By @pab.ink

I'd like to give a brief update on how things are going for SteemSTEM and its relatively new community branch, CN-Stem.

Steemit.com blocked

As many may know, Steemit and many other frontends as well as steemconnect have been blocked in mainland China. Steem has been on borrowed time since its inception and thus it is no surprise, however we do not yet know why. There are numerous theories, but we will likely never get a clear answer.

Thankfully, due to the nature of the blockchain, there are always other routes in, and users may still access Steem through Partiko, Steemkr, and Wherein. There may be other routes to access, too.

Alternatively, these two posts are helpful sources of information to gain access via a Chrome extension developed by @liuzhixiang:

https://steemit.com/cn/@liuzhixiang/chrome
https://steemit.com/steempress/@robertyan/steemsteemserver-fs43botbb3

Overall, the effect on traffic is very small, with many Chinese speaking users active from outside of mainland China, and the overall Chinese traffic share is low, somewhere around 2% of total traffic.

However, it is a substantial roadblock for plans of growth for SteemSTEM specifically, where a number of ideas have had to be put on hiatus for the time being.

Even if users can access Steem through the above methods or standard VPN services, it is still bad news for mass adoption and bringing outside people in. We, therefore, encourage as much effort as possible from all people who are friends of friends of friends to get more people in the community involved no matter what!

Steemstem.io beneficiary system!

Now for some good news.

SteemSTEM has been developing its own front end, Steemstem.io in which the main focus is, of course, STEM content and as such is catered to these communities.

Across the top of the page, you can see content has been organized by STEM subjects, including but not limited to Biology, Physics, Medicine, Engineering, Economics, History and more.

To the right, we have included a language function in which you can change to Chinese and see a feed specifically for Chinese language content

The site is still in development, but there are a couple of incentives in place already to use it as a primary blog spot:

If you post your content on Steemstem.io, it will automatically receive an extra 5% bonus if it is curated by SteemSTEM. Thus, if your post gets a 20% vote, this will be boosted to 25%.

If you decide to set a beneficiary as @steemSTEM, you receive a further 5%, meaning users can gain a total of 10% more return by being more involved!

To be clear; setting beneficiaries and its amount is voluntary, but a very nice way to contribute to the SteemSTEM project

As a token of appreciation, you will also receive a silver and gold badge respectively on your posts highlighting that you have used our services!

Steemstem.io has a LOT of plans for growth and development, and we're always looking for more help from skilled developers!

STEM-Art

SteemSTEM has a new development in art. We realize that art is an integral part in the success of distributing content for the purposes of science communication, as well as helping digest and interpret certain research and results.

For this reason, we have started Stem-art, which:

'...looks to provide you with a way to have unique images generated according to your specific requirements - be that for your personal blog or for a scholarly publication/textbook/lecture materials/etc, at no cost to you!'

In short, artists can be commissioned to create a customized image for a user - for free - and receive a guaranteed reward in the form of a SteemSTEM upvote.

By @medro-martin

These images will be compiled into an open-access database of public domain images similar to pixabay.com, which emphasis on STEM content.

If you are an artist who wants to be involved, you can read more **[here](https://steempeak.com/steemstem/@steemstem/announcing-stem-art--1549024724)**.

@stem-witness

We also run a witness! For those who appreciate what we do, feel free to find a spare slot in your witness list - every little helps!

大家好！自从SteemSTEM以及子社区cn-stem建立以来，我们得到了cn区很多朋友们的支持。在这里，我们既要向给予我们支持的朋友们表示感谢，也想向大家通报一下SteemSTEM项目最新的进展。

关于Steemit.com被墙

大家都知道Steemit.com在中国大陆被墙了。虽然我们不知道被墙的具体原因，其实可能永远也不会知道，但Steemit.com在中国被墙也并不是一件让人感到特别奇怪的事情。在现在的情况下，虽然被墙了，我们仍然是有办法愉快的玩耍的。一些dApp，比如Partiko，Steemkr和Wherein目前暂时还不受影响。在这里，再次向大家推荐@liuzhixiang开发的免翻墙的Chrome插件。关于插件的安装和使用方法，请参考下面两个链接：

https://steemit.com/cn/@liuzhixiang/chrome
https://steemit.com/steempress/@robertyan/steemsteemserver-fs43botbb3

整体上来说，来自中国的流量仅占Steemit全部流量的2%左右，但这次被墙仍然严重影响了Steemit在中国的推广。以上这些方法虽然能暂时解决国内上Steemit的问题，但被墙总不是啥好事，而且我们关于SteemSTEM在中国推广的一些计划现在也由于被墙而搁浅。在这里，我们还是希望大家能多多向身边的朋友宣传Steemit，让我们的社区更加活跃和丰富。

Steemstem.io 受益人系统

说完了被墙，再说一些好消息吧。

现在，SteemSTEM有自己的前端平台了，Steemstem.io！当登录Steemstem.io的时候，在网页左边可以看到STEM的各个学科分类，Biology （生物）, Physics （物理）, Medicine （医学）, Engineering（工程）, Economics （经济学）History （历史）等等。

在网页右边，可以选择“中文”。这样就可以直接看到发表在cn-stem标签下面的文章了。

Steemstem.io的网页仍然在开发完善中，但如果你使用Steemstem.io发表文章，会得到如下好处。

如果文章被SteemSTEM点赞，会得到额外5%的奖励。比如，20%的点赞的力度会自动升到25%。
如果你设置@steemSTEM为收益人，那么会额外再获得5%的奖励。这样就是一共10%的额外奖励哟。

*需要说明的是，设置受益人以及百分比完全是自愿的哟，但对SteemSTEM项目是很大的鼓励。*

为了表示我们的感谢，如果您使用我们的网站发文或者设置SteemSTEM为收益人，您的文章上会加上银色和金色的徽章。

我们依然在不断开发完善Steemstem.io网站，同时我们也在寻求更多有经验的开发者的帮助。

STEM-Art

SteemSTEM给艺术提供了一种新的发展方向。艺术可以成功的促进科学交流和普及，同时也可以帮助解释很多科学研究成果。

所以，我们启动了Stem-art这个项目。

‘…looks to provide you with a way to have unique images generated according to your specific requirements - be that for your personal blog or for a scholarly publication/text book/lecture materials/etc, at no cost to you!’

简单的说，艺术家根据用户的要求，为用户制作个性化的与STEM相关的图片，这些图片可以用于个人博客，出版物，教科书等等。对用户来说，这些图片是免费的。同时，SteemSTEM会以点赞的形式作为对艺术家的奖励。

这些图片都会放在类似 pixabay.com 的开源的公开的数据库中。

@medro-martin

如果你想参与和了解Stem-art，请参考这个[链接](https://steempeak.com/steemstem/@steemstem/announcing-stem-art--1549024724)。

@stem-witness

我们也在竞争见证人！如果您想支持我们，请为我们投出您宝贵的一票！谢谢大家的支持！