I have 20% voting power to spend every day and I want to distribute this among all participants for the day.
Total XP
This gives an overview of your current XP and what the threshold is for the next level.
Total photos, comments and contest wins
This is just an overview of your total photos and comments (respectively capped at 2 and 5 each day) and your contests wins.
Commenting
Commenting on photos from other Steemians is rewarded. For now due to the way how the Steem blockchain works, comments are only credited when the first tag of the article you are commenting to is one of my hashtags. You will receive a small upvote (0.05%) to let you know that your comment has been credited. You will also see this when posting a photo and you get to see your account stats.
Contests
Every day I host 2 different contests for which I make a daily selection that I share on this blog. Each contest has a prize pool of 5 Steem and 1000 XP which will be divided between all winners. As you can see the weight of a contest win is quite high, the reason for this is that I manually go over all the submissions for the contests. In essence this creates a hybrid system between automated voting and manual curation.
These contests also function as a platform for photographers to show case and discuss their amazing work. Every day 2 absolutely amazing selections are released, have a look at @photocontests to see for yourself.
All of the hashtags with yes/no for contests curation
Known issues
- There is a 20 second delay for commenting, this mean when two people post at the same time the bot cannot comment to both people. Your stats are still registered. This will be resolved in the future.
- Only comments that are commented on an article where the main tag is one of the hashtags are credited.
How to support this amazing project
There will be 2 posts for selection made every day, which you can enjoy but also upvote. All of the rewards generated by them will be used to buy more Steem Power, increasing the voting power over time. You can also upvote the automated comments or delegate Steem Power to this account.
For now I have rented some Steem Power from @minnowboosters, but I will also delegate more of my own Steem Power in the future. I would love for this project to grow from itself.
Plagiarism/Abuse/Cheating
I do all of this on good faith, but there will always be people who will try to exploit this. There is a zero tolerance policy against plagiarism. When I catch you you will get a permanent ban from my bot. This only takes 1 second to do, so it is not worth it. Also, if you go spamming comments just to get the XP you can face similar consequences or deduction of your XP.
Final words
I hope you like this initiative from me and I will do my best to improve as I learn more. All parameters are subject to change to make everything more fair for everybody. I will keep everybody updated on this on my main account @juliank as I want to preserve the blog from @photocontests just for the daily selections.
I see it has been asked, but nobody cares to answer. So may I ask again:
What is "XP" ???
Kind of like hit points.
Thanks @jennacitrus I didn´t know
yeah right, i didn't know too...
"eXPerience"
I'm sorry no one explained this to you sooner! :(
thanks...
LMFAO
It's a common shorthand for experience generally, in American English.. or maybe slang rather? Not too sure.
Oppss I didn't know too....
now you know right..
Ya thanks.
Thanks, i didn't know either
No answer ? What is "XP" man?
Short for "experience"
XP - Experience Points
It stands for Experience Points. In games it is often used to track the progress of growth.
XP, in my understanding,,, will be the point that you get from posting photo or comment. it will accumulate and at a certain level your 'Account Level' will increase. 
Hi! I love the concept, but can someone please help me out? I just posted my first entry (or so I tried), but I'm not getting the comment that I see on other posts. Did I do something wrong?
This is the post:
https://steemit.com/goldenhourphotography/@summer37/coastal-bridal-shoot-goldenhourphotography-submission
No, you probably did something right, so do not worry. You'll learn more and do more "right" things as you proceed.
But most Steemit posts will soon get lost / bypassed in the constantly flowing stream (Streem ;-) ) The more followers you attain, the more people will see your posts and upvote and comment on them.
During the first few months, most Steemians will only get a few comments and very few upvotes. The trick is to keep plugging away. Create content, and curate, every day. Then curate some more and create / post more, every day. Eventually, you'll get more followers, more upvotes, more Steem-Backed Dollars (SBD), and more Steem Power.
It will take a while. But since writing and photography are 2 of your passions, just keep doing what you like, and doing it very well, on Steemit.
Best of luck!
Thanks for the advice. Also new steemit and it's almost 2 weeks since I started.
Great very useful answer really helpful as I'm just getting started as well. Hopefully I can share my view of this amazing world we live in through words and photographs :) Thanks so much for sharing the knowledge!
thanks for your reply, i too has the same question as summer.
