I had wondered about the engagement league! I will certainly join it, thanks for explaining it. I don't follow asher, though I know of him and his former work with the minnow power up league which was awesome and what introduced me to him and PaulaG a while back.
I've been doing my own little curation initiative, though I don't have any official things for it but I've been trying to visit the newly posted content instead of my feed before bed and find out new people, or accounts that I think have cool stuff, and vote for them if I like the content but also give them a comment. I've been trying to keep up with them as well, though it gets challenging, but I've found a couple really cool accounts! I've also gained some new followers and people I follow which has been great, spreading my wings a bit rather than sticking to my feed exclusively.
This is all solid advice for new people, I've seen a lot of people who post things like a picture with a couple words and expect votes. It's attracted the spaminator account which is knocking them down a few pegs but I wish there was a different way we could knock some sense into some of them so they don't get discouraged and just quit. I have left a few comments to no avail, will keep trying though.