Write Club, Fight Club, All Right Club!
The Writers’ Block has endorsed a new project spearheaded by @jordan.lesich that we are all very excited about. It’s called “The Write Club,” a name that is no accidental play on “The Fight Club,” since Write Club requirements might be just as brutal.
Oh, wait—that kind of talk doesn’t sell the concept, does it? So, less brutal than Fight Club. Nobody will get their nose broken or their eyes blackened. Not that kind of brutal. But brutal as in no-holds-barred, sixteen weeks of boot camp for writers, where deadlines are absolute and the finished product can be shopped to mainstream publishers.
If someone is looking to make money right now with their writing, posting on Steemit is probably the way to go. Some Steemit posts make more than traditional online publishers are willing to pay for short fiction. But if someone is looking to build a portfolio, gain credibility and status in the literary mainstream, Steemit won’t help you much. At the Writers’ Block, we are very supportive of efforts to publish in the mainstream. We believe that, in the long run, it will only add value to the platform, as established authors will have enough influence to draw new users and new readers from the publishing community.
The Write Club will send invitations, so it’s a bit exclusive in that regard. While The Writers’ Block supports all writers, even those who are just beginning their journey, we also understand the need to reward and encourage writers who’ve been at this a while, and have paid their dues. The “classes” offered by Write Club will not cover remedial territory. Skill and instruction will be advanced, and expectations high. Jordan Lesich is a gifted writer with real-life experience to share with those who are able to participate. Even with my background in the industry, I feel I would have much to learn from him and hope to take part in a Write Club session soon enough.
Each session will last sixteen weeks. During that time, each participant will have the chance to “lead” the group with a prompt and other instructions. Jordan has covered this in great detail HERE. Don’t be alarmed by all the X-ray images of broken bones. It’s metaphorical! (I think?)
Anyway, this project sounds perfect for writers looking to raise the bar and wade into mainstream publishing territory. I am personally quite eager to see this plan come together!
This is brilliant. What an opportunity for the eight that get chosen. I am excited to see how this goes.
You're a great spearheader of projects and though I've been unable to participate in the writers block like I've wanted to, I can aoprecaite the work you do there. I miss reading your posts about furry friends. Hope you had a nice holiday, if you celebrate.
This post has been deemed resteem & upvote worthy by your friendly @eastcoaststeem ran by @chelsea88 (not a bot)
@chelsea88 (not a bot! LOL) I definitely need to make more critter posts!
Hi @rhondak, I just stopped back to let you know your post was one of my favourite reads and I included it in my Steemit Ramble. You can read what I wrote about your post here.
If you’d like to nominate someone’s post just visit the Steemit Ramble Discord
You rock!!!
I WISH I could make the commitment to this program. I know it would improve my skills drastically. Unfortunately my health is the constant enemy in making promises like this. They always will backfire on me.
I know. I realize I'd drop the ball just this minute trying to complete this program. But someday soon, I will. Someday. . . .
I think he said the challenges will be posted publicly. So I am thinking of following along at a slower pace and using the regular queue.
you took the words out of me man, well i guess all we have to do is beileve in once self....
THANKS SO MUCH for posting this info on the Write Club. I am thrilled to hear of this. My first few posts here were of my New Adult action trilogy, DAKINI 5D and then I decided to go with journalism posts instead, but I am soon going to get back to posting my fiction, so this would be an awesome impetus for me. 100% Upvoted, followed, and Resteemed!
That is fantastic! We'd love to have you in the Writers' Block. So click the gif any time, and follow the trail to our hangout. There is usually someone there 24/7, even though some times are busier than others. :-)
Will do! I have been meaning to and this is a great kick-in-the-pants! Thanks again!
Nifty idea, and much luck to Jordan with the project. Unrelated - @rhondak: since when is something that's created by an artist who's still living, something that's never been offered for public use become 'public domain'? I'm confused why you'd rather state this blatant lie in lieu of creating your own damn logo mark or giving the creator credit? Seems either would have been a more decent option, no?
https://steemit.com/writing/@rhondak/if-you-publish-an-image-you-d-better-own-the-license-for-it
Good advice from the author of this very post.
I am so glad you guys left the Writers Block. You stay so confused about so many things. You are troublemakers and just bad for the platform, period. You’re still good writers, though.
When a graphic artist designs a logo for a client and releases that logo for the client’s trademark use, the artist no longer “owns” the logo. It’s considered a contract job. The owner of the associated brand then “owns” the logo and all related artwork.
