The Speculative Fiction Writers of Steemit Discord community is dedicated to supporting our members. In order to do that better, we're developing a system to reward our most active and supportive members. Currently, members include:

Fictionistas	Speculators	Minions
@steveblucher	@blueteddy	@agmoore
	@calluna	@bashadow
	@EdibleCthulhu	@blueeyes8960
		@fromage
		@jaichai
		@kipswolfe
		@stevecronin
		@stever82
		@yestermorrow
		@angelurquiola
		@ArbitraryKitten
		@cyemela
		@dirge
		@dranuvar
		@ebookwriter
		@enjar
		@foxyspirit
		@javo1096
		@jcalero
		@jbreheny
		@manoldonchev
		@mariannewest
		@ntowl
		@QuillFire
		@raj808
		@rarebooksleuth
		@SamuraiHedgehog
		@sarez
		@Seifiro
		@simgirl
		@SimonPennon
		@TalkingWiseShit
		@wales

As you can see, we have way more minions than fictionistas or speculators, which begs the question, "How does one become a fictionista or speculator?"

Image from Pixabay.

Initially, we gave out rank and special privileges to founding members and others who came along to help us out. @steveblucher volunteered early on to assist setting up the Discord channel and kicking off the group. For his courage and assistance, we made him a Fictionista, the highest rank with the most privileges. He assists @blockurator with the administration of the group.

@blueteddy and @calluna were simply in the right place at the right time. Having participated in the #farmpunk fiction writing contest's run by @blockurator, they were rewarded with the rank of Speculator for being the contest's first two winners. @EdibleCthulhu created the footer/banner and dividers you see in this post.

Minion is the starting rank in the server. It's where everyone who has read and agreed to abide by the rules begins. If you've joined the group and have not been promoted to minion, it's because you have not introduced yourself. That's the first step to integration.

The Basics of SFWS Membership

Garden Gnome Publications is looking for active members willing to commit to supporting their fellow authors and writers of speculative fiction. We define speculative fiction as anything that falls under the following genres:

• Science fiction
• Fantasy
• Horror
• Weird fiction

And their various offshoots. If you write in these genres, and mixing genres is a big plus in your favor, then you are welcome to join us.

When you enter the SFWS Discord server, you'll land in a room called Rules. We ask you to read the rules, and if you agree to them, introduce yourself in the Introduce Yourself room. You can't post any links or enter any chat rooms until you do. Once you've introduced yourself, you'll be elevated to Minion status allowing you to post in some of the basic chatrooms and promote your links to some of the link sharing channels.

We'd also like to see our members use the footer banner you'll see at the bottom of this post, giving attribution to its creator @EdibleCthulhu. Members are also encouraged to use the dividers, which can be found in a special room set aside for them.

Members who are active and supportive of others may be elevated in rank for their contributions. Also, anyone with special skills or diligence in support of the community may also be promoted in rank. This might include volunteering to be a moderator, creating artwork for use by other members, posting to the Garden Gnome Publications blog, and more. In fact, we are looking for members to help us develop our rewards program. We'll reward you handsomely with rank and privilege for your assistance.

Other ideas are welcome too. Feel free to share them.

The Benefits of SFWS Membership

Currently, membership in the Speculative Fiction Writers of Steemit community includes daily upvotes for active membership. Active membership includes, at a minimum, the following:

• Active participation in the Discord channel, which includes sharing links to at least 3 of your Steemit posts per month.
• Supporting others by upvoting and commenting on their posts. In order to share a link, you must upvote and comment on at least one other link posted by another member.
• Tag posts with #gardengnomepubs as one of your top 5 tags.
• Use of the SFWS footer banner in your posts.

Additionally, you can participate in chat channel discussions, use the #speculativefiction tag on relevant posts, and support the group with your talents in other ways. We also offer writing prompts, games, contests, and more, for active members.

As it stands now, active members are rewarded with upvotes according to their SFWS rank.

• Minions are guaranteed 1 daily upvote at 5%
• Speculators are guaranteed 2 daily upvotes at 10% each
• Fictionistas are guaranteed 3 daily upvotes at 25% each

Through the end of February, these are being raised to 20% for minions, 35% for Speculators, and 50% for Fictionistas. Members who want bigger rewards can delegate SP or transfer SP or STEEM to the Garden Gnome Publications account. Keep reading for the details.

