We are pleased to announce the launch of a new project backed by Ned Scott, who has donated voting power to create Steem Guild.
Steem Guild was formed primarily to support established creators of quality content who still need assistance to generate their own following. In addition, Steem Guild will help grow Steemit in particular focus areas (such as Science/Tech and foreign languages) in which the project has a trusted team of curators and a reliable process in place for the high quality review of posts.
Bridging the Gap
Project Curie is able to find great content creators and support them. But after those first votes, Curie must move on to support other new authors. What happens to those who continue posting great quality content on Steemit, but are not able to make more than $5-10 per post? Many authors become frustrated because there is a gap between Curie and becoming fully established.
Steem Guild hopes to bridge this gap. Authors whose previous posts have complied with Project Curie guidelines and who continue creating good content can receive ongoing support through Steem Guild. We believe this will help with retention and morale on Steemit as well!
Separation of Personnel and Powers; Cooperation to Avoid Overlap
Project Curie and Steem Guild are two separate projects. It is important that the curation power be decentralized and that new community members are brought in to participate in this work.
There is a separation of personnel between Project Curie and Steem Guild. Several veterans of Project Curie have helped establish, train and support Steem Guild’s new team of curators. Those currently working on Steem Guild are no longer submitting posts or making votes on behalf of Project Curie, while Project Curie staff members have no jurisdiction beyond Curie’s mission. Both projects have separate communications channels.
Yet the two projects will cooperate, which is a key to their work. To ensure that there is no overlap in terms of authors being rewarded, staff from the two projects work together to create a list of authors who can move on from Curie and be rewarded via Steem Guild. In addition, the #curie chat channel will remain the place for all new post submissions.
Steem Guild, main project guidelines:
- Authors must be producing consistently good content which improves Steemit
- Original content with no material that is plagiarized or generated by word spinners
- Authors must have low lifetime rewards
- No Steemit related posts
- No controversial posts
- No polarizing themes or subjects (such as politics)
- No posts that are just one photograph
- Must cite sources for any non-original content (text, photo, video, etc.)
- Maximum rewards: 1 post per day per author
- Preferably people who have been in Steemit for at least 1-2 months
Please do not submit posts to Steem Guild or its staff members. Steem Guild’s main responsibility is to review posts from the established authors on its list, apply a set of criteria to screen them, and bestow rewards as appropriate. This author list largely comes from Project Curie. So please use the #curie channel on Steemit.chat to submit any new posts that comply with the Project Curie guidelines.
Let’s continue working hard to make Steemit better!
Ned @ned
Tom @donkeypong
Adil @the-alien
Gavvet @gavvet
Brian @hanshotfirst
Jason @jrcornel
Celia @coinbitgold
Rob @justtryme90
Jam @jamtaylor
Pfunk @pfunk
And other great contributors from the Steemit community
Image Credits:
Shield design: by @hanshotfirst
Bridge: Licensed via istockphoto
Mud Wall: Pixabay
Thumbs up! This is an important next step for the platform. I hope other curation guilds and other whales will continue to put Steemit first instead of curation rewards from a handful of successful authors. There will be no growth and added value until we can retain those who we have brought here and keep helping them achieve their dreams.
Wow, these curation guilds are really helping to evolve the platform. Projects like Steem Guild, Curie, and Steemprentice are getting those bases covered and it's beautiful to watch. I find and follow a lot of authors out of these lists so thanks for the killer curation.
great that it is finally live ! keep up the good work
This is a great initiative for steemit as a whole we believe. We are trying to assist in the user attention as authors and content creators gather a following and no longer qualify for Curie, and we want to keep assisting those to.
If steemit has big a user base, we can all grow together as more people start joining. We all want steemit to grow and grow :)
Six months anniversary coming soon, look how far steemit has come. Here's to a wonderful six more months with many more great things to come!
It has been a pleasure to be among all of you!
Very well said! Great to have you with us! :)
This is great for the Steemit community! User retention has been our biggest problem.. I am glad to be a part of the solution!
This is a great project and it is an honor to be apart of it, and to serve the steemit community. :)
It has been a great pleasure to work with both of you, you have a good eye for posts, you try to help others and your energy in contagious. It's great to do this project with you guys!
