For those who are interested, this is an update on Steem Guild, including a list of the authors who are being supported by its votes.
You can see Steem Guild’s original announcement here: https://steemit.com/steemit/@donkeypong/announcing-steem-guild-a-second-stage-project-to-continue-supporting-good-authors-after-project-curie
Background
Several months ago, Steem Guild began with the support of 
Hive account@ned and other accountholders to continue the work that Project Curie had begun. Curie is ideally suited to discovering new authors who are producing great content in a variety of different subject areas, but it lacks the voting power to continue supporting them for very long. Some of these authors hit a brick wall when their votes from Curie ended.
At that time, there were complaints on the site and in chat channels that good quality work was going unnoticed and unrewarded. Despite producing good content, authors often went back to making a few dollars per post after Curie had to move on. Despite the fact that they were generating a good following, the community was not capable of supporting them yet with adequate rewards. Due to the low Steem price and the disparity in voting power, only the large accountholders had the power to allocate rewards on a broad scale.
Steem Guild was formed to distribute rewards to a wide range of authors, artists, musicians, photographers, videographers, and other content creators (To keep it simple, I’ll call them all “authors”). Steem Guild connects large accountholders with high quality authors, ensuring that those who commit to Steemit and produce great content will be recognized and rewarded for their work. In the future, we hope that voting power will be distributed widely enough that the market can handle rewards on its own.
Today, several months in, it is time to provide an update on Steem Guild’s operations and its place in the community. Here is my best effort to explain what Steem Guild has achieved and which authors it supports. In addition, I’d like to credit the staff members who work their asses off every day to make sure any good posts from the listed authors are voted on and rewarded. Staff members put in varying amounts of time; their only source of compensation is upvotes on their own posts, per the preference of the project’s whale supporters. Steem Guild is not a business, so it has no budget or fundraising of its own.
To date, the Guild has voted on more than 18,000 posts. And there are 350-400 authors being helped by these votes at the moment.
We are including the main list of our authors and staff members in this post. There are additional authors in some of the special focus areas who also receive votes. These votes are specific to those areas (explained further below), so while the main author list is the heart of Steem Guild, authors in those fields receive votes as well.
How Does Steem Guild Select Authors?
Creative Commons via Flickr by David Goehring.
Actually, it doesn't. Steem Guild receives its author list from Project Curie, which is better suited to finding newer authors (including writers, musicians, videographers, photographers, and others). Curie begins to follow authors who post good quality content from different fields and whose work meets its guidelines (for example, the project’s whale supporters prefer no Steemit-related or overtly religious content). Once these authors have received some Curie votes and reached a certain reputation score, Curie hands them off to Steem Guild, which then follows them and keeps an eye out for good quality posts.
The list does not include all good Steemit authors (after all, that’s what Steemtrails, Robin Hood Whale, other initiatives, and community members’ own individual votes are for!), but Steem Guild’s team distributes meaningful rewards to as many worthy authors as possible given the available voting power.
What are the Special Focus Areas?
In addition to the main author list, Steem Guild works with whale supporters and content curators who have strong interests and expertise in particular areas of content. These include Science, in partnership with SteemSTEM, and Photography, which has grown steadily since Steem Guild team members began helping to curate it. Both of these are popular subject areas on Reddit and we are working to help duplicate that same success here.
Steem Guild also curates posts in several foreign language areas, which are curated and reviewed by staff members who are fluent in Spanish, Chinese, Korean, German, Turkish, French, and Japanese. Given that around 95% of the world’s population has a first language other than English, it makes sense that much of Steem’s future growth will come in other language areas. Yet the Steemit platform is still being developed and has not had any real localization yet, aside from the Golos spinoff.
As the Steemit.com website (and other Steem sites, interfaces, and apps) reach prime time in the coming months, the sites and materials can be localized to support various languages. At that point, if there had been no community-building to date, these language areas would have been starting from ground zero. Instead, Steem Guild’s language curators have been hard at work not only bringing in posts, but actively helping to build communities these last few months.
Some of Steem Guild’s language curators began with a small trickle of posts a few months ago and now are sifting through floods of content. The Chinese and Koreans bring in a steady stream of posts each week and the other language areas are getting established also. When the Spanish (Proyecto Cervantes) and German curators began, they had a hard time finding any good posts to reward; now there are up to 25 good posts per day in each of these areas. This is due to hard work from many people, not only those within Steem Guild.
