Yesterday I kicked off #TenKMinnows as a project to get us from 9,200 to 10,000 minnows on #Steem, possibly by the end of this year. #pennsif took my casual comment and gave it some impetus. Suddenly I'm on one of his radio shows. That will be on Thursday evening (8pm UK) and we will be discussing where we can take the project.

As you can see in this chart produced by @arcange we have a large number of dead and struggling accounts. We really need them to be more a part of the Steem #community. If a new user cannot gain any traction they are likely to power down and leave, if they even made anything. I joined Steem in 2016 and things are very different now. It is much harder to get noticed and the buying of votes makes it practically impossible to trend unless you can pay a lot.

The definition of a minnow is someone having at least 500 SP. I think you go to dolphin at 5000 SP. We need more of both, but increasing the minnows seems an easier target. Coincidentally 500 SP is about how much you need to give a 1c vote at the moment. Seeing a post value change every time you give a full vote may make people feel they have some influence.

So what could we be doing?

Sub-Minnows

There are various ways you can get to this target:

• @slobberchops pointed out that buying 500 Steem would cost you less than $200. That may be a month's wages to some, but to others it is the weekly groceries shop. Buying some Steem shows that you have some belief in the platform and will be taken as a sign that you are serious about it. That Steem needs to be powered up to count. I see some people buy Steem and then spend it on votes. That has a fairly low return and is unlikely to gain you much community support.
• Over a year you need to earn about 10 Steem each week. To do that you need to be active. You need at least one post that has not paid out yet so people have something to vote on and you should try to make sure that post has value to others. It could a review of something, some original photography/music/art, tips on a game (possibly one that runs on Steem). Of course you can make more posts, but do not overload us. Quality is more important than quantity.
• You should also be leaving good comments that will make people want to check out your posts. The comments themselves can also earn you something.
• Take advantage of the many contests on Steem such as the Beer Saturday by @detlev and Open Mic by @luzcypher. These can win you some Steem.
• Use dapps like @actifit. Making a daily post about your physical activity is a good excuse to post and you can earn their own tokens too. Some of the dapps will give out some good votes too. Just do not abuse their generosity.
• Join or start a community around whatever you are into. That can be travel, cookery, music, gardening or whatever. As the community grows you are bound to find others who share your interest, but you will have to seek them out.
• Make Steem fun for yourself. Most of us do not earn enough to justify the time we spend here, but if it is enjoyable you will want to come back. In time it may pay you back.

Dolphins and above

These are the people with the power to create new minnows. A few votes each week can give someone a big boost. Of course it is nice to make money for ourselves, but unless we can substantially grow the community Steem will stagnate and other platforms will overtake it. Here some things I have been doing and others I have been considering.

• Adopt some new users. If you think someone is doing something of value then follow them, give them good votes and re-steem their posts. I do the Follow Friday posts to promote users who I think need more exposure and deserve to do better.
• Delegate to them. I do this with several people with no expectation of any payment in return. I want them to be able to give good votes to others and earn a little more from curation.
• Give them some referral rewards. If you signed up to a game like @DrugWars without a referral link you may be able to manually set who should get those rewards. Why not let them go to someone for whom they will make a real difference?
• Sponsor a contest and possibly limit the reputation or SP of entrants.
• Dedicate some of your voting to the small-fry. You can get by with a little less curation rewards from strategic voting.
• Give out some @SteemBasicIncome shares. To be honest I think the return on this is pretty low for now, but it can encourage people to keep posting.

I am opening this up to your suggestion of other things each side can do. I really do not have a lot of time to dedicate to this project, but I will do what I can. I would really like the sub-minnows to do the leg-work (hmm, fish do not have legs). They can be seeking out others who need support to bring them to the attention of those with the power to help. You can use these posts and the #TenKMinnows tag to link to your posts and make suggestions. I do not want to set too many rules on what is allowed, but the main thing is to promote actions that build the Steem community and create good content that will draw in more users. Those who just buy votes or self-vote on junk posts need not apply.

I will mention that I have a load of claimed accounts looking for homes. If you know of someone who you think should be on Steem and want to bypass the approval process then let me know. Ideally they need to have content elsewhere and provide some proof of who they are. I want these accounts to go to those who will add value. I will consider delegating to the new users.

If you want to be on the show on Thursday then please contact me or @pennsif. We will look at getting somewhere on Discord to discuss the project soon.

This is not about me, I want it to be a community project driven by the community with participation by all levels of user for the greater good of Steem. Please keep it friendly and let us help each other out. I declined rewards on the previous post, but @whatsup said I should take them. They will all be powered up so I can give our more votes. I am trying to build up my voting power at the moment, but most of my votes are going to smaller users, so please do not be offended if I do not vote up your comment.

Are you in?

I'm Steve, the geeky guitarist.

• I'll buy guitar picks for Steem
• Get a Wirex Debit Card to spend your crypto.
• Get some passive income with Mannabase
• Get paid to search at Presearch
• Battle for cards on Steem Monsters or drugs in Drug Wars]
• I have Steem accounts to give away to worthy people!