Dearest Writer, dearest Editor, I have but one question to ask of you this issue:
What the fuck does it mean to be involved?
We know that the DAO is a place that allows for incredible freedom for involvement, but it isn’t always clear what that involvement entails until you dive in. And even then, there are innumerable factors that determine the depth of your involvement. There are no straight answers, because there are no answers at all. All that exists is a great pool with no shallow end; you can tread water, submerge your head, or go deep diving. The depth at which you traverse this pool is entirely up to you. Let’s take a look at what it means to be involved.
Welcome to The Scribe’s Quill.
Authors: BanklessDAO Writers Guild Coordinator, nonsense 🏴.
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.
What’s On the Agenda?
The general discussion that came out of our weekly meeting had more to do with governance than anything else. However, this is not to suggest that other important points weren’t raised. NFThinker is developing a DAO-wide Terms & Conditions page, and dropped in to the Guild to request assistance and clarification. If you’re interested in following up with or contributing to this initiative, reach out to Samantha, as she has started a working group to support NFThinker’s efforts. Furthermore, there was some discussion around meeting times, which led to a larger discussion around leveraging synchronous and asynchronous work. We’ve created a thread to bring this discussion asynchronously. Add your voice here. This also led to a discussion around the ability to pick up work asynchronously, and how we can leverage numerous tools to make this more viable. You can catch up with and join the conversation here.
Guild Events
These last few weeks see the first Mastermind Group materialize. This is an initiative championed by siddhearta to help further develop the talent we have here in the Guild and up-level the quality of the work being produced in terms of both writing and editing. Writing better will make you a better editor. Editing well will improve your writing. While the Mastermind Group seeks to hone the writing prowess of our members, we’ll see a vast improvement in the quality of both writers and editors over the course of its existence. If you’re interested in getting involved, keep an eye on the Mastermind page on Notion, and regularly review the chatter in the writers-general channel.
In other news, the EPA is kicking off a Book Club! For you writing and editing nerds, this will be a place to congregate and discuss the Oxford comma, superscripts, subscripts, and the appropriate uses of their, their, their, their, and their. Joking! Kind of. If you’re interested in taking part, pick up Strunk & White’s Elements of Style, as this is the first book we’ll be reviewing, and add your availability to the lettuce here.
Under Discussion
Of interesting note is a major discussion that took place recently in writers-general: what does it mean to produce content in anonymity? A number of our members weighed in on this conversation, and interesting ideas were borne out of the various points brought up. The conversation really kicked off when EthHunter asked “My concerns are ethical - is it fair to write about real world companies and individuals if you aren't sharing your own identity with readers?” And apparently, there are innumerable ideas regarding this inquiry. What does it mean to produce content under a pseudonym or alternative moniker vs your irl identity? blankslate.eth came in swinging with the premise that “If you have an online identity that you have spent years cultivating and have relationships built up around that identity, that is generally going to be a lot more valuable to you than something as blasé as money because of the time investment.” EricCMack, Samanthaj, Gandsy, frogmonkee, siddhearta, AdamDavidson, and others all added their voices to this conversation, and it’s an interesting one, one that is worth reviewing and, perhaps, contributing too.
Furthermore, one major topic of discussion we’ve been exploring in the EPA is how to best decentralize the work that needs to happen. While other guilds and projects continue to trend toward centralization, we’re actively working to create a more cohesive environment that both celebrates individual contribution and a team-oriented approach to work distribution. We all have opportunities to pick up work and gain more BANK, but those opportunities currently come at the high effort of a select few. When we distribute this effort over everyone who stands to gain from this work, we gain a number of benefits, namely greater ownership in the Guild, and greater appreciation for the DAO. Right now, we have need of a coordination layer. However, if we stay focused on the benefits of decentralization and are willing to put in the work, it’s possible that one day we can arrive at a truly decentralized Guild.
None of this, however, will happen overnight. It’s going to take time, and it’s going to take work. But we are strong, intelligent, focused, and ready.
Writers Guild in Bites
What’s Coming Up?
The Council of Writers Weekly, Monday at 5:30pm UTC.
Writers Guild Governance Sprint, Monday at 7:00 UTC.
Weekly Newsletter Team Sync, Thursday at 4:00pm UTC
Weekly Editorial and Publishing Arm (EPA) Meeting, Thursday at 9:00pm UTC
Meeting Notes
Council of Writers, November 8, 2021
Writers Guild Governance Sprint, November 1, 2021
Newsletter Team Sync, November 11, 2021
Editors Circle (EPA), November 11, 2021
Decentralization and Diligence, a Theme
“Governments, if they endure, always tend increasingly toward aristocratic forms. No government in history has been known to evade this pattern. And as the aristocracy develops, government tends more and more to act exclusively in the interests of the ruling class - whether that class be hereditary royalty, oligarchs of financial empires, or entrenched bureaucracy.
—Politics as Repeat Phenomenon: Bene Gesserit Training Manual”
—Frank Herbert, Children of Dune
Herein lies the rub: it’s easy to centralize. It’s easy to hand off executive function to someone willing to accept the mantle. It’s easy to offload responsibility to a select few and hope they do what’s best for all governed. And the bigger problem here is that our brains are wired for easy. As Hunter-Gatherers—and make no mistake, despite the fact that we have grown through and beyond an agricultural society, we remain Homo Sapiens, who are, at base, Hunter-Gatherers—our brains are wired to rest when not in immediate danger. We’re literally wired for easy. The problem with this is that in our current iteration of culture and society, the immediate dangers are not tangible; at least not in the natural predator-prey scope of things. You’re not being hunted by Jaguars. Nay, the immediate dangers are abstract: things like misinformation, misrepresentation, miscommunication, and centralization.
Our brains are not wired to recognize these things as immediately dangerous. Though the potential exists for us to evolve as a species to come to recognize these things, we’re not there yet. We don’t view them as dangerous in the same way we view someone running toward us with a knife as dangerous. And this, in and of itself, is dangerous. Without a deep and immediate recognition that the abstract problems are indeed dangerous to our collective wellbeing, we fail to realize the problematic nature of these abstract issues until it’s too late.
The narrative needs to change. And that change begins with you. Here. In this space where we are striving to develop open systems that celebrate and reward collective contribution. We can build a system that will factor in the danger that these abstract problems pose. But we must be focused, engaged, and diligent in our approach.
In the wise words of Mad Eye Moody: “CONSTANT DILIGENCE!”
Never has a truer word been spoken, especially as it pertains to the Guild, and as it pertains to the DAO.
In service to you, the Guild, and the DAO,
nonsense 🏴