Thank you for the *mention* within your recent and past posts @deepdives. I'm also thankful for all past support.

Now that *Communities* have officially begun, I'm happy to be a member and hope my participation may provide value of sorts.

Regarding the feedback suggestions in the above post, I would not be opposed to the formation of a ***voting trail***, yet personally, I've not joined any trails in the past, preferring to *manually* curate.

In actuality, I'm not certain if my VP level is ample enough to support manual curation along with dedicating resources to a voting trail. Any input from a more knowledgeable individual on this subject would be welcomed.

***Delegating*** is something which interests me and I have begun with a small delegation to @curie; I certainly would consider delegating to @DeepDives.

***Authors*** - Since I feel individuals within a *community* should be responsive and *supporting* of others...Admittingly, I loose my interest in authors who appear to be prolific, handsomely rewarded, yet return nothing in the way of engaged support. (The mere *Takers*)

Though *quality* may be considered subjective, my belief is that *DeepDives* consideration of 'quality' coincides much with my *own*. Therefore, I support future efforts to focus attention upon those authors who display a similar standard within their work.

***Phew*** That's enough for now...

Ciao, my friends

Subbed :)

> #### What authors would you like to see posting to DD?

<B>
##### @corbettreport
##### @caitlinjohnstone
##### @zyx066
##### @tremendospercy
##### @perceptualflaws
##### @fortified
##### @ausbitbank
<B>
... and many more
<B>
:)

@fatkat FKNTL.com may be able to make some songs about interesting research. Would love to hear if anything you think would make a good song. 

https://youtu.be/eZRsIu5GIvU

Great job you are doing, @deepdives, especially regarding Julian Assange:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P06A2DfcGQM

It’s been both an honour and a great learning experience to be part of this small but committed community from it’s inception, and I greatly appreciate what the founders of this initiative and their vision, have done to allow free peoples to follow their hearts and participate in something that will greatly benefit humanity as a whole on this blockchain. An opportunity to create a resource that we can all share and be proud of as a community and the wider blockchain. A resource and index, based on hard hitting facts! There is nothing more powerful than well researched and open sourced journalism that can free us from the chains of the manipulators and spin doctors within the dinosaur media and its special interests.  

 I do believe that this initiative will benefit greatly, with the rollout of the new steem communities feature that we are now experiencing on this blockchain...and things will only get better as we progress from here! I’m also super excited to see @deepdives return after a hiatus, and can’t wait to continue reading and learning from all the veteran and citizen journalists well into the future. (At least there is a future now lol!) 

Now that we have more specific communities on this blockchain, I think it will enable us all to form even closer relationships and a new appreciation for each others efforts and research, and will allows us to index our work in a more organised and cohesive fashion, with open access to all. And what better way, than on a censorship resistant platform such as Steem!

I hope it will also allow us to expand our reach and discover new Steemians who may not have known about this initiative previously, that will now be eager to be part of this amazing opportunity. I’m certain there are some undiscovered talented minds and researchers out there waiting to dip their toe into the water, with a bit of encouragement from us all!

Different angles/ideas and points of reference are always a great way to reach and introduce new people into our community, which is something I believe is very important. I also believe that allowing authors to have more freedom in what topics and research they want to delve into will encourage more participation. That’s just my belief of course, and partly because that’s what I myself would prefer LOL. I’m not sure what others think about that, so hopefully you will get more input there.

As far as trying to get more participation in general, I’ve had the thought that a mentoring style program or collaborative initiative may encourage more Steemians to dip their toe into the water, so to speak. Steemians that may otherwise be slightly reluctant or unsure of where to begin, and a bit of guidance from more experienced researchers would open the door for more co-operative efforts. But that would also be a choice for each individual to decide whether they want to try out something like that. I was actually in discussions about doing that with another contributor, but it never eventuated due to unforseen circumstances in the end.