Just imagine the graphic designer of the new Steemit speech bubbles logos getting pissy because he left the platform and Steemit didn’t return the rights to “his” artwork. Come on, guys. You’re smarter than this. You’re just making yourselves look bad and creating enemies you probably don’t want.
Besides—the logo used in this gif is the one I designed myself with public domain clip art. I still have the files on my computer to prove it.
I never signed a contract.
Further, I'm not sure why you're claiming you created the image that I created, let alone an image as simple as this. Or why you felt the need to threaten me via Discord direct message over it. I barely feel right claiming it myself because it’s been done this way so many times for so many years. Yes, you compiled the gif, but the quill pen image in the background was my creation. Sure, it's not the most original or stylistic depiction of a quill pen on the planet, but I’m proud of it none the less. You should see all the rejects of that image with "MSP Fiction Workshop" written in weird places on the pot and brim and feather... back before I had a better grasp of typography. I'm sure those files will predate any files you have, since all of the ones you have came from me.
Can we please just be adults about this? GMuxx may not have replied to my direct message, but at least he had the maturity to honour the agreement The Writers' Block made. Could you please simply do so as well so we can all peacefully move on with our lives? It would be a beautiful way to start the new year. ^_^
Hi, I would like to step in here and offer a little help. I dont know the story or history here, but it seems like there is a dispute about a logo.
Everything here has been recorded on the blockchain, lets see if we can now try and resolve this off the blockchain.
I would like of offer my help and assistance and mediate with you to resolve this situation.
I will not be taking sides or making judgement, i would just like to try and help sort this out.
If you are interested in a mediated discussion on all of this contact me on discord and I will do what I can to help
Hi @paulag! Mediation would be brilliant. Thank you.
Good, let try get this going so
Here is my "threat," copied and pasted from DM:
"Pegasus, you made the logos as contract work for the group. You do not own them, nor can you demand that we cease and desist using them. Believe me--we don't want to use them. We much prefer to be rid of this petty ridiculousness altogether. But if you think you have a case, please have your attorney contact me IN WRITING, via certified mail. I will provide the address if you wish. Otherwise, we'll get to it when we get to it, and we'll also be sure to tell anyone wishing to hire you as a graphic artist how you have behaved in this instance."
You said yourself that you never signed a contract. Therefore there was no agreement. So how can I "honour" such agreement? You never released any images to us with stipulation or conditions, neither in writing nor verbally. So the bottom line is that you cannot legally or reasonably make a claim of ownership on a logo after the fact.
I am quite certain that anyone who sees this ridiculous debate that you guys insisted on making public would think twice about ever asking you to perform work for them in graphic design or writing of any sort. It doesn't require a "threat" to make that evident. Professional graphic designers would never engage in such ridiculous nonsense unless they had a contract in hand that included conditions. You don't see Jimitations screaming for GMuxx and Shane to stop using his intro for their radio show, do you? I would imagine that's because he understands how the law works in cases like this and prefers to leave his reputation unsullied by bullshit. No worries--we've all been discussing other options not only for the logo, but for any branding that existed prior to the meltdown you guys had in the Block. All traces of all of you will soon be gone, except for what is locked down on the blockchain. Links to your work will be removed from the SFT Library, and it will be as if none of you ever existed, much less any work product created by you.
"You said yourself that you never signed a contract. "
FYI, since you both said this, this is technically irrelevant.
A verbal contract/agreement is equally as legally binding as a written one. It is merely more difficult to litigate.
I have no other relevant tidbits to offer.
What about the agreement to cease usage? Is that binding?
This is my only true issue here... that I was asked eight days ago what I wanted regarding usage and told that my decision would be respected. My decision was to cease use - which was an option supplied to me by the person that approached me. I included a screenshot of the correspondence in my previous comment.
And this is exactly my point. There was no contract with conditions. There is nothing to enforce here. We have an attorney on board who does not advise us to stop using the vector art image. The one of the letters forming a block underneath the feather is a slightly different matter, and unless someone does a copypaste of the code, it will never appear online again.
Yelling "lawyer" in a crowded comment thread seems completely ridiculous here. This is a matter of a simple request, "please stop using my work," and a rude, unnecessary, vindictive refusal to honor said request.
Uhmm. . .have you not realized who a certain zombie is, and what he does for a living? You guys even sent him an invite to the new server. And you didn't know?