Honored to be part of this project :-)
Great to have you among us :)
There's a place for us, somewhere a place for us....
There is now - thanks to Steem Guild
Thanks for doing this..My faith is restored! When does the project commence?
The project has started already. We won't get every deserving author, but it will cover a lot more people. I hope that more whales and projects consider the tremendous need to help existing authors who are producing great content and committing to the platform, not just by paying $500 to the same 10 authors, but by spreading that out so that hundreds of good posts are getting $30 or more. In time, I hope there will be more curation guilds that can cover everyone who deserves it. This is the next big step.
Very good initiative. If you at some point develop specialized/thematic curation guilds, e.g. for Science & Technology, it would be great to couple this with thematic, easy to search repositories. The best posts for each subject could be the seed for some sort of "steemwikis".
Good idea the "steemwiki"
The people are rejoicing and there is dancing in the streets..'We are saved' they are shouting 'our home is safe and we can stay here'.
I am absolutely thrilled to be part of this project. There are so many creative people on steemit who deserve to be recognized and rewarded for their contributions. I am honored to be part of a team whose goal is to support as many community members as possible.
Congratulations! It sounds like a huge project.
It has been a pleasure to have you with us as well, let's continue helping many people and this beautiful platform grow!
Thank you! This idea will help so many people continue to improve their skill set and content.
Great incentive to create really good content.
Awesome job everyone! I am really excited to see this! It will definitely help with user retention :)
Fantastic initiative. Just what is needed to help retain valued contributors and move the platform forward.
Thank you @nanzo-scoop! This is how we're trying to help :)
Congrats for this initiative! I was reviewing my notes for my "Steemit - The First 7 Days Experience" post and one of the points was that there is too much "automation" available and the system looks like it can be "played". By "automation" I mean quite a number of bots (some of them easily recognizable by their usernames: username1, username2, username3, etc). As an author, I'm not very happy when I see that I'm voted by bots. :)
My take is that, at this moment, without a very powerful AI backend, it would be difficult for Steemit to give a real opportunity to valuable content creators, genuinely interested in the platform. The noise to signal ratio is a bit balanced towards the "noise" part. Projects like Steemit Guild are signaling that there is hope, and there is some concern related to the quality of the content in the network.
Wishing you all the luck with that!
Thanks, we will certainly be putting a human touch back into things. Will be working hard to help as many people as we can! There is so much good stuff being made here!
Thanks, and looking forward to it :)
Thank you! You make some very valid points there. We are hoping Steem Guild can alleviate some of those concerns!
Thanks for the answer :)
Looks great everyone, anytime a new project comes up looking to establish other writers, it makes me excited. Even if people aren't the ones being paid, better distribution of funds will increase the value of the platform and the holdings. Look forward to following the project
Exactly! A rising tide raises all ships... or something like that. The more contributors we have, the better for everyone!
= No Interest.
Those posts get enough attention on their own! :)
Really? I could make a very compelling case that important political information being put out here, goes completely unnoticed. Whilst fiction, people's personal trips, and talk about the platform itself gets pushed to the top. I think this planet is in a very dire political situation and that needs to be addressed far more importantly than people's travel photos and their blogs about their feelings. Just saying.
The CEO's name can't be attached to stuff like that... I'm sure you understand. Produce good quality content that you are proud of and benefits others and the rest will take care of itself! :)
@jrcornel He has a valid point, @dantheman makes political posts all the time.
How about giving considering to political posts that are fair, balanced and devoid of bias?
Otherwise this place will keep swimming in wannabe anarchists that don't even understand the word, but have a huge following anyways.
The point is that controversial posts often get lots of attention anyways without our help. We are trying to help the posts and authors that get ignored. The only political post that could be considered is one that shows no bias one way or the other because we can't imply that the CEO of Steemit is leaning one way or the other... If he wants to support those posts personally he still has that option, but we can't do that through our project... Does that make sense?
Yes, I just don't think that promoting posts on here because they fit some sort of PC paradigm is any benefit to society or the platform. I think ALL posts should be considered is all.
