This manifesto contains a summary of our community plans and policies.
Note: This article will be modified as our community and rules need to be updated. Most recent update: May 19, 2021
Contents
For Writers - Sections 1 & 2
For Readers - Sections 1 & 3
For Investors - Sections 1 & 4
Editorial Team and Community Builders - Section 5
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Section 1. About The Ink Well
The Ink Well is a tokenised community for readers and writers on the Hive blockchain. At its simplest, blockchain technology enables the creation of tokens, in this case, Hive, which can be used to reward writers for creating stories and to reward readers for reading stories.
Hive tokens can be used in a variety of ways, including staking or vesting them (known as powering up); exchanging them for second-layer tokens (including gaming and income tokens) or trading them for fiat currencies (eg USD, GBP, Euro etc) or goods and services. Tokens can also be used for tipping.
Hive is a powerful, secure, decentralised blockchain with low cost of entry, an active, creative community and fast, free transactions. Writers can set up a permanent blog for their stories and begin earning for very little or no cost.
The Ink Well aims to use these features to help create income for writers through various means including upvotes and tipping. This will complement other forms of income for writers including traditional publishing, Amazon KDP and platforms like Patreon.
In addition, Hive rewards readers for reading stories. Half the tokens that are created and distributed go to the writer, the other half is shared between the people that read the story.
This feature - the ability to reward readers - creates unprecedented potential for writers to develop their audience and draw more people to their stories. The Ink Well can also provide a portal for readers to the writer's work in other media and channels like Amazon KDP.
Writers can continue to build relationships with readers through the comments, and through rewarding readers' comments with Hive, tips, second-layer tokens or through sponsoring readers with Hive Basic Income (HBI) shares.
The Ink Well's focus is short stories. While there may be opportunities for expansion in the future, this simple focus helps to ensure that volunteer staff can guide and support the community with limited resources.
The Ink Well is co-ordinated by an editorial team of experienced writers, editors and teachers. If you have an interest in participating as a community builder or volunteer staff member, please comment on a current post by The Ink Well with your interest.
Community Rules
Everyone is welcome in The Ink Well. We try to keep rules to a minimum but we have found it useful to put the following in place:
- The Ink Well is for short stories. Please do not post unrelated content, as it may be muted.
- Plagiarism - presenting other people's work as your own - of words or images is not acceptable. Plagiarized content will be identified and dealt with swiftly and decisively - from stern warnings to downvotes to being reported to projects that counter abuse to the user being completely muted from the community.
- We only accept 100% original content. We do not accept re-posts of previously published content or content that is published elsewhere in any form.
- We encourage constructive feedback, but be gentle.
- Please write posts and comments in English; you may include other languages in addition to English.
- No personal abuse or trolling. This includes racism, sexist remarks, homophobia, threats of violence or any bullying behaviour.
- No hate posts or posts depicting featuring brutality, rape, abuse, violence, blood or gore. The Ink Well welcomes all genres, but we draw the line at brutality, rape, gore, gratuitous violence and excessive blood. Do not post stories with these themes in The Ink Well.
Section 2. For Writers
1. What The Ink Well Is Looking For
The Ink Well is looking for beautifully crafted original fictional short stories with a clear story arc, rounded characters and a satisfying resolution for the reader, as well as creative nonfiction short stories based on real life experiences and events. Fledgling writers are welcome and both new and experienced writers will find a library of writers' tips to inspire and develop their skills.
Good fictional short stories will meet the following editorial criteria:
| Standard | Explanation |
|---|---|
| Setting | Time and place the story is set and how this affects the story. Has the writer created a world that is believable? |
| Story arc | What is the story arc? Does the story incorporate conflict, climax and resolution? Is the ending satisfying to the reader? |
| Characters | How are the characters drawn? What is their role in the story? Do they change or remain the same? Are they fresh and original or stereotypical? Are they believable? |
| Style | The writer's use of language, imagery and tone. Is the writer engaging? Are they showing not telling? Does the story stay with you after you have read it? |
| Presentation | Do the editing and presentation enhance the writing? Has the writer developed their story and corrected mistakes? |
We strongly encourage writers to focus on building their audience through engaging and interacting with other writers and readers, and building the amount of Hive they hold, as these are the key to a long-term, sustainable income.