As 
Hive account@hilarski 's recent analysis of Steemit's online presence indicates, Spain and Germany have become two of Steemit's largest market segments in recent months. https://steemit.com/steemit/@hilarski/steemit-online-presence-analysis
Steemit’s language communities are poised for massive growth once localization comes.
Main List of Steem Guild Authors and Staff Members
Authors:
Hive account@acidsun
Hive account@aishwarya
Hive account@ajvest
Hive account@aksinya
Hive account@alcibiades
Hive account@alexbeyman
Hive account@alexc
Hive account@alexgr
Hive account@alienbutt
Hive account@allasyummyfood
Hive account@amy-goodrich
Hive account@anarchrysalis
Hive account@anasya
Hive account@anasz
Hive account@anca3drandom
Hive account@andrew0
Hive account@anotherjoe
Hive account@anritco
Hive account@ashlyns
Hive account@ausbitbank
Hive account@baerdric
Hive account@beanz
Hive account@beginningtoend
Hive account@bendjmiller222
Hive account@benjojo
Hive account@beowulfoflegend
Hive account@betamusic
Hive account@biophil
Hive account@bkkshadow
Hive account@bontonstory
Hive account@boxcarblue
Hive account@bridgetbunchy
Hive account@budgetbucketlist
Hive account@bullionstackers
Hive account@camilla
Hive account@chessmonster
Hive account@cmp2020
Hive account@codydeeds
Hive account@coloured-content
Hive account@contentjunkie
Hive account@countryinspired
Hive account@crazymumzysa
Hive account@creatr
Hive account@cryptos
Hive account@customnature
Hive account@danilamarilu
Hive account@darkb4dawn
Hive account@derekareith
Hive account@deviedev
Hive account@dexter-k
Hive account@diana.catherine
Hive account@doitvoluntarily
Hive account@dr0tcl
Hive account@drac59
Hive account@dragosroua
Hive account@dreemit
Hive account@dumar022
Hive account@dwinblood
Hive account@edgarsart
Hive account@edgeland
Hive account@edrivegom
Hive account@elewarne
Hive account@elfkitchen
Hive account@elias15g
Hive account@emancipatedhuman
Hive account@emily-cook
Hive account@englishtchrivy
Hive account@eric-boucher
Hive account@erikaharris
Hive account@etcmike
Hive account@everittdmickey
Hive account@exploretraveler
Hive account@extie-dasilva
Hive account@exyle
Hive account@ezzy
Hive account@finpunk
Hive account@funnyman
Hive account@future24
Hive account@gardenofeden
Hive account@gavicrane
Hive account@getonthetrain
Hive account@gonzo
Hive account@gregm
Hive account@gringalicious
Hive account@grisha-danunaher
Hive account@hardank
Hive account@helene
Hive account@herverisson
Hive account@highimpactflix
Hive account@hitmeasap
Hive account@homeartpictures
Hive account@ikigai
Hive account@in2itiveart
Hive account@inertia
Hive account@ingenesist
Hive account@intelliguy
Hive account@isteemit
Hive account@jacobtothe
Hive account@jacor
Hive account@jasonstaggers
Hive account@jessamynorchard
Hive account@johnjgeddes
Hive account@jsantana
Hive account@juvyjabian
Hive account@karenb54
Hive account@karenmckersie
Hive account@katharsisdrill
Hive account@kaylinart
Hive account@kenny-crane
Hive account@kennyskitchen
Hive account@keuudeip
Hive account@kimal73
Hive account@kiwideb
Hive account@kommienezuspadt
Hive account@koskl
Hive account@krnel
Hive account@kus-knee
Hive account@kyusho
Hive account@l0k1
Hive account@lapilipinas
Hive account@leylar
Hive account@lightsplasher
Hive account@liliana.duarte
Hive account@lily-da-vine
Hive account@lindee-hamner
Hive account@livingthedream
Hive account@lordemau
Hive account@lovejoy
Hive account@lpfaust
Hive account@luisucv34
Hive account@lukeofkondor
Hive account@luzcypher
Hive account@lyubovbar
Hive account@macksby
Hive account@mada
Hive account@mammasitta
Hive account@mandibil
Hive account@mariandavp
Hive account@marinauzelac
Hive account@marketingmonk
Hive account@markrmorrisjr
Hive account@maxjoy
Hive account@mctiller
Hive account@meesterboom
Hive account@menta
Hive account@merej99
Hive account@mgibson
Hive account@mihaiart
