16 Posts, Started Commenting, then got the Shield

I joined DEV in June and started doing what I have been avoiding for a long time. Now and then, I hit...

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