Writers may delegate Hive to The Ink Well to help build the sustainability of the community.
2. Posting Guidelines
These are general guidelines. Please see The Ink Well writing prompts for specific rules.
- Stories must be in English. Hispanic writers using machine translators such as Google Translate are advised to work with a bilingual editor.
- Stories should have a minimum of 350 words and a maximum of 2,000 words; our guidance is that the ideal word count range is 700 to 1,500 words for our online community.
- Use appropriate tags - the first five tags to categorize content, up to five more for tribes and affiliations (be wary of accidentally simultaneously posting your exclusive content to another community). Tag spam is not acceptable, either in the tags or by tagging accounts.
- Images may either be your own or from a license-free site such as Pixabay, Pexels, Unsplash, Creative Commons or the Hive stock image index. Images must be properly credited, with a link to image sources for any images you do not own.
3. Membership of The Ink Well
Anyone may post in The Ink Well, providing they meet the Community Rules and the posting guidelines.
Member
Members will have demonstrated that they produce well-crafted stories that meet the curation criteria to a good standard, and are regularly participating in the community by supporting other writers' work. Members will receive a badge that certifies the quality of their writing.
Section 3. For Readers
Anyone may read stories in The Ink Well at any time, completely free of charge.
However, by opening a Hive account and purchasing Hive equivalent to the value of a paperback book once a month for a year, readers will receive rewards for reading which can be used in a variety of ways including exchanging for fiat currencies (eg USD, GBP, Euros). The greater the amount of Hive the reader has, the greater their potential to receive rewards.
Readers will be able to directly support their favourite and new authors as well as interacting with them through comments, while also receiving rewards for reading. Readers can participate in reader campaigns and competitions and delegate Hive to individual writers to help them prosper.
Readers may also delegate Hive to The Ink Well to help build the sustainability of the community.
Section 4. For Investors
The Ink Well benefits from support from approximately 25 investors through delegations. This includes support from the OCD Communities Incubation Programme to help The Ink Well towards sustainability and the Curie curation initiative.
The Hive blockchain offers many new models of supporting social, economic and creative activity to create social impact. In The Ink Well model, social impact investors purchase a stake in Hive over which they retain ownership.
The Hive stake is delegated by the investor to The Ink Well and is used by The Ink Well to generate wealth to fund activities and to grow The Ink Well stake. Over time, The Ink Well will become sustainable and able, independently, to fund its operation and to invest in new ventures.
This model offers many benefits for social impact investors:
- A thriving, tokenised community providing social, economic and cultural value to writers and readers and their wider communities.
- Added value to the creative industries overall.
- Increased equality, especially for BME and non-traditional writers.
- The investor's stake remains intact and is available for re-investment.
- The original investment stake benefits from increased value.
- The model and lessons learned can be applied to other creative, social, environmental and economic use cases to achieve social impact.
Section 5. Editorial Team and Community Builders
The editorial team is responsible for the governance and development of The Ink Well. In addition, members of the editorial team curate posts for the Curie curation initiative. The editorial team is recompensed for its work.
Community builders are meeters and greeters, welcoming and supporting writers and readers and helping to resolve routine enquiries. They also look for and invite other short story and fiction writers and readers to join The Ink Well. Community builders may also be recompensed for their work, as deemed by the administrative team based on involvement and engagement.
We would like to invite lovers of short stories to visit The Ink Well, a Hive community started by 
It is now possible to follow The Ink Well curation trail on Hive blockchain with Hive.Vote. Simply navigate to the curation trail section and search for theinkwell and our trail will pop up as an option.
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