Hive account@mikemacintire
Hive account@milaoz
Hive account@mindfreak
Hive account@mindover
Hive account@modprobe
Hive account@moon32walker
Hive account@movievertigo
Hive account@mrosenquist
Hive account@mrs.steemit
Hive account@mrwang
Hive account@myfirst
Hive account@mynameisbrian
Hive account@mynameisricky
Hive account@naquoya
Hive account@natord
Hive account@natureofbeing
Hive account@nekromarinist
Hive account@neoxian
Hive account@noelletwine
Hive account@nonameslefttouse
Hive account@nonlinearone
Hive account@norbu
Hive account@olga.maslievich
Hive account@omfedor
Hive account@onetree
Hive account@opheliafu
Hive account@orcish
Hive account@originate
Hive account@pairmike
Hive account@papa-pepper
Hive account@paper-pecado
Hive account@phenom
Hive account@pinkisland
Hive account@pixielolz
Hive account@poeticsnake
Hive account@profitgenerator
Hive account@prufarchy
Hive account@raluca
Hive account@reddust
Hive account@reneenouveau
Hive account@repholder
Hive account@rgeddes
Hive account@richman
Hive account@richristow
Hive account@rigaronib
Hive account@rmach
Hive account@robyneggs
Hive account@romanskv
Hive account@rossenpavlov
Hive account@rubenalexander
Hive account@safar01
Hive account@sarahewaring
Hive account@saramiller
Hive account@schattenjaeger
Hive account@sebcam
Hive account@senderos
Hive account@senseiteekay
Hive account@senseye
Hive account@shadowspub
Hive account@shady
Hive account@shenanigator
Hive account@shla-rafia
Hive account@shredlord
Hive account@silvia
Hive account@sirlunchthehost
Hive account@sisterholics
Hive account@skapaneas
Hive account@skypilot
Hive account@smailer
Hive account@sokoloffa
Hive account@soulsistashakti
Hive account@soundlegion
Hive account@sstefan
Hive account@stealthtrader
Hive account@steemswede
Hive account@steemvest17
Hive account@steevc
Hive account@stephmckenzie
Hive account@stoner19
Hive account@storyseeker
Hive account@streetstyle
Hive account@sunscape
Hive account@surfermarly
Hive account@susanne
Hive account@svetlanaaa
Hive account@swedoise
Hive account@sykochica
Hive account@talanhorne
Hive account@tanata
Hive account@technovedanta
Hive account@teukumukhlis
Hive account@thebluepanda
Hive account@thecryptofiend
Hive account@thegoldencookie
Hive account@themagus
Hive account@therealpaul
Hive account@thisisbenbrick
Hive account@timcliff
Hive account@titusfrost
Hive account@travelista
Hive account@treeshaface
Hive account@trevor.george
Hive account@tygergamer
Hive account@valth
Hive account@vampiretta
Hive account@vannour
Hive account@vegascomic
Hive account@verbal-d
Hive account@voronoi
Hive account@will-zewe
Hive account@wingz
Hive account@woman-onthe-wing
Hive account@worldly
Hive account@writingamigo
Hive account@xyanthon
Hive account@yadamaniart
Hive account@yetaras
Hive account@yoganarchista
Hive account@yostopia
Hive account@zaebars
Staff Members and Key Contributors:
Hive account@yoonjang0707
Hive account@winstonwolfe
Hive account@twinner
Hive account@the-alien
Hive account@sweetsssj
Hive account@steemship
Hive account@sauravrungta
Hive account@pgarcgo
Hive account@pfunk
Hive account@morning
Hive account@lemouth
Hive account@knozaki2015
Hive account@justtryme90
Hive account@jrcornel
Hive account@jamtaylor
Hive account@hanshotfirst
Hive account@gavvet
Hive account@gargon
Hive account@fabio
Hive account@donuma
Hive account@donkeypong
Hive account@cristi
Hive account@coinbitgold
Hive account@baharoba
Thanks to all of you for your hard work and dedication. And a special thanks to Hive account@ned and our other accountholders for sharing voting power with the project. You have enabled us to help a lot of great authors, keeping Steemit’s retention levels much higher today than they would be otherwise. Best of all, there is a diversity of great content on the website, which gets fresher and more engaging every day.
Tom Hive account@donkeypong, for the Steem Guild team