Just saw this, thanks for your help!!
For those of you who are newbies, below are a few basic points of advice re posting on Steemit.
Thanks, ill try it ;=)
Great. All the best!
to point 3: if you klick on my pics they wont fill the whole screen.
on some peoples post they do.
can you help me?
thanks
https://steemit.com/macrophotography/@stili/some-macro-images
to point 3: if you klick on my pics they wont fill the whole screen.
on some peoples post they do.
can you help me?
thanks
I am a noob and reading you tutorial is very comforting. It’s a little overwhelming. Thanx for explaining
Followed all your advices in my newest post ;)
Very helpful information @majes.tytyty Thank you for that. Will come and visit to see your layout. I'd like to improve that area of my posting.
thank you for this tips @majes.tytyty. I have a hard understanding of steemit. I hope this will work to me.
Gracias por esta información muy interesante
Thank you for the clear explanations @majes.tytyty. Still a newbie here and can't fully understand the platform. I'll try it too, I hope it will work for me. Thanks for sharing the points to remember.
Great, but more important, very useful comment! Thanks ;-)
Thank you for the advice..I just started this month on Steemit and I notice no one upvotes and comments on my post. Thank you for sharing this helpful tips.
I have same question. I have posted and not getting any comment from the bot.
same here. I had three entry I think but did not get any comment. I also asked myself if I did something wrong?
Thank you for asking this as I too have had the same problem. I think I understand what @majes.tytyty was saying thank you both :)
Thanks for having this contest. There are many categories to choose from and the hashtags look original too. I resteemed it to invite my friends to join.
I love gamification!
Thanks I appreciate it :D I tried to make the hashtags as balanced and divers as possible
Why can't I participate although using the correct tag? I did not see the comment from photocontest bot. Did I do something wrong or Is it too crowded to attend? Please help!
For example:
https://steemit.com/vehiclephotography/@leodang/chasing-sun
Best,
This post is great, together with the general concept of these photo contests in order to engage people with posting their photography on Steemit.
I've been trying to find a curation of all the various different contests (e.g. photos, poetry etc...) on Steemit. I may make a post but if anyone knows if there is one already then please do let me know!
Great! Welcome onboard :)
Thank you sir :)
Looks like a great way to start a new initiative for new and amazing photographers to be found on Steemit. I have applied to a few of your contests and have loved seeing the amazing work from photographers worldwide. I will be sure to give this new system a try :)
Awesome, I agree one of the purposes is a way for new Steemians who are into photography to get noticed
I agree 👍🏻
nice project
Ah that's a really nice exp progression. Really well thought of!
Time will tell, this is just an initial set up. Depending on how it goes I can adjust it to make this more fair
Hi there, thanks for running this @juliank I actually commented 5 times yesterday on the posts that have the correct tag first, but I didn't get XP's, how come?
Love the ideas you are developing here @juliank, hate this part:
Not all of us are whales able to live of SteemIt income, we have to go to work, look after families and so on. I believe the penalty to people having life beyond Steemit is not very constructive, pardon my frankness ; )
Thanks for the feedback, currently I am just gathering data. After 2 weeks I will have a good idea on how many people of the population are able to keep their multiplier up and adjust from there. I do not want everybody to be at 1.30 so there should be a small penalty.
noworries, thank you for considering my suggestion!
Everything is on the table, I want to create a equal environment for all. But I have to start somewhere so most values are totally arbitrary for now :P
I hear you mate! Please dont consider my comment as a criticism, rather it's a "loud thinking" to contribute in some small way. I have tried creating my own contest to branch out into medicine on Steemit, with no replies, so I know, on a much smaller scale, what's involved into that part ;)
Wow. Amazing. It is a good way to introduce and integrate photographers in steemit. Photographers will have good reasons to stay. Giving us a stage to grow. Thank you!
Glad you see it that way, that is also part of what I want to achieve. Thanks!
This sounds amazing...But couldn't grasp the base vote concept. Can i get what percent of upvote that means?
The base vote is determined by how many people are sharing and tagging their photos by the day. Look at the following example.
Let us assume that the base vote is worth $0.10:
If you are level 0 your upvote will be worth 0.1 * 0.10 = $0.01
if you are level 3 your upvote will be worth 3 * 0.10 = $0.30
Since the amount of people participating every day is not constant, and Steems regenerates 20% of voting power each day. The base vote will fluctuate and try to keep voting power at a optimal level.
