Where I Stand On The Transisto Flagging Debacle

PANIC AT THE DISCORD

People familiar with The Writers’ Block probably need no further explanation. Nor do those who follow Michelle Gent, or who happened to catch wind of the drama through one post or another. Quite a few people have been talking about this. For those unaware of what happened, the short version is this: @transisto put a lightweight flag on several of Michelle’s trending posts, made a comment that he would continue to flag such posts (meaning fiction) if their payout was disproportionate to the number of views they received, and the writing community (myself included) went into a tailspin. Michelle talked of leaving Steemit altogether, and dozens of users threatened to go with her. Many content contributors felt disenfranchised, transisto took an armchair pounding from the community, and it turned into a bloody big mess.

I represent The Writers’ Block, which is arguably the largest and most successful writing community on Steemit. As our numbers grow, it could potentially become one of the largest writing communities on the internet. It is certainly one of the best. I speak from much experience. The only other online writing group that even comes close for me is IWW, the Internet Writers Workshop. I was an active member for years and still look upon my friends there with deep affection.

As co-admin of The Writers’ Block alongside @GMuxx, I inherited a joint share of responsibility for addressing this issue with Transisto and Michelle Gent. Certainly both GMuxx and I could have simply minded our own business and not gotten involved. That was an option. Or was it? Dozens of disgruntled Steemit writers came flooding into the Block, cussing mad and loaded for bear. “You folks need to do something” was the consensus. Yeah, we could have ignored them. I typically choose to stay far, far away from whale politics. However, when transisto made the statement that original novels are not a good fit for Steemit, he stepped into my wheelhouse. And I knew The Writers’ Block had a moral imperative to respond.

WELL THAT WAS A WHOLE DAY OF MY LIFE I'LL NEVER GET BACK

I spent all yesterday in one chat forum or another, listening to podcasts, participating in radio shows, and voicing my opinion that this would be devastating to authors who write fiction, and that we should not have to live in fear of a downvote if our posts become too successful. Transisto’s name became synonymous with Satan, and nearly every writer I knew threatened to leave the platform. Posts were flying left and right from members of The Writers’ Block, and I was putting the finishing touches on mine when I looked at my Discord screen and saw transisto typing.

Since he was currently the very hot topic of conversation, I imagined him reading the scrollback and burning all our houses to the ground. Boy was I surprised when he came into the channel calm and logical and presenting one hell of a good case for why he took the position he did. This is not to say I approve of his choices, but I do understand them. He has targeted a problem with the reward system of Steemit that I suspect very few would disagree over, even though we might have very different ideas about how to fix it.

The biggest problem I had with the entire exchange was how to keep our own folks at the Block from degenerating into warfare. Writers were out for blood. How dare someone suggest that fiction has no value! This was censorship! Escalating tensions would serve no purpose, though, so cooler heads prevailed. Several dolphins joined the conversation, and we communicated. I have to say that what resulted was one of the best conversations I’ve ever taken part in.

Were all the issues resolved? No. Were the flags removed from Michelle’s posts? No. Did we all sing kumbaya and huddle around the campfire? No. Steemit still has problems. But what we did accomplish was a clear demonstration of how our group performs under pressure. I think we left no doubt that we are capable of listening as well as talking, and that we truly want to hear investors when they speak about the reasons they feel some action is necessary to balance the distribution of rewards.

SAME STORY, TOTALLY DIFFERENT VERSE

Today I prowled around Steemit with The Writers’ Block account leaving comments here and there, hoping to get the word out that many people were on board with the idea of using fiction—especially serialized fiction—to add value to the platform. While doing this I stumbled across some comments by @lukestokes that several people in Discord chats had been discussing. When I read them I understood why. He has a very good fix on several problems that are plaguing Steemit right now, as well as insight into why investors take the position they do. He also has the gift of being able to explain these things in a completely non-inflammatory way. I reached out in the comments, hoping to share some of the plans we have for Steemhouse Publishing, as well as our vision for using fiction to attract more readers to the platform.

The Writers’ Block will be making a post soon about the ways a crypto-backed publisher will benefit the authors on its imprints. For now, I’d rather address the ways it will benefit Steemit. I was able to speak with lukestokes about some of this today. He dropped into The Writers’ Block and met with us briefly. I hope that as soon as we get more of the details ironed out, we’re able to meet with him again, as well as other influential users on the Steemit platform. I think our ideas have legs and are worth discussing. In a nutshell, we want to leverage the mainstream publishing industry as a way to earn FIAT money off the novels we write, which we then bring to the blockchain and disperse to the authors and publishing house according to the contract royalties split. Authors get paid in STEEM transfers (or possibly SMT,) and money coming into the publishing house can be used for various expenses and book promotion.

Before anyone starts yelling about the fact that authors typically don’t earn much money off their novels, let me assure you that I am aware of this. I currently have two novels in print and one manuscript in the hands of an agent. What makes the difference in book sales most often, though, is the amount of capital an author has for promotion, and how that capital is spent. If we have earning potential on the blockchain as a publishing house capable of generating its own post rewards, that puts a whole new level of ability on what we can do for our authors, and consequently, for Steemit.

Additionally, there’s also the likelihood of drawing readers to Steemit so they can follow authors they find on mainstream internet platforms like Amazon, Kobo, and Barnes & Noble. Authors can enhance this effect by engaging with those readers on their blogs, as well as posting ancillary fiction that goes along with the novels that drew their fans here. The possibilities are nearly endless. I don’t think this in any way conflicts with transisto’s vision for worthwhile posting effort, and at the same time completely shuts down his assumption that Steemit isn’t a good fit for novels. Challenge accepted, transisto! If we can keep it friendly and upbeat, I’d love to prove you wrong. If it benefits the platform and adds value to your investment, I can’t imagine you’d mind being wrong, either.

We’ll be moving forward with this in stages. You won’t see Steemhouse Publishing pop up overnight like a mushroom in someone’s cow pasture. We have a lot of thinking to do, a lot of planning, as well as boring business stuff like incorporation. But everyone, please know we have some of Steemit’s brightest minds behind this. And more determination than you can shake a stick at. Not to mention mind meld and the Borg Effect. (Writers’ Block members will get this.) I think Steemhouse has the potential to put Steemit on a few maps that have been ignoring it, as well as give some of the best writing talent on the planet a chance to compete in the mainstream. I will keep everyone posted as this develops.