Steem Basic Income
Steem Basic Income is a social experiment to bring a basic income to as many Steemians as possible. Members join by sponsoring others into the program. Steem Basic Income is delivered through providing regular upvotes to member content.
Welcome to 
's fourteenth member interview!
To provide more interaction within Steem Basic Income (SBI), we are continuing our interviews with prominent members of SBI! We hope to bring a greater sense of community, get to know our members, and gain a better understanding of why Steemians are choosing to be a part of SBI.
Graphic by @katysavage
Writer Intro: 
Greetings, again fellow Steemians, I am @wesphilbin; This will be my sixth interview for the Steem Basic Income group. I have interviewed the following Steemians:
@eturnerx
@ecoinstant
@jonnyla08
@rishi556
@tattoodjay
For this interview, I had the pleasure of catching @mariannewest during a quick break from her busy schedule. When I started discussing the various interview topics, we decided to incorporate information from a prior interview draft that was started by @kipswolfe. Always one to spread the positive vibes or engagement on our blockchain, I decided to incorporate this information into my interview process; we can never have enough positive curation I feel!
Subject Intro: 
For those who don't know @mariannewest, let me share the description from her Steem profile:
Co-host/producer of the Sustainable Living Podcast, Yoga Teacher, Permaculture, Family First
For those who are familiar... you might recall the wonderful #freewrite hashtag or her Sustainable Living Podcast site.
Image Credit @byn
Regardless of how you might know her, she certainly is making a positive impact on our blockchain, and it seemed only right to further amplify this... by sharing the beginning draft of a past interview started by @kipswolfe...
Come with me...
...back to December 2nd of 2018. @kipswolfe and @mariannewest had just begun to prepare for the coming Christmas Holiday... the interaction of the pre-interview was quite interesting and enjoyable to read. There was conversation of online shopping, the importance of "appreciating what you had"... in regards to gifts. I was able to learn many things; this information was given to me to help get a start on my interview, and in turn allow @mariannewest to continue her busy schedule... ah, the interaction of asynchronous interviews!
I was able to learn that @mariannewest had been on the blockchain for a little over a year (at the time) but now is coming up to the two year mark, as her creation date is August 2017. Her reason for joining the blockchain was driven by a member of a Facebook group associated with her podcast and it reminded her of Tsū which was an Online Social Networking Service that started back in October of 2014.
Interviewer note: This happened to be the same service that brought @tattoodjay to the Steem blockchain. See my last interview
@mariannewest went on to explain her dislike for Facebook, which made the transition to Steem even easier... though admitted it was quite a pain to get used to the ways of this platform. When the topic of her writing prompts came up, @mariannewest explained that she had been writing for quite some time... and a large majority had been done in German. So much that she lost her confidence in writing in English.
"... even though I had English in school, I didn't speak well when I got here. Actually, one of my English teachers (who failed me for that year) told me that I will never speak English
haha...I showed him lol"
Quote from @mariannewest
As @kipswolfe continued with her interview process, @mariannewest went on to explain her lineage in Germany... being born and raised there; West Germany actually... right next to the border of East Germany. During this time they had British English...
@mariannewest explained, "...so, I speak American English with a German/British accent lol"... what an interesting combination, wouldn't you say? As I continued to read through the interview creation notes, I could begin to see the importance of communication, writing, overcoming language barriers... all of the things that I feel are very important to @mariannewest...
Free Write Prompts...
I'm sure you are all wondering, "What about the SBI, Wes?"... well, I think it only fair to touch upon the thing that "I" first think of, when someone mentions @mariannewest... and the conditions and circumstances, that were ultimately responsible for the Free Write...
@mariannewest: I went back to college after I got divorced and found that I actually can write in English as well. I was actually planning on moving forward with an English degree. Then I made the big mistake to take ownership of a small store - that part of my life became work only - no time for anything else. 7 days a week and long hours. Arghhhh!
For sure - it is a first draft to be inspired by.
So, you asked about starting the prompts...
I used to go to a lot of brown bag writing events - you bring your own lunch - get a prompt and write. We would read our stuff to each other with no judgement. I really liked that and had my own group for a while... so much fun. When I came to Steem with the intention to promote the podcast, I found the homesteading community to be soooooo serious and all about writing long, long posts. I was making nothing to $0.02 on my posts and didn't want to do that. Also, I am more for having fun in whatever we do and some of the permaculture and homesteading communities are a bit heavy on men with big egos - I am talking in general. So that was not really my tribe, so to speak. I am still going to pursue more of the garden stuff but that is in the planning. I was thinking of what my strength's were and where my interests are... which I have many.
I posted a bit on Yoga, child rearing and so forth, and kept thinking of doing a writing prompt but shied away from that a bit because of the work that might be... I was thinking of doing a graphic for the prompt every day; sometimes, I like to make things too complicated. And I was still learning Steem, I mean all the formatting and such...I don't have a computer background at all. I was sending emails and doing school stuff...