Thanks for such illustrative response. Totally appreciate the Contest!
Good questions lead to elaborate answers ;)
Also, can we use any of the above # for any day or do we have to use specific hashtag for a specific day? Coz here it isn't mentioned but in your yesterday's post you had mentioned Specific Days with Specific Hashtag!
I have the overview for you here:
Monday: foodphotography and animalphotography
Tuesday: landscapephotography and cityscapephotography
Wednesday: architecturalphotography and vehiclephotography
Thursday: macrophotography and colourfulphotography
Friday: streetphotography and portraitphotography
Saturday: sportsphotography and smartphonephotography
Sunday: goldenhourphotography and longexposurephotography
Whenever you use a tag you will automatically be notified when the deadline is when you can expect a result. For the others tags, those are just for people that want to share other photos, not being limited by the categories of the contests
I live in Australia, not sure where you are but I have a question about time zone differences... for example if its Monday here its Sunday in America, so should I tag things with the previous days hash tag, or will my entries just go into the following week? sorry if this sounds silly but I am just a bit confused. :-)
Hi Juliank,
i have posted:
smartphonephotography: https://steemit.com/smartphonephotography/@miyakilee/photography-2-the-beautiful-scenery-begins-from-heart-not-the-view
portraitphotography:
https://steemit.com/photography/@miyakilee/photography-1-the-beauty-of-traditional-costume
but there is no notification stated that when is the deadline like you said. May i know is my entry valid? Just want to double confirm here since there is no notification.
Hope to hear from you soon,
have a nice day!
Thanks for your rapid response. Off for Sunday Long Exposure Post Creation. See you there!!!
hi julian,
i would like to follow your new game/bot! any change we can add Dronephotography...?
who can explaind to me in arabic
great
Goood job
Lot's of work and effort placed here. To be honest, I'm having way too much fun and my submissions and comments will always be for unselfish reasons, okay don't bend my arm, it's for entertainment. There are so many talented people sharing their culture and photographic abilities I look towards the weeks pick and am trying not to go bald with the usual question of which I liked best (LOL).
Haha, entertainment is also important. That is also the main reason I will only post the weekly picks on @photocontests, this way the blog is neat and clean. Only filled with high quality content and lots of value in going over the older posts. Also creating value for the photographers who made the photos as their photos become more visisble
I am glad I had clicked on your post!
I have wanted to post more of my photos and this is a great way for me to show them!
I am going to participate in your contests!
Awesome, looking forward to your photos :)
Edit level please @photocontests
I will definitely be participating! =)
Awesome, have fun doing so ;)
i will! I'll give you a follow as well, i'm still new and excited to learn more!
@juliank You certainly are doing well, keep up the great work. I resteemed you to qualify you for a Genius Award. #GeniusAward
Man you´re a Genius...as said this will be the biggest photocontest on steemit one day, if its not already!! Love your work @juliank. upvote and resteem.
I hope so and will do my best, thanks!
you are very kind to do this contest and for the effort @juliank . Thank you again and again.
<3
Very well organised contest. Good job. it encourage to stay longer in Steemit.
Glad to hear that it is working ;)
I thoroughly adore this awesome activity. enhancing photography specialty is so wonderful. I want to be a whale, I would assigned some sp to this extend.
That is very kind of you. Sharing your photography or your thought (via comments) already adds value :)
This is great @juliank and thanks again for putting in so much work for this competition. One question, is there any way to check your xp without having to wait for the update reply on a post?
Not yet, my skills are specialised in backend. A website with direct access to the database is on the horizon though
Just so that I'm clear, you don't actually have to sign up anywhere you just have to use the hashtags? Correct?
That is correct, you are not required to do anything. Just use one of the hashtags and my bot will be able to find your post. Also no need to follow my accounts, but that is always appreciated :)
Great work @juliank :) I think keep manual selection and created a bot to up crease interaction between steemians is very great idea. Bot doesn't replace human but can help him very well :)
Indeed, the bot allows me to gather data and interact with people. This way I can focus on the manual curation of the contests. When people reach certain levels I will also check their accounts to see if everything is legit
Juliank can I see how much XP I have ? just so I know please. thank you
With love,
harj : ) xoxo
Abstract artist
This is brilliant, can't wait to get involved.
