Dearest Writers and Editors,
We have as much to look forward to as we have to reflect upon. As Season 3 approaches, our gaze is turned toward the future, with excitement and anticipation. However, let us not be distracted by what comes inasmuch as we still have work to do now. We look forward as we must, we write and edit as we should, and we reflect when we can. Endings matter. As such, let us work to make the most of them.
Welcome to The Scribeβs Quill.
Authors: BanklessDAO Writers Guild Coordination: nonsense π΄ | Coordinator; frogmonkee π΄ | Governance; Samanthaj | Talent Scout; Siddhearta π΄ | Newsletter Team Coordinator; Frank America π΄ | Client Services Organizer
This is the official newsletter of the BanklessDAO Writers Guild. If you would like to receive this newsletter in your inbox, please tap or click on that subscribe button below.
Writers Guild in Bites
The Council of Writers Weekly, Monday at 6:30pm UTC.
Weekly Newsletter Team Sync, Thursday at 5:00pm UTC
Weekly Editorial and Publishing Arm (EPA) Meeting, Thursday at 10:00pm UTC
Meeting Notes
Council of Writers, December 6, 2021
Newsletter Team Sync, December 9, 2021
Editors Circle (EPA), December 9, 2021
Team Updates
Newsletter Team, siddhearta | Coordinator
We ship on the regular. Come join us.
Action List
New members grab the Newsletter Team tag in #writers-start-here
Newsletter Team Sync - We meet every Thursday at 9am Pacific Time in the #newsletter-voice channel.
We love working asynchronously. DM @siddhearta to get plugged into projects.
Write a featured editorial for the Weekly Rollup or State of the DAOs.
Newsletter Stats
Subscribers: 9,001 (+200)
Latest TOTAL page views:
Weekly Rollup: 7,453 (since Friday)
Decentralized Arts: 9,540
State of the DAOs: 12,209
Decentralized Law: 14,528
Weekly Rollup
What happened this week in BanklessDAO
Editorial: Governance Primer by EthHunter
Front End: ThePsychGuy + Cheetah
Back End: Ssasho0
Editor: kalex1138.eth
BanklessDAO Christmas Story to be published December 24 in Weekly Rollup
Join in the collaborative writing piece!
Thx to Saulthorin for kicking it off!
State of the DAOs
High-signal, low noise newsletter for understanding the DAO ecosystem
We are publishing State of the DAOs this week Wednesday featuring an editorial by Jake and Stake on the In-DAO-strial Revolution.
Monday mornings before the WG meeting we open up the DAOs at a Glance and Ecosystem Takes summaries. If you are interested in capturing the key insights for one of these articles, put you name down next to the title. All written summaries are due by midnight on Tuesday (PST). 150 BANK bounty each!
Governance
We have a working draft for our Season 3 Project Proposal. There are some significant changes coming to the Project Team structure in Season 3, please read the proposal and comment with feedback. We will be submitting this for approval by December 20.
EPA, nonsense π΄ | Coordinator
We continue to work on automation! Special thanks to blackwhite and Ap0ll0, who continue to develop the working editing spreadsheet to automate our editorsβ capacity in picking up and delivering work. Additionally, weβre looking into being more clear about editing roles; per last weekβs discussion, primary and secondary editors will be rebranded as content and copy editors respectively. As we continue to hone this process, much more will change over time, with the goal being to develop high quality editors and editing. Come join our discussions on Thursdays at 10pm UTC.
Client Services, Frank America | Organizer
βClient Services, how can we help you?β
Client Services continues to deliver top notch blue chip articles to Web3 forward thinking clients. Recently, CS has completed a 6-article Ultimate Ledger Guide for BanklessHQ, and 3 articles for MakerDAO. Currently, CS is working on two articles for Yearn Finance. Future operations for CS are in development for S3 and discussions with two potential clients are in progress, though pending. In order to sign up for Client Services work secure a Writers Guild tag and raise your hand on Polls published in #get-client-work.
Mastermind Group, siddhearta | Coordinator
The Writers Mastermind Group is a space for writers to talk about writing. We are a dynamic and productive group that offers various perspectives, levels of experience, domains of knowledge, and personal insight.
Our next meeting is this Wednesday, December 15 at 9pm UTC. We are currently meeting bi-weekly on Wednesdays.
If you have an idea youβd like to pitch to the group add it to the Scribeβs Desk. If you have developed your idea into a shitty first draft, feel free to share that as well!
From Your Governance Staff
Samanthaj | Talent Scout
Action List:
Share ideas to improve onboarding.