Then, I came across a Freewrite by@improv... First, I thought, oh, someone is doing that already.... but it was pretty much just him posting his Freewrites,
and inviting people to do it. He just gave a word - no instructions or anything like that. So, I thought maybe we could combine efforts... that he posts one week and I post the next week. I asked him if he wanted to combine efforts...He said yes. So, I went ahead and did the introduction post I am still linking to in each prompt.
@improv was expecting little @loch at that time and so I said I would do the next week. I prepared a spreadsheet with 50 prompts to have them ready. They came to stay with me for comic con and I stayed with them not too long ago. I was going to go to the gameday - but my grandson ended up having a school event for the families... You know, family first... So, anyway, I have kept posting the freewrites ever since. We are at 409 now , and I read every single Freewrite from the beginning until it became too much. Every day, I brought the new link to the person who had done a Freewrite and if they hadn't, I visited one of their other posts. And I tried to get delegations so I could give everyone a vote... I was a complete Redfish at the time.
Interviewer note: Keep in mind, the current information, statistics, and etcetera, are based from the interview that was started in December of 2018.
@wesphilbin: As you can see, this Freewrite has been a long labor of love, being supported by many known Steemians...
Next the topic of @steembasicincome was discussed, as one of the main focuses of these interviews...
Image created by @ecoinstante
@wesphilbin: A topic I'm sure many of you are perhaps, curious about... Let's go back again, to December of 2018, and see the interaction between @kipswolfe and @mariannewest in relation to SBI...
@kipswolfe: So, when did you learn about SBI?
@mariannewest: Very early after they got started...
@ecoinstant sponsored me into the initiative. I think I was the 14th person in. I right away started to sponsor Freewriters whenever I had some Steem... slow going in the beginning LOL. On day 100 @snook kind of "invented" the finish the story contest for the Freewrite initiative. She tried it out with a bunch of friends and we ran it as a 100 day celebration... we were very successful. After a while, we talked about starting the Freewrite House... That was supposed to be our signature contest. Sadly, a few things happened and the original group pretty much broke apart - I don't want to go into details.
At the time, I started the Freewrite House and did a daily SBI giveaway. I think we did almost 100 SBI units in the first couple of weeks. I might be wrong, but daily for more than 2 weeks. Slowly, more people got involved in running the account - at least a little bit. The whole idea was to support the freewriters by upvoting, running contests, and all of that... I think we are doing okay.
@kipswolfe: Since you've been using SBI as a contest prize, how's it working for you? Does it seem to draw more people in?
@mariannewest: I don't really know if it draws more people in... we tend to get a lot of newbies, and many find out through our contests what SBI is and the ones who stay active on Steem usually get that it is very valuable and start supporting it themselves. The way I look at it is this...if we keep giving all of our earnings away in prizes - which we do - the account stays small... Also, newbies come and go and if you give them one Steem, it might sit in an unused account forever.
If they get SBI - they get at least a tiny vote and that might make them stay - and we get a vote that helps to grow the account and helps us to keep giving away more. So, I think that it is more sustainable... And by the way, I convinced @dreemsteem of that too. She does the welcomewagon and a bunch more and started SBI too after we had a long walk and a long talk LOL...
@kipswolfe: Yeah, the fact that the sponsors of the recipient get an SBI unit can really help.
@mariannewest: That is what I love about the initiative, you can help others and still look out for yourself... I think that a lot of us who want to do good in the world forget about looking out for ourselves... and it is built into the initiative.
@kipswolfe: So how do you see SBI evolving over the next year or so? Anything you would like to see or like to see changed?
@mariannewest: I totally trust Joseph; I met him and his wife at the first steemcreators conference. I don't have a mind that works in equations. To me, the setup seems very involved and complicated but it has to be to allow for all the variants. So, I trust that he will figure out the best way to make this work and be sustainable... I only see it growing, and that he is building in now that people will still get their upvotes if they don't post for a while... should make it more attractive to the not so regular poster. I hope that automation will set in soon - this is a tremendous amount of work... I don't want to see Joseph get burned out.
Interviewer note: Once again, taking in to account that this was sourced from a interview being created in December of 2018, this automation has of course been implemented. For more in-depth explanation, I would invite you to read through an informative post here.
As the interview draft came to a close, @kipswolfe asked @mariannewest her opinion on Universal Basic Income, in comparisson to Steem Basic Income, in which she replied,
"...love it!! I think if people don't have to worry about basics, we could do much better"
Conversely, when asked where she thought the money should come from for UBI, @mariannewest explained the following...
"... well, in the US - we spend said amounts on the military that I don't even know how to pronounce. And a lot of it is spent on weapons and such that are already obsolete... but someone owes a favor to someone else. If we would spend that money on Universal Basic Income and allowed people to stay home with their kids when they are little, for example; we would save a lot of money on all kinds of things. I truly believe that we are doing a huge disservice to kids, by parking them in childcare arrangements shortly after birth - leading to all kinds of problems later..."
"Anyways, I could talk about this forever and I have radical views (not in my thinking but in that of many) how we need to value motherhood and all of that. And, big corporations need to pay takes...I don't see the need for the super rich to have that much money! The Amazon dude is worth 250 billion right now...Who needs that much money?
Crazy power hungry people... so, give it up, especially people like the Koch Brothers LOL...