I hope you have fun doing so!
Hey, I see you answer all the questions very well, so I dare to make one: How would be the post title? Or I just use the correct tags no matter the title? Thank you!
I recommend to use a fitting title. When you win one of the contests I will use your title and put it underneath the photo with your name. Having a good title invites other people to check out your blog
All right, thanks again !
What a great concept, looking forward to taking part in this! Hopefully will come across some inspirational work and of course, have a great platform to share my mine.
Have a look at the daily selection on @photocontests, there is already a lot of very inspiring work to be found ;)
Wow thank you for the opportunity. I am happy to share my photos with the community.
Awesome, looking forward to it
So the limit is 2 photos per day, not per category?
Correct, well you can post as much as you want. However, you only get rewarded for your first 2 photos per day
Aah now i got it. Thank you!
Thank you for this contest Invite my friends to join
Awesome!
I appreciate the great work you do here, thank you very much @juliank
Thank you @samic, I will do my best to keep it coming!
I love taking pictures hoping to join your contest someday😊 resteemed and followed you
Awesome, feel free to do so whenever you feel like it. You can also go to @photocontests to be inspired by other great Steemians
Nice thanks
Great! I love photograpy and cryptos too, I will participate in the contest for sure!
Great, looking forward to your photos. Have fun participating
1.Can i participate 2 category contest with one post...?
Yes you can, however keep it mind that I look at the thumbnails to determine if I will have a closer look. So when the thumbnail does not correspond to the category I will not look at it. I go over more than 100 photos for some categories, I do this to make it doable
I am learning ...brother... i am new ....One day ...I will success ...to fully understand ..
I'm really interest with you contest and I'll try to participate. Upvote and resteemed this post.
Feel free to participate whenever you feel like it, with this new system you are always rewarded even if you do not win :D
Glad to hear it @juliank. I'ill try so hard for you contest.
Yes I also participate of this contest @nchis 👆
wow amazing news you write your post.thanks for share this news dear.I don't khow about this contest.I khow about this contest from your post it's really good for new steemit user.
Great that this post brought you in contact with my photography contests, have fun participating
sorry dear cause i'n not a photograher and i don't have havvy camras all that.so i can't participat this contest.but i'm happy for learn and khow about this contest.
What about a smartphone?
yes i have a smartphone.i click my photos and i love click photigraphs.
You are my number 1 priority when it comes to contests l've participated also in some of your contest.You have our support @juliank .Keep up the good work that you doing we love you
That is so nice, thanks <3
Live this...... I will for sure be sharing some photos.... Thank you for this post.....
Awesome, I hope you like it :)
This is really a great start up by you.
Thanks I appreciate it, for me it also a learning experience and I am looking forward to what will come of it
Dear photocontests
You have rewarded me with a number of 6.50 XP for each post that I have shared with our Steemit community.
I am very grateful for receiving these rewards from you.
I am however a little confused as to what are XP.
As a newbie in Steemit, I would welcome if you could explain to me
The meaning of XP.
Thank you photocontests for taking the time in reading my message.
Hey @photocontests (or @juliank)!
I just was bored to open the #introduceyourself of @photocontests (https://steemit.com/introduceyourself/@photocontests/readme), to see the relevant hashtags. So i decided to make a quick overview for print out (as image and/or PDF).
If you like, contact me if there are any changes. You are welcome anytime!
Original post:
https://steemit.com/steemit/@powerpaul/cheat-sheet-for-photocontests-or-all-hashtags-and-infos-overview-printable-and-as-pdf
Stay safe & clear!
Thank you!
https://steemit.com/streetphotography/@rajamuradi/happy-friday-steemit-beautiful-wildflowers-275384dd7f2bf
good ideas
I will call my friends
thanks
https://steemit.com/photo/@nch1234/16-give-you-a-beautiful-landscape-autumn-fall
In this post, I used free images that are not copyrighted.
I admit that I did not know the rules that I should use the pictures that I shot myself and admit my mistake. It can not be deleted or modified according to SteamIT regulations. I am sorry to have left a bad example in your contest. I sincerely apologize.
I will no longer be able to participate in this contest because of a violation of regulations, but I will support this contest with my heart. Have a nice day.
I do not speak English very well, so please understand that the conversation is strange.