Vote and comment on the CC Revamp.
Add the Web3 Storytelling event, on Wednesday Dec 15 at 12:30pm EST, to your calendar.
Details:
Season 3 is on the horizon, and Iβm building a better onboarding system. I have two questions: How can we make onboarding better now, and what is your ideal βend stateβ of onboarding in the distant future? (Fire up your Blue Sky thinking brain!) Fill out your thoughts in this Google form: Letβs Improve WG Onboarding.
The CC Revamp is up in the General section of forums. I believe the CC is a critical component of building DAO culture and showcasing our strength to our newest members, so give it a read, a vote, and a comment! Letβs make our CCs less firehose-y and more vibe-y in Season 3.
Web3 storytelling is crucial for mass adoption of crypto. But Web3 storytelling is difficult. Itβs tedious. Itβs a mind-boggling Rubikβs cube. But it can be pretty damn fun. On Wednesday, December 15 at 12:30pm EST, me, Adam, Hiro, and other Top Edit regulars will be taking over the Amphitheater to talk all things Web3 storytelling. We hope to see you there!
Frogmonkee | Governance
Writers Guild governance is getting a major facelift! We currently have a working document defining our governance framework going into Season 3. This document aggregates all the discussion topics we held in our Weekly Governance chats throughout Season 2.
Huge shoutout to Jake and Stake, Hirokennelly, and others that took the initiative to work on this first draft. Our goal is to have a partial draft roughly completed by Mondayβs Governance Chat (the 13th) and have a fully completed draft by the 20th. From there, weβll present the draft to the greater Writerβs Guild in preparation for Season 3.
Last week, we also had our Writers Guild Season 3 Budget call! The breakdown is as follows:
Guild Coordinator, Talent Scout, and Secretary = 88,000 BANK each
Each role will have a 15,000 BANK pool to bounty out tasks for apprentices (see governance document)
Talent Coordinator will have an additional 10,000 BANK to distribute for new members
Governance Coordinator role will have 84,000 BANK in retroactive compensation for this season and another 84,000 BANK for Season 3
Bounties will be 50,000 BANK, of which 40,000 will roll over from Season 2
Writers Guild Coordinape - 100,000 BANK
Total BANK budget for Season 3: 597,000 BANK
nonsense π΄ | Coordinator
Season 3 is almost upon us! Special thanks to frogmonkee for taking the initiative on developing the proposal for Season 3, and for each project lead and champion who has actively participated in its development. As we continue to grow, our needs will change, so the active participation in the development of our governance framework and production of each seasonβs proposal of our leads and members will become ever more appreciated, and never less necessary. Remember, governance is everyoneβs responsibility; by taking part, you are helping guide the course in which the Writers Guild flies.
And once taken flight, weβre off the moon. Letβs fly, Writers Guild!
Postscript
βThere is no real ending. Itβs just the place where you stop the story.β
βFrank Herbert
Right out of high school, I put together a little rock band with two friends: one played drums, one played bass, and I played guitar and sang. We practiced a few times a week, and these practice sessions were largely songwriting sessions. We would jam for hours, until we picked up on a thread, a riff, a hook that we would keep returning to as a refrain, and then begin building a song around that. This was the easy part; there was no pressure to arrive anywhere in particular. We allowed the music and our moods to take us wherever they wanted to go.
As the songs would come together, and the lyrics would take shape, what I noticed was the challenge was not so much in the writing, but in the stopping. Most songs were your typical rock band fare: a verse, a hook, a second verse, the hook, a bridge, the hook, the end. And though we knew where we wanted a song to end, we didnβt know how to end it. Do we come to a dead stop? Do we ease out different instruments? Do we just fade the track once itβs recorded? And if so, how would we end it live?
Alternatively, when I learning to teach yoga, one instructor offered this advice: the class may be terrible, and you may struggle through the teaching, but if you give everyone a wonderful ΕavΔsanΔ at the end, all will be forgiven.
Simply put: endings matter.
Regardless of the type of writing, itβs important to note that knowing where to stop and how to stop are just as vital as knowing what to write and how to write it. A rambling piece is largely ineffective, and will result in the loss of attentionβunless, of course, done intentionally as part of a larger work. Likewise, a short, punchy piece may lose its kick and become unmemorable without the right closing sentiments.
As we approach the end of Season 2, and 2021 along with it, take time to reflect on the endings you write. Your endings have the power to make or break your writing.
In service to you, the Guild, and the DAO,
nonsense π΄