How to Increase Your SFWS Membership Benefits

The Speculative Fiction Writers of Steemit, the official Steemit account of Garden Gnome Publications, managed by @blockurator, is dedicated to supporting our active members. That's why we're willing to offer even more benefits to members who are willing to delegate or transfer STEEM or SP to our account so that we can support you even more. This is not official yet and certainly not ingrained in stone. The following benefits are under consideration. Your feedback is appreciated.

You can give feedback in the comments below, but to receive rewards for your feedback, join us in conversation in the General Chat room of the SFWS Discord server. The following is not yet active, but under consideration only. Please discuss it with us.

Delegation

Members who delegate SP to Garden Gnome Publications will receive increased upvotes accordingly based on the following rank structure:

25 SP Delegation

• Minions will get a 20% upvote once daily for the duration of the delegation
• Speculators will receive 40% upvotes up to twice daily for the duration of their delegation
• Fictionistas will get a 60% upvote up to three times daily for the duration of their delegation

50 SP Delegation

• Minions will get a 35% upvote once daily for the duration of their delegation
• Speculators will receive a 50% upvote up to twice daily for the duration of their delegation
• Fictionistas will receive a 75% upvote up to three times daily for the duration of their delegation

75 SP Delegation

• Minions will get a 50% upvote once daily for the duration of their delegation
• Speculators will receive a 65% upvote up to twice daily for the duration of their delegation
• Fictionistas will receive a 90% upvote up to three times daily for the duration of their delegation

100 SP Delegation

• Minions will get an 60% upvote once daily for the duration of their delegation
• Speculators will receive a 75% upvote up to twice daily for the duration of their delegation
• Fictionistas will receive 100% upvote up to three times daily for the duration of their delegation

Non-members who wish to delegate SP to Garden Gnome Publications will receive upvotes accordingly:

• 25+ SP delegation - 25% upvote once daily
• 50+ SP delegation - 50% upvote once daily
• 100+ SP delegation - 100% upvote once daily

These upvotes are subject to change based account resource credits, but we believe this is a good place to start.

Transfers

Minions who wish to become Speculators may transfer up to 25 SP to Garden Gnome Publications and upgrade their rank to Speculator. Speculators may transfer up to 50 SP to Garden Gnome Publications and they will be upgraded to Fictionista. Each rank receives the following benefits.

Minions
Minions get basic read and write privileges for all the chat rooms and most of the link rooms. Additionally, they can post in the writer resources room and read posts in other Spec Candy rooms.

Speculators
Speculators get all the same permissions as Minions with posting privileges in the Punk Extravaganza room and the #Farmpunk room.

Fictionistas
Fictionistas get all the same permissions as Speculators with read and write privileges for the Contests and Spec-Fic Prompts rooms. They also get their own private playground where they can invite others to participate and do whatever they want.

We're also willing to take suggestions to improve these guidelines.

Dreams

There are reasons we're trying to encourage delegations and transfers beyond simply growing our account. On a practical level, the more SP we have, the more we can upvote our members. However, we do have other plans that includes contests and giveaways. These include:

• Speculative Fiction contests - We'd like to sponsor contests in the speculative fiction genres and give out prize money. Ideally, we'd have genre-specific contests for the #horror, #science-fiction, #fantasy, and #weird categories of fiction. The more we can grow our account, the sooner we can make this happen.
• Exquisite Corpses - The #exquisite-corpse writing exercises that were being organized through the @blockurator account will be moved to this account. We'd like to guarantee 100% upvotes for all participants. The higher the SP, the more participants will receive in rewards.
• Farmpunk Contests - These, too, will move to be organized under this account. We'd like to apply for a @curie grant, but we want to get a couple under our belt first and give away some prizes.
• Steem Monsters Tournaments - Now that @steemmonsters tournaments have been rolled out, and sponsorships, we'd like sponsor some of these tournaments. According to @aggroed, they're looking for prizes of a minimm of $10. Ideally, we'd like to give out much bigger prizes.

We also have plans to include guest authors on the Garden Gnome Publications fiction blog, called The Flim Flam Bush. Now that @steempress has rolled out version 2.3 to keep Steemit accounts secure for multiple author blogs, we'd love to include more authors posting their fiction to the GGP blog. Such posts can be posted automatically to the author's Steemit blog, which @steempress will upvote allowing Steemians a way to increase their rewards nearly instantanteously. If you want to know more about this, hit us up in the Speculative Fiction Writers of Steemit Discord community. We're looking for a volunteer or two test this for us.

In essence, we're looking to build a community around genre-specific writing on Steemit. Interested? Join us for the conversation.

Created by @EdibleCthulhu