@rhondax can I help by mediating? let me know if you are willing, like I said, I dont know the history, I dont want to take sides, I dont want to judge, i just want to help
Thank you, @paulag. We have an arbitration team within Writers' Block that consists of an attorney, a law student, and an emotionworks expert. This went into arbitration there, but got so distorted when they tried to have me "brought up on charges" that the attorney threatened to quit altogether if it was allowed to continue down that path. So as admins of the group, GMuxx and I pulled rank and shut the whole process down before it got ridiculous. There is no mediating with these people. They spoil for a fight and love drama. We have all the proof we need that the gif used in this post does not "belong" to the person claiming it. These individuals are gone from the Discord group. They clearly love to hijack posts that have nothing to do with them and draw all kinds of attention to themselves. But mediation? That ship has sailed. They'll run out of venom eventually.
Yes, the insanity that prompted my leaving was my mistaken belief that Rhonda here also would be expected to behave in a courteous and professional manner as we all committed to doing. Egg on my face lol.
I missed this comment until now. Apparently you made it while I was on the phone with Jimmie, who was calmly discussing with me his desire that GMuxx and Shane stop using his intro. This is his reasoning, that I passed along a few minutes ago to Gmuxx:
Jimmie is traveling, but has seen how you and Shane have aggresively upvoted other comments - including spam, which was amusing - in order to obfuscate the claim Inna was making on Pegasus' behalf. If Rhonda is innocent of these charges, why try to hide the comment? Why not just articulate a defense/refutation at the outset, as publicly as possible? Jimmie has asked me to convey his anger over the way Pegasus is being treated and to request that you stop using the intro he kindly made, as well as any commercial parodies. Unless you're planning to claim "contract work," as well? Jimmie took an hour of his time to voice it, including unused takes, as well as paying the $65 studio fee (twice) to record it.
Jimmie didn't want you to know it was costing him money. That's how he is. He was trading his own work time at Critical Mass Media to pay the $65 studio fee, meaning he did work there for free to get you that intro. He didn't want anything from you in return because he used to be very fond of you. If you don't believe me (because clearly you don't or you wouldn't be posting screen shots) I can put you in touch with Keith Hughes, the owner of Critical Mass Media, and he can verify this.
And both myself and Shane sent something to him regardless as we thought highly of his talent. Quite why yours and Jimmy's opinions of me have changed, I have no idea.
When I said I never signed a contract, that was in response to your claim that what I did was contract work. My apologies if that wasn't obvious.
The thing to which The Writers' Block agreed was to stop using both the new and old versions of my logo. Again, apologies if this wasn't clear. When I was approached about the use of the logos, I was prepared to simply let it be... but the fact that I was never properly credited for my efforts, and was being asked about it directly, pushed me to decide it would be best if we just went our separate ways. I was told this decisions would be respected.
As for my links on the SFT Library, I would certainly appreciate their removal, thank you!
Oh, speaking of SFT, did you want to keep using that logo too? Or, nah? I'll understand if you don't want you.
To be clear, by “meltdown” in @pegasusphysics’s case you’re referring to how she left the server without saying a word after reading the way you behaved in the leadership only rooms?
@rhondak - only you didn't hire anyone to do the logo in this case, and you know that. There was no contract of any kind, so no, this would not fall under the work for hire category. But hey - whatever suites your needs, I guess. The appropriate thing to do, the less cowardly, if you will, would have been to reach out to the artist and seek their permission to keep using the logo. An offer of compensation and or at the very least credit to the artist wouldn't have hurt either. But you didn't do any of those things. Instead - you are essentially stealing someone else's creative labor and now pushing it out as public domain or your own creation. That's plain shitty. I would have expected more from someone in a creative field, but alas.
As for us leaving the block, can't speak for anyone else, but I couldn't be happier with the decision to do so. Nice to be in a place where nobody dictates how things are done, which POVs are acceptable to write in and frankly - where a community is what it's supposed to be: supportive, creative and bloody fun.
What the heck are you even going on about? The logo on this post was not created by Peg. Period. The ink pot image is public domain clip art, And the gif was made in Photoshop with fonts I downloaded myself. Furthermore, it doesn’t matter if a graphic artist has contracts or blood oaths when they release a logo for an entity’s use. If the entity uses that logo for a period of time with no attribution, the artist cannot suddenly demand they change the brand. Your whole argument is non-sensible. I don’t even know why I’m bothering to respond.
I think you people are just angry because you can’t find any legitimate mud to sling, and because your plans to delete the critique queue got shoved back in your faces. The truth about who the bullies are, and who the dictator wannabes are is now quite clear. We’re rock solid at The Block. You guys are off somewhere drinking some really funny Koolaid.