The benefit is that it encourages a diversity of content. Look at the trending page of Steemit, everyday 9 out of 10 posts are steemit related or anarchist related. If we are to attract the masses, that has to change... We are taking steps to do that.
Wonderful idea! Besides posting good content, how can I help?
Figuring out ways to build collaborative communities.. collaborating with someone else of different skillsets will be a great start :). Or if you find fresh, new accounts, and love their stuff.. leave some comments that invite response, just getting to know people better and all :)
Cool, sound like what I'm already doing. Loving it.
I totally agree that is what "openmic" is doing.
Will other users be able to delegate curation power to a guild. Maybe a protocol-level function that allows anyone to delegate curation responsibilities to other users to achieve more effective curation. I can think of many types of guilds that are needed, such as a guild that focuses on commentors, as I don't think enough is getting paid to really good comments.
Yes, more guilds are coming. Soon, Steemit will allow that formally, which will make everyone's work a lot easier.
And now people can know were those mystery @ned votes have been coming from ;)
Hmm, I was wondering that. Got two votes from @ned this week on posts about gardening related topics. I thought for a minute he was a closet gardener. Those votes sure helped.
To @donkeypong and everyone else involved with this, thank you so much!
No. Thank you for creating content that brings value to the steemit!
Do you think it would be a good idea for the Curie author list that you are using to be made public? It might help these authors gain more followers if curators knew that there is potential for an upvote from Steem Guild.
Possibly. We'd like to keep the model simple for now because we have a lot of work and limited time. Perhaps we can consider doing some vote trails from a central account at some point, rather like @curie does, but that is somewhere in the future. In fact, it would help the platform even more if others would look for additional good quality content and vote on that instead, as Steem Guild will take care of these ones already.
Cool, thanks for your response.
nothing controversial or polarizing?
So you want to talk about sports...(uh...no..one team verses the other..that's the defintion of contention). Religion...(no...people who want to have fun and those who don't want them to. Fiction? ( no..fiction is a lie dressed up in a pretty party dress) The News? (no...see fiction) . How about gardening? no (damn those GMO's) The weather? (no...drat it..globul wurming)
Science (er...no...conspiracy theories..)
sigh...I'm so frustrated..
Much of that material would be fine. We'd just filter out the really controversial pieces and let the community vote on those themselves. Other curation projects have other focus areas; this one aims for a diversity of original content from authors posting in a lot of other areas that are under-represented so far.
Just post what you are interested in and what you think can benefit the platform. The rest will take care of itself. The CEO's name can't be attached to certain topics... I'm sure you can understand that. Besides, those controversial posts tend to get plenty of interest that there is not need for us! We are there for the other ones :)
TEOTWAWKI
(An Original Novel - Chapter 33 )
teotwawki rocks :)
I'm waiting for my post limit to 'time out'. When it does I'll post chapter 34.
Chapter 30 received the most votes EVER for anything that I've ever posted (1165 posts and comments to date...this comment makes 1166...in a month). It received 128 votes, and earned OVER $20! Wow!!
What constitutes "low" lifetime rewards?
We want to focus the rewards on people who have not made much money yet. The standard evolves along with the number of good posts and the available voting power; we will try to get as many deserving authors as we possibly can.
Right, but what constitutes "much"? I've been posting under the @curie tag and I often get a @curie upvote. I have about $1,800 steem power. Is that considered a lot? Am I graduating out of @curie? I think I read somewhere that anything under $3,500 is considered minnow status, so I think I'm still a minnow, but I'm not sure.
You're not a Steemillionaire yet, so I'm sure you're still in the running.
Cool. Thanks!
I'm going to be a Steemillionaire....hopefully before I die. LOL
Thanks for your response @donkeypong :)
Ahh! There's hope for me too! Thank you!
By the way, I've used up most of my votes for today just on the excellent replies and responses to this blog post... I'm never gonna get that Ferrari!
No you're going to get two of them when Steemit takes off!!!! Keep creating awesome content!
The majority...
