Ah, well I was referring to the Graphene blockchain framework, which is an easily customizable and extensible blockchain project. It provides a solid starting point for making new blockchains, allowing the developers to skip past all the busy work and get straight to what's unique about their project.

The fact that Graphene was completely designed and implemented before Steem was even a figment of anyone's imagination, and that a few developers took Steem from idea to beta in a matter of a few months is, in my admittedly biased opinion, quite a testament to its success. :]

As to a slack channel, the Steem slack is being retired in favor of Steem Rocket Chat. I'm not aware of any channel dedicated to the discussion of long-term sustainability, but one could easily be started.