Steem Guild: An Update

For those who are interested, this is an update on Steem Guild, including a list of the authors who are being supported by its votes.

You can see Steem Guild’s original announcement here: https://steemit.com/steemit/@donkeypong/announcing-steem-guild-a-second-stage-project-to-continue-supporting-good-authors-after-project-curie

Background

Several months ago, Steem Guild began with the support of @ned and other accountholders to continue the work that Project Curie had begun. Curie is ideally suited to discovering new authors who are producing great content in a variety of different subject areas, but it lacks the voting power to continue supporting them for very long. Some of these authors hit a brick wall when their votes from Curie ended.

At that time, there were complaints on the site and in chat channels that good quality work was going unnoticed and unrewarded. Despite producing good content, authors often went back to making a few dollars per post after Curie had to move on. Despite the fact that they were generating a good following, the community was not capable of supporting them yet with adequate rewards. Due to the low Steem price and the disparity in voting power, only the large accountholders had the power to allocate rewards on a broad scale.

Steem Guild was formed to distribute rewards to a wide range of authors, artists, musicians, photographers, videographers, and other content creators (To keep it simple, I’ll call them all “authors”). Steem Guild connects large accountholders with high quality authors, ensuring that those who commit to Steemit and produce great content will be recognized and rewarded for their work. In the future, we hope that voting power will be distributed widely enough that the market can handle rewards on its own.

Today, several months in, it is time to provide an update on Steem Guild’s operations and its place in the community. Here is my best effort to explain what Steem Guild has achieved and which authors it supports. In addition, I’d like to credit the staff members who work their asses off every day to make sure any good posts from the listed authors are voted on and rewarded. Staff members put in varying amounts of time; their only source of compensation is upvotes on their own posts, per the preference of the project’s whale supporters. Steem Guild is not a business, so it has no budget or fundraising of its own.

To date, the Guild has voted on more than 18,000 posts. And there are 350-400 authors being helped by these votes at the moment.

We are including the main list of our authors and staff members in this post. There are additional authors in some of the special focus areas who also receive votes. These votes are specific to those areas (explained further below), so while the main author list is the heart of Steem Guild, authors in those fields receive votes as well.

How Does Steem Guild Select Authors?

Creative Commons via Flickr by David Goehring.

Actually, it doesn't. Steem Guild receives its author list from Project Curie, which is better suited to finding newer authors (including writers, musicians, videographers, photographers, and others). Curie begins to follow authors who post good quality content from different fields and whose work meets its guidelines (for example, the project’s whale supporters prefer no Steemit-related or overtly religious content). Once these authors have received some Curie votes and reached a certain reputation score, Curie hands them off to Steem Guild, which then follows them and keeps an eye out for good quality posts.

The list does not include all good Steemit authors (after all, that’s what Steemtrails, Robin Hood Whale, other initiatives, and community members’ own individual votes are for!), but Steem Guild’s team distributes meaningful rewards to as many worthy authors as possible given the available voting power.

What are the Special Focus Areas?

In addition to the main author list, Steem Guild works with whale supporters and content curators who have strong interests and expertise in particular areas of content. These include Science, in partnership with SteemSTEM, and Photography, which has grown steadily since Steem Guild team members began helping to curate it. Both of these are popular subject areas on Reddit and we are working to help duplicate that same success here.

Steem Guild also curates posts in several foreign language areas, which are curated and reviewed by staff members who are fluent in Spanish, Chinese, Korean, German, Turkish, French, and Japanese. Given that around 95% of the world’s population has a first language other than English, it makes sense that much of Steem’s future growth will come in other language areas. Yet the Steemit platform is still being developed and has not had any real localization yet, aside from the Golos spinoff.

As the Steemit.com website (and other Steem sites, interfaces, and apps) reach prime time in the coming months, the sites and materials can be localized to support various languages. At that point, if there had been no community-building to date, these language areas would have been starting from ground zero. Instead, Steem Guild’s language curators have been hard at work not only bringing in posts, but actively helping to build communities these last few months.

Some of Steem Guild’s language curators began with a small trickle of posts a few months ago and now are sifting through floods of content. The Chinese and Koreans bring in a steady stream of posts each week and the other language areas are getting established also. When the Spanish (Proyecto Cervantes) and German curators began, they had a hard time finding any good posts to reward; now there are up to 25 good posts per day in each of these areas. This is due to hard work from many people, not only those within Steem Guild.

As @hilarski 's recent analysis of Steemit's online presence indicates, Spain and Germany have become two of Steemit's largest market segments in recent months. https://steemit.com/steemit/@hilarski/steemit-online-presence-analysis

Steemit’s language communities are poised for massive growth once localization comes.