This is great! I haven't qualified for Curie in a while because I've been busting my butt to build my reputation. Only recently has my following jumped. Sadly, my earnings are like a yo-yo but I'm just happy to be earning so can you define low lifetime rewards?
Please see my answer to @geke above. We will try to help as many people as we can. Hopefully, other projects will spring up and other whales will recognize we need more attention towards author retention; I hope that in time everyone who produces great content and commits to Steemit will get the rewards they deserve.
This is a good idea! I'm trying to promote good food authors on steemit, through a daily pick of 4 authors.
That's awesome! You should keep doing it. The Guild is meant to add to the great work that community members are already doing, not replace it. Together we can all help this site grow.
Thanks @hanshotfirst! Just posted the #14 edition!
Steemitrecipes Daily Picks - Entry 014!
Good idea. The best way to create something sustainable is to focus on a niche like science and technology and build a self sustaining community who post on and like certain topics. Curie is diluting voting rewards amongst people with too many interests. This is a good way to destroy the platform by spreading it too thin. It's like building tons of new highways but having no money for maintenance. This is a far preferrable solution.
Exactly what we need, exactly when we need it. That's the power of cooperation and collaboration!
"That's the power of cooperation and collaboration!" Exactly! You hit the nail right on the head.
I commend the efforts you guys are making to help awesome creators of content get the exposure they deserve. This is another great initiative!!
Thank you! We are trying to do our part to keep the great users we already have!
Oh yeah I am eager to see this new project come into fruition!
I checked the guidelines or rules and I am ok for all the points.
All Steemit bloggers need to have a chance in being seen!
Hi cynetyc, love your enthusiasm! It looks you might still qualify for Project Curie so make sure you start there. Check out the #curie channel on Steemit.chat to submit any new posts that comply with the Project Curie guidelines. All roads lead through Curie ... it's an amazing project!
If you don't support free speech that you despise, you don't support free speech.
So, FU.
And the namby pamby horse you coerced into letting you ride in on.
Freedom ain't pretty, but it beats slavery of any kind.
Short and sweet! LOVE IT!!
Very good post!
This seems like a great idea, I think I still need some assistance for my blog.
That's why we are here :)
This was actually one of the missing links in the steemit chain! Good luck with this project!
Thank you, we think so as well! We are anticipating several guilds to be popping up over the coming months to cover many of the ignored areas on Steemit!
whats the problem if you guys upvote authors who receive high payouts? what defines high rewards? let's say post has the value of 80$, why not still upvote it to have higher rewards?
Voting power is limited and it needs to be spread out as much as possible to help as many people as possible... If someone is already generating $80 without us... they don't need our help for that particular post. Others can vote on that post if they like but that is not what this group was created for.
by your logic, we should not have more trending posts whose rewards are more than 200$. they are being upvoted by the same whales that are supporting your project, right? so whats the problem?
What we hope is that those getting small rewards also will be getting enough exposure that the community can decide if their content should be further rewarded. In general, it's not our place to determine what should be on top of the trending page; we're giving more people the chance to not only get rewarded but to be noticed by the community. The community can decide what content should get additional rewards and recognition.
okay @donkeypong :) keep it up :)
Posts can trend as high as they like, but for our specific project we will stay away from those. We are here to help the middle ground authors. If a post is already making $200 it doesn't need our help.
You are incredibly creative and definitely deserve to be rewarded as much as possible! However, if we voted on an $80 post, it would be one less vote for a $1 post. We have limited votes and we are trying to help as many creators as possible.
hey @hanshotfirst, i am not talking about myself :) but there is also the question of quality.. like so far i have found two professional writers (honestly, if you read their articles, you would agree with me) but the quality of their articles is not worth 10$ :(
I understand. That is why one of the goals of the project is to reward quality content. There really is a lot of quality content out there. We now have human eyes looking for it so the creators can be rewarded. If people see quality content being rewarded, hopefully this will encourage people to create even more.
okay, you got me :) anyway, i still provide posts that fit the rules of curie project. so please dont misunderstand my questions. just to be clear.
No misunderstanding at all. You asked a valid question. I get the impression you want to see steemit grow and to be filled with quality content. So we are on the same page.
oh yes :) i am working on a similar project, we just don't have so many rules like you guys :P
Well done @donkeypong! Resteemed.