They surely would love to help the poor families they made their fortune on, by giving up a bit of their wealth and giving them UBI.
I know - crazy talk... but it is fun"
@wesphilbin: You have to appreciate someone, that can speak their mind, and still provide positive content and engagement on the Blockchain my friends... As the interview draft came to a close, @kipswolfe asked @mariannewest her opinion on Crypto-currency, and Steem in general; her last statement, to me, echoed like an anthem...
... and if it all goes away, I have made some great connections here and certainly learned a lot about a lot of things...
@mariannewest: I think that crypto is a way to get out from under the dictatorship of the banking system, that consistently screws the little man and walks away with big profits. I think that Steem has great potential... So many dApps with real life benefits are built on it, like Actifit and such. Again, I understand the basics of Blockchain but have no clue about programming and such things. However, I see some people I have great respect for spending their time and money on here - so I am hoping that is a good sign...
And if it all goes away, I have made some great connections here and certainly learned a lot about a lot of things...
@wesphilbin: You might be thinking... this has been quite a bit of information, and you are correct. As we can see, @mariannewest has been a positive force on our blockchain since the beginning; providing writers a invitation to showcase their talents, sharing her love of sustainable living, Yoga, and most importantly, in my opinion... family first. I was lucky enough to catch @mariannewest once more, and ask her where she envisioned all of these initiatives going, for future engagement. Let me share her conversation with you all:
@mariannewest: As far as the Freewrite House is concerned
We are going to continue to support writers of all abilities and experience levels... We are hoping that more of the writing community will step up and take charge of the many contests and initiatives I have started. For example, we'd love to bring back the adopt me program, where we featured one newbie for a week with resteems and upvotes and @kaelci sponsors them to 2 SBI. Another initiative is the Over 20 Club where freewriters who wrote over 20 freewrites are invited to write about their experience and highlight their favorites. We give out a badge to those that respond and have a private room in our discord. We did games where people could win SBI and upvotes - again, we need someone in charge of that... it has been on hold. We are bringing back the WE-Write that was our flagship and started as a special contest for our day 100 celebration - so long ago now!! We are at day 645 or 44 - I forgot and I wrote the number this morning LOL
anyway, way past that.
@zeldacroft is stepping in to be the leader for that one...Pretty much all the contests we do involve winning SBI since I feel that it is a the most sustainable way to run a contest. It helps the account to grow and in turn, we are able to give away more - and it helps people who are here for the long term to have upvotes for life - kind of the give a fish or teach how to fish type of thing... On my personal account, I am planning to continue with the daily prompt of course and maybe play a little bit more - like enter contests myself; often I get too busy to have fun on the platform. I also have an account for my podcast... My podcast is The Sustainable Living Podcast and the Steem account is @sustainablelivin. I had started to do a weekly garden corner and gave out SBI for that, but I got so busy with life and stuff that I haven't been able to keep that up - especially since Share2steem is not working anymore...My podcast is on hold as well for the same reason, but I feel confident that I am making progress with my life stuff and can come back to it full force when fall arrives.
I feel strongly that sustainable living is more important than ever - but sometimes I feel like I am either talking to an echo chamber - people who already got it and don't need to hear it from me - or, I am talking to people that are so far away from any kind of sustainable lifestyle that I just want to cry... But anyway, I will come back to it but might have to work things in segments - so much time for Steem, so much for my homestead, so much for my kids, and so much for the podcast and all the other things life brings along LOL...
Interview Conclusion
So then... after several days of trying to incorporate the vision of @kipswolfe with my own questions and ideas, I feel this has been an enjoyable and educating collection of why @mariannewest has been considered a prominent member of the Steem Basic Income initiative. For those of you, that might not have known of @mariannewest, I hope I have provided a means in which to highlight all the wonderful things she has, and continues, to do!
In closing, I wished to share one particular phrase, that @mariannewest shared with me, that really left an impact...
Sometimes we have to step back a little, and see what still fits into our lives.
Fourteen interviews for the
Who will we see on the next Steem Basic Income interview article?
Until then my friends...
Wes
Previous SBI Interviews
dynamicgreentk
f3nix
andrewharland
improv
dosdudes
holger80
reinaldoverdu
josephsavage
eturnerx
ecoinstant
jonnyla08
rishi556
tattoodjay
Enrollment
If you want to get involved, or to increase the level of basic income that you receive, enrollment is pretty straightforward:
Just send 1 STEEM to @steembasicincome. Include the name of a Steemian to sponsor in the transaction memo (preceded by @). You and the person you sponsor will each receive 1 unit in the program. You can sponsor any active Steemian (except for yourself), it does not have to be a current member.
If you're unclear, please check out our full transaction memo guidelines and then let us know if you have any questions.
https://steemit.com/busy/@steembasicincome/transaction-memo-guidelines
The official currency for enrollment is STEEM. If we choose to accept SBD without refunding it, you do not receive extra value for it. Enrollments are processed automatically every 144 minutes.
Questions about Steem Basic Income?
Most questions are addressed in our FAQ or in these helpful resources. If you still have questions, ask in the comments section or join us in our discord channel.