“because your plans to delete the critique queue got shoved back in your faces.”
See, not everyone is petty and cruel. Not everyone wants anyone they disagree with to be trashed and maligned. But my aunt always said “You measure people by your own yardstick” so I’m not surprised you’d think that of others.
And btw that’s only the last of several offers made to transfer ownership.
Here is a portion of the DM that was sent to at least one of our moderators. I will not disclose the name of the sender publicly, but I am not the only person who knows the identity. I am also not the only person who perceived it as a threat. However, by that time, a copy of the spreadsheet had been safe for days.
". . . Muxx and Rhonda and whoever took everything.
They removed the channel and all the history, as if none of it had ever existed.
Spreadsheet (which @ jrhughes had set up) - gone.
None of the information was left for those sad, sorry, misguided Minnows
or whoever stayed behind.
Reap what you sow. Set a precedent, others will take note."
This message was sent on the fifteenth of December. The sender left the Writers' Block server at the same time you did.
A copypasta of a comment relating to the way YOU left MSP (which that is) has nothing to do with your accusations that we were trying to screw you with the queue. I offered multiple people ownership in the hopes of WB keeping the long records of who had been through the queue. The last of which being screen capped in context above. I learned from long witnessing of your half truths how important context is.
This is awesome and great initiative to help in building people and help the community to move forward. Am hearing about Writers’ Block for the first time and it sounds pretty cool. How can one be a participant?
Thanks
Regards @funkylove
@funkylove, all you have to do is click on the animated gif at the bottom of the post, and it will take you to our website. There you'll find more info and a link to join the Discord server where we all hang out. I look forward to seeing you there!
Good article
You're relatively new here. You want to be aware that comments like this can be considered spammy. Not that I disagree with you--this is a great article--but you want to make sure you include more concrete responses to the actual content, so people know you read and appreciated the article, and aren't a bot making generic comments. Just so you know for another time and don't get into trouble by accident.
I am grateful to you for making me this warning. you are right, i was not aware of short and usual replies may be spam. i’ll be careful hereupon
Don't sweat it. We were all new once.
The main image at the top of the post is from Pixabay though it would be nice of you to link to the artist here as well, @rhondak. The image used in the logo on the bottom was created by @pegasusphysics. - Here, I fixed your little disclaimer for you.
LOL I don't need assistance from you, Inna. Thank you very much for offering, though.
I suspect that the bitterness oozing from those of you who left the Writers' Block has to do with the defeat you feel at not being able to damage the work GMuxx and I (and many others) put so much of our hearts into. You're spiteful, and would have liked nothing more than to leave a trail of broken, bloody people in your wake. Queenie resents leadership, period, as evidenced by her personal history as well as her very public behavior in The Writers' Block. So it's for the best that she staked out her own kingdom and left ours to the greater community. I suppose it's only a matter of time, though, before you start chafing at the boundaries she imposes, as well. Two hot-heads like you? Oh, I can imagine the display will be quite spectacular.
However, I won't be around for it. It might behoove you to know that The Block has been drama-free since you guys took your anger and your resentment and left. We've moved forward with all the plans we've had since the beginning, and should have some more big news to announce before the end of January. According to you guys, we are so divisive and contentious, yet interestingly enough, we've added another MSP leader to our group of moderators. We left MSP because of rising tensions, but if you'll recall, we did not leave their server, nor did we lob any shit cannons at their organization. Ever. Those tensions worked themselves out in due time, forging a stronger bond between us and MSP than existed in the first place.
You guys, however, have burned a lot of bridges. You did it by yourselves, with no impetus from anyone at The Writers' Block. Your true natures have shown themselves in exemplary forms here in these comments. So we'll leave you to your own mess now. You're free to continue commenting on a post that I made to support Jordan Lesich's new initiative. Talk about inserting yourselves inappropriately! But that's okay. The disaster you guys have created for yourselves with all this bitterness is not my circus, not my monkeys. Have fun on Steemit. Buh-bye.
“Queenie resents leadership, period, as evidenced by her personal history as well as her very public behavior in The Writers' Block. So it's for the best that she staked out her own kingdom and left ours to the greater community. I suppose it's only a matter of time, though, before you start chafing at the boundaries she imposes, as well. Two hot-heads like you? Oh, I can imagine the display will be quite spectacular.”
There’s your yardstick getting the best of you again.
Good job. Well done