Main List of Steem Guild Authors and Staff Members

Authors:
@acidsun
@aishwarya
@ajvest
@aksinya
@alcibiades
@alexbeyman
@alexc
@alexgr
@alienbutt
@allasyummyfood
@amy-goodrich
@anarchrysalis
@anasya
@anasz
@anca3drandom
@andrew0
@anotherjoe
@anritco
@ashlyns
@ausbitbank
@baerdric
@beanz
@beginningtoend
@bendjmiller222
@benjojo
@beowulfoflegend
@betamusic
@biophil
@bkkshadow
@bontonstory
@boxcarblue
@bridgetbunchy
@budgetbucketlist
@bullionstackers
@camilla
@chessmonster
@cmp2020
@codydeeds
@coloured-content
@contentjunkie
@countryinspired
@crazymumzysa
@creatr
@cryptos
@customnature
@danilamarilu
@darkb4dawn
@derekareith
@deviedev
@dexter-k
@diana.catherine
@doitvoluntarily
@dr0tcl
@drac59
@dragosroua
@dreemit
@dumar022
@dwinblood
@edgarsart
@edgeland
@edrivegom
@elewarne
@elfkitchen
@elias15g
@emancipatedhuman
@emily-cook
@englishtchrivy
@eric-boucher
@erikaharris
@etcmike
@everittdmickey
@exploretraveler
@extie-dasilva
@exyle
@ezzy
@finpunk
@funnyman
@future24
@gardenofeden
@gavicrane
@getonthetrain
@gonzo
@gregm
@gringalicious
@grisha-danunaher
@hardank
@helene
@herverisson
@highimpactflix
@hitmeasap
@homeartpictures
@ikigai
@in2itiveart
@inertia
@ingenesist
@intelliguy
@isteemit
@jacobtothe
@jacor
@jasonstaggers
@jessamynorchard
@johnjgeddes
@jsantana
@juvyjabian
@karenb54
@karenmckersie
@katharsisdrill
@kaylinart
@kenny-crane
@kennyskitchen
@keuudeip
@kimal73
@kiwideb
@kommienezuspadt
@koskl
@krnel
@kus-knee
@kyusho
@l0k1
@lapilipinas
@leylar
@lightsplasher
@liliana.duarte
@lily-da-vine
@lindee-hamner
@livingthedream
@lordemau
@lovejoy

@lpfaust
@luisucv34
@lukeofkondor
@luzcypher
@lyubovbar
@macksby
@mada
@mammasitta
@mandibil
@mariandavp
@marinauzelac
@marketingmonk
@markrmorrisjr
@maxjoy
@mctiller
@meesterboom
@menta
@merej99
@mgibson
@mihaiart
@mikemacintire
@milaoz
@mindfreak
@mindover
@modprobe
@moon32walker
@movievertigo
@mrosenquist
@mrs.steemit
@mrwang
@myfirst
@mynameisbrian
@mynameisricky
@naquoya
@natord
@natureofbeing
@nekromarinist
@neoxian
@noelletwine
@nonameslefttouse
@nonlinearone
@norbu
@olga.maslievich
@omfedor
@onetree
@opheliafu
@orcish
@originate
@pairmike
@papa-pepper
@paper-pecado
@phenom
@pinkisland
@pixielolz
@poeticsnake
@profitgenerator
@prufarchy
@raluca
@reddust
@reneenouveau
@repholder
@rgeddes
@richman
@richristow
@rigaronib
@rmach
@robyneggs
@romanskv
@rossenpavlov
@rubenalexander
@safar01
@sarahewaring
@saramiller
@schattenjaeger
@sebcam
@senderos
@senseiteekay
@senseye
@shadowspub
@shady
@shenanigator
@shla-rafia
@shredlord
@silvia
@sirlunchthehost
@sisterholics
@skapaneas
@skypilot
@smailer
@sokoloffa
@soulsistashakti
@soundlegion
@sstefan
@stealthtrader
@steemswede
@steemvest17
@steevc
@stephmckenzie
@stoner19
@storyseeker
@streetstyle
@sunscape
@surfermarly
@susanne
@svetlanaaa
@swedoise
@sykochica
@talanhorne
@tanata
@technovedanta
@teukumukhlis
@thebluepanda
@thecryptofiend
@thegoldencookie
@themagus
@therealpaul
@thisisbenbrick
@timcliff
@titusfrost
@travelista
@treeshaface
@trevor.george
@tygergamer
@valth
@vampiretta
@vannour
@vegascomic
@verbal-d
@voronoi
@will-zewe
@wingz
@woman-onthe-wing
@worldly
@writingamigo
@xyanthon
@yadamaniart
@yetaras
@yoganarchista
@yostopia
@zaebars

Staff Members and Key Contributors:
@yoonjang0707
@winstonwolfe
@twinner
@the-alien
@sweetsssj
@steemship
@sauravrungta
@pgarcgo
@pfunk
@morning
@lemouth
@knozaki2015
@justtryme90
@jrcornel
@jamtaylor
@hanshotfirst
@gavvet
@gargon
@fabio
@donuma
@donkeypong
@cristi
@coinbitgold
@baharoba

Thanks to all of you for your hard work and dedication. And a special thanks to @ned and our other accountholders for sharing voting power with the project. You have enabled us to help a lot of great authors, keeping Steemit’s retention levels much higher today than they would be otherwise. Best of all, there is a diversity of great content on the website, which gets fresher and more engaging every day.

Tom @donkeypong, for the Steem Guild team