And the Stars Align....
Many times within The Writers’ Block, even before it became The Writers’ Block and was still the MSP Fiction Workshop in the PALnet Discord, our members would be in one mind and one accord to an astonishing degree. Doors would open for us that we’d barely thought about knocking on, and all we had to do was simply step through them.
From the earliest days, before we had our own Discord, we talked about a publishing house. The very day the term “smart media token” became a “thing,” our people were already planning to launch our own SMT. We’ve been tossing around names for that coin for over a year now.
Our discontent with the lack of visibility that quality posts get on Steemit was addressed this past spring by a comment from @SirCork: “You’ll have to have your own front-end to solve that problem.” He went on to explain the monumental challenge it would be, and the consensus was that it would be far beyond our reach.
Until Nashville.
The Day It Got Real, Real Fast
The above photo is iconic for TWB. This was the exact moment when @instructor2121 showed @anarcho-andrei a site built with the front-end template he designed, his vision a perfect dovetail with ours without us ever having exchanged a single word before Nashville. That was the point where the stars aligned, and every dream we had ever entertained suddenly became a realistic goal.
Included in our discussions about the customized front-end was talk of our own SMT and a major marketing opportunity the following September, in Toronto. We purposed to send representatives to this conference to generate interest in our publishing project, as well as our SMT. It seemed like a nearly impossible task, though. Toronto? International travel? For multiple TWB members? Could the challenge be any more daunting? Yet we forged ahead and never gave up hope that this door would open for us like all the ones before it.
Yesterday, it did.
Bless His Eturnerxal Soul
Enter @eturnerx, who has been a friend to TWB since its inception, and a staunch ally through ups and downs and thick and thin. He has shared our vision for the long term and believed in our idea as few others have. He is heavily involved in our front-end project and designed the wireframe that @jasonbu, our IT project coordinator, has been working with.
We confided in @eturnerx several days ago about the hardship we faced in getting our Block members to Toronto for the Steem Creators Conference and SMT Summit. He agreed with us that this kind of networking is critical for the launch of the front end, and in attracting investors for the SMT. Yesterday, he extended a loan to us for air fare to get both our admins to the conference, as well as cover an outstanding loan we had with Neoxian for previous related travel expenses.
The magnificent thing about this new loan is its terms. Eturnerx wants to see us succeed, and was unwilling to saddle us with so much debt that we couldn’t grow our account at the same time we make payments. Read the terms of this loan here. He is truly a team player, a TWB member to the core, and we intend to make him very, very proud of what we accomplish together.
As fate would have it, our IT project coordinator, @jasonbu, lives in Toronto. Go figure! What are the odds that not only would we get both TWB admins (@Gmuxx and @rhondak) on stage to talk about the front-end, SMT, and publishing house, but that we’d get our project coordinator, too?
And there’s more.
Steempress
For several weeks, TWB members have been posting to their personal Wordpress blogs using a plugin called “Steempress.” This plugin was designed by Steemians and so far, has worked flawlessly. We used it to make this post. Not only are we able to ditch the markdown code and use the text editor built into Wordpress, but Steempress posts are whitelisted with Steemcleaners and Cheetah and are fully endorsed to appear both on the Blockchain and on our individual websites.
In Toronto, we will be making sure the Steempress brand is represented both on stage and through general networking throughout the week. We believe in their product. It’s an incredible honor to be trusted with bringing information about Steempress to this conference.
Stay tuned to The Writers’ Block blog for more information about the Steem Creatives Conference and SMT Summit in Toronto. If you would like to attend the conference, check out the Steem Creators website, as well as this post by @thehoneys. They are offering discounted tickets, but have a limited number of them, so don't wait too long!
Posted from my blog with SteemPress : http://www.writersblockcentral.com/uncategorized/and-the-stars-align/
For those wondering / boggling at the loan terms:
It operates a bit like a part deferred donation / part loan.
I've been considering ways that I could support TWB in a more sustainable way. To me that means establishing regular income flows so they can build up resource to spend on growth. Right now getting the word out is important. TWB (and STEEM) need investment to grow and it's not fair to place the entire burden on community admins donating their time and money. That's why the first 50% of the loan repayments go into mechanisms I hope will provide regular, even if small, income for TWB.
I was hesitant to donate STEEM that would be just burnt on a single thing but TWB does need the funds sooner rather than later to take best advantage of cheap flights. This compromise achieves both needs by deferring my intended long-term donations. I do have other projects on so I will need some of that crypto back eventually.
What's not immediately obvious is that my intention is to not pro-rata each repayment, but instead to approprition repayments in order of the schedule. That means the earlier TWB repays the sooner they contribute to their long-term income via SBI and MSP-F.
There's no hate for @neoxian and his business. I have a great amount respect for what he's doing and believe Steem needs more financial services not less. This was a way of simplifying creditor arrangements for TWB and giving them a longer timeframe to payback.
TWB and it's admins will still need your upvotes, donations and moral support to cover other expenses related to the trip. So, please be generous - every part helps grow TWB and, indirectly, the value of your STEEM.
Supporting writers on a writing blockchain- it's a no brainer.
Thank you so much for this comment, @eturnerx. You have one of the most brilliant financial minds I've ever had the pleasure of working with. I pay attention, and hope that I can learn a little as we go along.
Your support for TWB and our goals will be part of the fabric of our group forever. We are in this for the long haul. The future is what we make it, and we intend to make it count.
TWB shares your sentiment about @neoxian. Without him and the service he offers, none of this would have been possible. Doing business with a reputable lender is desirable commerce. We've successfully transacted with Neoxian twice, and both were calculated moves. He didn't lose money when we paid off the loan early, so I think there is much satisfaction on both ends of the deal. We would do business with him again and recommend the service he offers to anyone in need of it.
Again, Eturnerx, thank you so much for your involvement with TWB. You are as solid as they come.
Hi and Thanks. Great to see the support from @eturnerx!
You have received an upvote (from @rycharde) and a resteem (from @accelerator) as part of the new MAP Trail initiative to support curators.
You can see your entry here.
You have been added to the Fanbase on SteemAuto and will be supported with further upvotes.
You are also being followed by @accelerator and may receive further upvotes when your article is added to another of our "curated curations" posts. Delegated SP is also available on a weekly basis.
All of this is free and part of MAP's mission to support quality content creators by supporting curators.
You may help support the MAP Curator Trail by either upvoting, resteeming or delegating to @accelerator...
... or just upvoting this comment :-)
It's great to see all the behind-the-scenes work that goes on with TWB step forward into the light. Hope to see many more posts from this account.
Really a great post all around so much good and positive news! Best of luck to TWB at the conference
So beautiful! Sending your team so much love and light.
This post was shared in the Curation Collective Discord community for curators, and upvoted and resteemed by the @c-squared community account after manual review.
Oh, that's great news. I got my favourite mug at a blogging conference in Toronto. I've had it for eight years and it's still my favourite.
Obviously that means it's going to go extremely well.