Yesterday I snuck a peek at the Steem blogs of several people I used to know. Why? Curiosity, I suppose. I wanted to see if any of the factions or individuals who’d been so disapproving of my administration of The Writers' Block had gone on to find success either as leaders or participants in other communities.
From what I saw, the answer is no. Most of them are just gone.
I’m going to write from the heart about this. I expect a few snarky comments or maybe just very few comments overall, depending on who does or doesn’t come along and how much drama they’re itching to cause. That’s the nature of Steem. It’s part of the game. But I do have something to say about what happened over the past couple of years, now that I’ve put enough distance between those events and myself to assess them without emotion. Also, let me say it first and own it: this post is about me. Not about Steemhouse, and not even about Steem. You can expect copious use of the pronoun “I” and talk that is almost exclusively about me, which is a subject I am, actually, a bit of an authority on.
The bottom line--for me--is that I’m still here, still very much part of the Steem ecosystem, and the project I’ve invested so heavily in is more viable than ever. It is successful independently from the Steem blockchain and connected only by choice, not necessity. The low price of Steem doesn’t affect it. A bull market will always benefit us, but we’re impervious to crypto-winter. This was my goal from the beginning, and it is working. My ideas have never wavered since the name “Steemhouse Publishing” was coined at the old Writers’ Block--I’ve held fast to the original plan in the face of much adversity and as a result, 
View of the English Channel from the Eastbourne Pier, facing France.
Drama Followed Them Out the Door
Michel and I have administrated the Steemhouse Discord for almost a year together, with the help of Shadowspub, who keeps an eye on things even while we travel. Since the last bunch of troublemakers took their toys and went home, there has been zero instance of drama in our server. None. Granted, activity levels have fallen dramatically, but the people who matter are still there and we still interact. We currently host no workshops, no radio podcast shows, no editing queue. To say this was a deliberate executive decision is a massive understatement.
Months ago, Michel and I decided (since Steemhouse is a business and not a democracy, and as its major cash investors we hold all the voting stake) that future activities of this nature belong on the blockchain and not hidden away in the private rooms of a gaming website. We conducted a participation experiment last month from the 
View of Sea Houses Square from the Eastbourne Pier.
My Management Style
Let’s put it this way: once we do start onboarding new writers and holding workshops and developing a peer review format again, we will assign leaders and mentors who have more patience than me. I never claimed to be good with people. My tolerance for bullshit or drama is negative-five, and I can spot a troublemaker in fifty words or less. I’m an editor, folks. A publisher. A writer, and a curmudgeon. I’ve been in this business a long time. My instincts are usually pretty good and I won’t read what I don’t like. When it’s time to charm the masses, play it safe and lock me in the closet.
From this point forward I will intentionally surround myself with talented, plainspoken, experienced editors and company leaders who have passed all my litmus tests and still call me friend. Currently, Steemhouse has a leadership board of four people. Two staff members are highly skilled and experienced writers/editors. I’ve known both of those women for more than ten years and I trust them. Zero drama, ever. Michel, my equal partner, is the official Rhonda-whisperer of the team. I have one piece of advice for anyone tempted to underestimate him: don’t. Not only is he the brains of both the tech and crypto sides of Steemhouse Publishing, but he also deals with me on a day-to-day basis, face to face, even when I’m in a bad mood, even when I’m dug in and refusing to budge, and the man never breaks a sweat. Whatever the question, I tend to just nod and say yes.
Friendly herring gull on the Eastbourne Pier.
My Thoughts About Curation and NewSteem
Hardfork 21 and the subsequent change to curation practices have benefitted me. Ain’t gonna lie. More people are actually reading my posts and commenting--and yes, upvoting--than I’ve seen in a long time. But I’m doing less curation than ever. I find very few posts on the Steem blockchain that I want to put my personal seal of approval on, because for me, that’s what an upvote does. An upvote says, “this post deserves a piece of the reward pool, and I endorse it.”
For some, an upvote says, “this post is going to earn a sizable piece of the reward pool, and I want my share.” In this case, an upvote is cast not because the post is of decent quality, but because the voter is motivated by profit. Certainly this is preferable to paid upvotes or bidbots, but for me the system is still flawed. It does not ensure that the highest quality posts get the most visibility, or that quality content gets put forward to the mainstream for widespread reading.
Do we care about widespread reading in the mainstream? I can assure you that Steemhouse Publishing does. That’s why we’re developing our own front end that will display only content that has been manually curated based on quality alone with the general reading audience in mind. Do I think other Steem front ends should be concerned about mainstream readers? Well, maybe. It depends.
"Camera Obscura" of the Eastbourne Pier, now painted gold by the private owner who purchased the pier in 2015 after it was nearly destroyed by fire.
For the sake of argument, let’s say that one million people have Steem wallets and are plugged into the Steem blockchain. If posts are written to target that audience of one million, they will generally be of narrow focus, aimed to attract the attention of fellow Steemians about Steem business, whether it’s the Steem cryptocurrency, a Steem community, Steemfest, SMTs, or whatever. Show those posts to a mainstream reading audience and interest in the subject matter will be negligible.
If you look at other blogging platforms that have achieved some degree of success, like the original HuffPost and Medium, you’ll find a variety of broadly relevant topics and some measure of quality control. I’m not suggesting that traditional Steem front ends become centralized the way Steemhouse Publishing’s front end will be, but I’m putting it out there that if we target an audience of one million rather than six and a half billion (which is roughly the number of literate people in the modern world,) we’re very much limiting our potential reach.
Decor inside one of the Eastbourne Pier lounges.
No, these numbers aren’t scientific. They’re guesstimates that don’t even factor how much of the world’s literate population has access to the internet. Still, you get my drift. So while I’m happier in a community where bidbots are obsolete, I think “onboarding the masses” is still a bit out of NewSteem’s reach. Maybe some day. In the meanwhile, we’ll see where the evolution of blockchain technology takes us. And I will keep forging ahead with the Steemhouse team down the same path we’ve always taken. Contrary to popular belief, I haven’t led us wrong yet.
Sunset from the Eastbourne Pier.
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