I dont know if I am allowed to do this but I would like to nominate myself @raymonjohnstone as well as @inertia , @iontom and @l0k1 I would also be willing to help in any way that I can to further this project.
Thank you for the consideration. We are going to be expanding into new areas all the time. We will get back to you if we need any more man power!
Hi @donkeypong, I think it is a good idea to create more teams of curators. Also, I think, as @cervantes is the Spanish chapter of @curie, I could help "Steem Guild" as its Spanish chapter.
I don't mean anything wrong about the two brothers that control @cervantes, but I guess the Spanish curation would benefit with a bit more decentralization instead of being on the hands of two brothers.
They have done a great job so far and have been working to get a broader diversity of Spanish posts, which have been increasing greatly since they started the Cervantes project. Curie has other Spanish-speakers reviewing those posts, so there's no danger that any one or two people "control" curation. If the volume of posts for Cervantes increases more, then I'm sure they will look for additional help with curation.
I think the volume of (good quality) Spanish posts is greater than the curation of cervantes, that's why I think a Spanish chapter of Steem Guild would be a good idea. Just read that a German chapter has been created and was thinking a Spanish one would do good for steemit.
This is a wise move! Great information. Well, how about the steemit reputation? And I wanna join this, but my account have been in Steemit for at least 3 weeks.
It looks you might still qualify for Project Curie so make sure you start there. Check out the #curie channel on Steemit.chat to submit any new posts that comply with the Project Curie guidelines. All roads lead through Curie ... it's an amazing project!
hopefully this will live to its purposes, especially user retention!
We hope so too! We will do our best!
This is a great initiative that moves power from whales to elected curators. I hope many inactive whales participate to this kind of project and make rewards more dispersed.
Exactly!
Thank you guys for all your work! It has been a great feeling to post what I am passionate about and meet such great reception. This will for sure keep people involved while also posting higher quality content!
That's the idea! Thanks for the enthusiasm!
Great new initiative and a must to keep the good authors all the while bringing in new ones and helping Steemit to keep growing!
We sure hope so! We will do our best!
So you're going to help people who post good content if it is family friendly? Controversial content is what we need, not fluff pieces that makes everyone feel warm inside. This has potential to create a main stream media type of speech control that would push smart people saying unpopular things more underground and push those who are just spouting talking points and making generic content just for the sake of getting money when the real incentive should be to create good content, getting paid then is even more fulfilling because your controversial ideas being appreciated says a lot more than pictures of your cat being appreciated
Not necessarily 'fluff pieces'. I've benefitted from the #curie project and been very grateful for the help and support from various places but I don't consider my writing as 'fluff pieces'.
I think what's being said is the controversial pieces generate their own publicity and following and will therefore, never need the help of the #curie or #steem-guild curators.
That isn't true necessarily, my anti political rants don't generate views and money lol
great project :)
Thanks! We are trying to help the community grow.
Fantastic idea! This is exactly what I was looking for. Though I am slightly confused why Project Curie & Steem Guild are two separate projects, yet submissions are received in the same place on steemit.chat? Will there be a separate submissions site for Steem Guild in the future? Thank you for your ongoing efforts to make this the awesome platform it so clearly is!
All roads lead through Project Curie. If a contributor still hasn't developed his/her own following by the time they "outgrow" project Currie, Steem Guild swoops in to help.
Great stuff. Thank you :)
Standing ovation for this post.
I'm Resteeming it, PLUS, I've followed everyone that has posted a reply - not sure if that helps, I'm STILL learning.
Thanks for your support of the project! :)
Thank you Michelle! That's very kind!
Absolutely loving the steem guilds concept. I'm trying really hard to produce original, fictional short stories and put alot of effort into everything I post.
Curie has been an incredible support for helping me build up my recognition here on Steemit and I for one am eternally grateful to all involved in this project.
Lets keep reaching higher and higher together!!!
Great! Keep being creative! Steemit needs that.
Brilliant idea! Resteemed.
Thanks!
Steem Guild Steem On!
Digitalbrain keep on creating!