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Decentralized Social Graphs as Living Organisms
Decentralized social graphs are evolving into living organisms due to the convergence of technological and cultural advancements. Despite their infancy, the critical challenge remains how to initiate the flywheel effect. Although iterative efforts have birthed single-celled entities, these have yet to mature into a thriving, self-sustaining ecosystem.
Many efforts, particularly from outside core contributors, misinterpret the end goals. These attempts often tweak existing paradigms minimally and release new clients aimed at siphoning social capital from a limited, pre-existing pool.
Reach, Not Features
Technology often gets mistaken for the product itself. Historically, we view horses, the printing press, and cotton as tools rather than technologies, a perception influenced by our current era. Similarly, recognizing current tech stacks as tools can shift our focus towards optimizing outcomes rather than insignificant feature tweaks.
The next successful client doesn't need superficial changes like a "hat button" instead of a "like button" for $Degen casts or point-earning mechanisms for user card trades. It needs to amplify ideas that resonate broadly, acting as a loudspeaker in a vast open field.
Content is the Missing Focus
To build optimal clients, we must reassess our optimization goals. Focusing solely on technology and features for existing users stagnates the ecosystem. Content, being the true product, should be the primary focus. High-quality, engaging content transcends time and space, attracting and retaining thoughtful users more effectively than any marketing strategy.
Farcaster's recent debates on content moderation in decentralized networks underscore this point. While core protocols should remain unmoderated, community subsets should implement moderation to ensure content quality, essential for attracting the "right" users.
Follow the Incentives
Moxie, despite its innovative approach to user rewards, falls short due to its current algorithm. It serves as a foundational model for protocol-level monetization and value creation, adaptable by any client using Farcaster for social communication.
Moxie's algorithm prioritizes engagement with high-ranking social capital users, leading to engagement farming rather than enhancing content quality or reach. This increases platform activity but not the quality or appropriate reach of the social graph.
Content-Optimized Algorithm
Fortunately, the Moxies core platform is agnostic to scoring, making it adaptable to evolving needs. Prioritizing quality content in social capital algorithms is essential for steering the ecosystem in the right direction.
Moxie's example is for illustrative purposes only. Building a client that prioritizes high-quality content will break through current limitations, allowing a steady influx of new, engaged users into the ecosystem.
Another Wednesday, another Weekly Digest, where we spotlight a few great pieces of writing over the past month or so. First up is @stc and his fascinating explorations into the concepts and methods behind his algorithmic plotter graphics series “Procedural Drawings”. https://paragraph.xyz/@stc/time-shifting
Next, @rtfkt dives into the lifecycle of online communities — Inception, Establishment, Maturity, and Mitosis or Revival — and highlights the importance of communication and value to prevent community stagnation and fragmentation. https://paragraph.xyz/@kalen/the-pulse-of-online-communities-navigating-the-lifecycle
@zoz.eth writes about how decentralized social graphs are evolving into dynamic ecosystems, but the primary challenge is achieving a self-sustaining growth cycle. Success in this domain will come from focusing on high-quality, engaging content rather than superficial feature tweaks, ensuring the amplification of ideas that attract and retain thoughtful users. https://paragraph.xyz/@0xzoz/the-infinite-client-1
@ispeaknerd.eth discusses strategies for securing onchain and social identities in the web3 landscape using Ethereum Name Service (ENS) and Farcaster, emphasizing the importance of managing multiple wallets for different activities to safeguard one’s reputation and digital assets. https://paragraph.xyz/@ispeaknerd.eth/passport-control-for-onchain-and-social-identities
@0xantidote.eth explores the history of social media and lessons learned along the way, as well as the potential and challenges faced by newer decentralized platforms. "What I do believe is that for the foreseeable future, we won't see any new platform paradigms emerge because we are stuck with mobile phones as a computational platform. Instead, innovation will come from social-native apps, which use these platforms as a means of distribution." https://paragraph.xyz/@antidote/next-gen-social-apps
@maryams.eth just finished it this week! https://warpcast.com/sadeghian/0x87bfd56d
high quality Moxie posts without any spam! *we now import feeds from /airstack and /moxie/ No frames (excluded for spam but will cater to high quality ones later)* some high quality creators will have a glowing border around their posts these include: @betashop.eth @alexcomeau @zeni.eth @zoz.eth @pichi @proxystudio.eth @six @deepesh @rjs @downshift.eth images showing; like/recast counter working ***filter by power badge*** Check out: https://www.farsuite.xyz/MoxieFeed
cons: iz a lil slow
Timely…. Could farsuite be the infinite client? https://paragraph.xyz/@0xzoz/the-infinite-client-1
I think @yb is on the track on focused content, although I'm not sure how that scales beyond a small userbase (although in web3 that just might be enough). Farsuite is just whatever tools i like building today(and the ones I fail at 😅), but I want to keep expanding the scope And bro, yes I want that "superficial" Moxie like button 😄
Whaaaaat? What is this, it's so pretty...
Thanks! Will be be making more high signal 🚦 🔜
Your account's casts aren't highlighted?!
Thanks for sharing! Curious what the selection criteria was for high quality creators?
it's based on my discretion seeing these folks put out quality stuff; your discussions in the studio channel, pichi dropping a highlight NFT airdrop, Zenigame for Moxietools, others for high quality discussions . Going to add some projects working on Moxie like @bvdaniel's Vibra as we go on. Need to combine this feed with a search feed for a better experience.
👏 love highly opinionated curation, and honored to be included!
Decentralized social graphs are evolving like living organisms, but the challenge is to create a self-sustaining ecosystem. The focus should be on content, not superficial features or technology tweaks, to attract engaged users. Moxie's example shows the need for quality-focused algorithms. @zoz.eth