I will be looking forward to contributing and helping where I can, although that’s a little more difficult at this point for myself, as it takes me 3 times as long to do what I previously did...I will be trying my best though! I at least hope to get around to more posts with both comments and manual curation efforts. It is true that I have somewhat succumbed to auto-voting and the bots (@valued-customer lol), but that is something I had little choice in due to both time constraints and life issues. 

Just on the general topic of voting, I think a curation trail may actually be beneficial to this community. I can also see a token being desirable based on the fact that there are already many tribes out there that issue tokens and it has become a popular way of rewarding Steemians for their efforts. But that can be decided upon by everyone as a whole:-)

Thank you for the mention, it's been my honor to have participated and hopefully contributed in some small way. I've thought often about using the #deepdives tag but didn't want to do so without permission- I guess this is my opportunity to ask.

Free people face a conundrum in understanding relevant information in our world.  Extant power structures have availed, and continue to accelerate, financial concentration of wealth to control economy(s), and thereby control society(s).  

Civilian journalists that seek factual information aren't paid by legacy institutions to do so (and actually counter propaganda from those sources), and have to do other work.  I bend nails.  This means that absent crowdfunding folks seeking facts are dilettantes, part timers, and non-specialists, as well as limited in the time they can spend on research.  We do what we can.

The burgeoning censorship effected by extant technocratic media institutions increasingly threatens our ability to research and communicate what we learn.  Articles and information are purged, and we ourselves are prevented from publishing.  I would like to see mechanisms that improve our ability to do the necessary research, and to disseminate the results.  Undertaking this effort on Steem is a good start.  An archival tool for sources we discover that are likely to disappear would be extremely important.  Two vids central to posts I made in recent weeks have been removed from Youtube, removing the evidence I cited from my posts.  A way to download and archive pages, digital documents, and audio/video content would be of enormous significance.

Perhaps creating best practices and how to's regarding use of the sources you mention, like Wikileaks, Cryptome, etc., would decrease the learning curve and error rate of non-professionals digging into those sources.  I know I have been shy about using certain sources because of that learning curve, and the fear of making mistakes because of my nescience.  

While all the authors you mention are indeed valuable to me, the authors I'd most like to see doing this research and publishing their findings are ordinary folks that have discovered truths that have disturbed them.  While seasoned diggers may be well aware of such matters, it behooves us to celebrate the breaking free of ordinary folks from the mental control imposed by the enemedia.  While we may not learn much new information from them (though we certainly might), by welcoming them we can substantively ease their learning and increase the network effect and impact on society of facts contrary to propaganda.

Authors that may not be digging into archival resources for their content, but hitting the streets instead, may be of inestimable value in establishing relevance to society of our work, but may be outside the purview of the Deep Dives Community.  Copwatchers particularly have produced stories that demonstrate the utility of work digging into old archives where political causes of present malfeasance are revealed.

Since I largely eschew the financial system, due to it's co-option by nefarious institutions to control society, I may not be suited to discuss Delve tokens, or curation trails and the like.  I note that social media is a venue for society, and society is comprised of people, not bots.  I have always voted personally and manually to preclude the automation of humanity that seems to be coming to the degree I can.  This may not be the most effective way forward for the Deep Dives Community, but it is based on principles I find factual and compelling.  A token sidesteps extant financial control mechanisms, and may be of great utility in furthering our work.

I know I am extremely grateful you have created the Deep Dives community, because free speech depends on the facts conveyed for it's relevance.  Increasingly, suppressed truth presents existential threats to society, our community, and each of us individually.  It might seem trite, but in fact our lives may depend on this effort, and for undertaking it you deserve my undying gratitude.

Thanks!

Edit:  I want to add a recommendation that the community recognizes new contributors, maybe even folks that have only just become aware of and published disturbing facts that counter establishment narratives.  Also, while specific targets of research may be advisable from time to time, simply recognizing the best published during a given period may better suit civilian researchers' interests and abilities.