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Farcaster Fall: An Ode to the Season that Outshines Them All

An essay celebrating a sufficiently decentralized social protocol

Adrienne

Adrienne

ONE WEEK AGO

CAMERON:
Hey, do you want to contribute something to Farcaster Fa—

ADRIENNE:
(Cutting him off, before he can get the words out)
Of course. Count me in.

(Pauses, thinks to herself)
Dammit, Adrienne, you do this all the time. You say yes to something before you know what you're committing yourself to.

(To Cameron)
What do you have in mind?

CAMERON:
Maybe an essay?

ADRIENNE:
Perfect. That’ll be easy.

PRESENT MOMENT

It’s Friday afternoon and I’m sitting high above the clouds on a cross country flight, with five hours of rare tranquility.  No work deadlines, laundry, dishes, or carpools, just the quiet of my noise cancelling headphones and the promise of inflight WiFi.  I could be opening up Netflix but instead I’m staring at a blank page, my Farcaster Fall deadline looming and the fear of disappointing the Farcaster scenius weighing on me.

For a brief moment I laugh at the absurdity of the situation.  I’m a grown ass adult with a homework assignment (creative writing, at that!) that is mildly stressing me out.  How did I end up here? But the moment is fleeting, because the truth is I’m nothing but delighted to be in this strange timeline that started about a year ago when I entered the Farcaster world.

I was drawn to Farcaster for the technology. A social media platform where we own our identity, an open protocol for permissionless participation, an invitation for developers to build applications we can’t even imagine today, all built on a blockchain for resiliency and censorship resistance.

post image
One of my favorite quotes that embody the creative/builder Farcaster mindset

While technology is important, what makes Farcaster truly special are the people. Dan recently described the 20,000 early adopters of Farcaster first as builders, second as being interested in Ethereum.  The builder identity is generously broad and includes developers and founders, but also writers, poets, visual artists, musicians, chefs, parents.  Anyone who generates something that didn’t exist before.  Builders inherently embody the positive sum mindset, creating for the sake of creating.  


The essay that follows is an act of love, dedicated to all the creatives in the Farcaster scenius. Pull on a sweater, grab your PSL (thank you Boop) and let’s go on a journey together through the wondrous season that brings out the best in Farcaster.


THE JOURNEY BEGINS WITH AUTUMN’S BEAUTY

post image
Fall is the most beautiful of seasons

Autumn. It's the painter's final flourish, the world's firework show. Step out and let it hit you—the riot of reds and oranges mixed with yellows and browns, the rejuvenating nip in the air, a sky so simply, so monochromatically, so perfectly blue to remind us that only the present moment matters. The leaves fall softly, slowly covering the grass that is now greener than it was all summer.  A hint of decay layered on the crisp air, its subtle decomposition comforting to our noses, unlike the full-on rot of summer compost. Peak fall foliage is a season like no other. 

The visual beauty and energizing air are what first comes to mind when I think of Fall.

We can tap into these extraordinary vibes anytime by looking at a few Farcaster channels known for being visually stunning and refreshing: f/Art, f/Photography, f/Food and f/Travel

THE HARVEST SEASON

Fall is more than surface beauty. It’s the harvest season, providing nourishment. The fall harvest is the crescendo of not just months, but years of hidden and unglamourous labor – farmers take years to choose and cultivate seeds, prepare and tend the land, all while putting up a constant fight against pests. 

Taking a bite into the sweetest Honeycrisp or the juiciest Anjou is just one moment’s reward for years of diligent and continuous effort.

Farcaster is the small scale, organic family farm. The work in and of itself is rewarding to us. We find joy in the simple acts of connecting with each other and creating across whatever medium speaks to us – visual art, photography, poetry, prose, companies, technology.  There is no overnight success.

Unlike the monocrop industrial farm, we’re not looking for shortcuts to maximize just one dimension. We’re qDAU over DAU.  Like the hobbyist farmer that tends to the gardens as an act of love, Farcasters are creating all year round for the sake of creating.  The recent DAU high water mark is not because of an act that was taken recently, but because of continuous creation with good intent over many months and years. 

post image

This energy is all over Farcaster, but a good concentration can be found in channels like f/founders, f/creators, f/fitness, and f/launchcaster where the long term, sustainable builder mindset outnumbers the viral growth hackers by many orders of magnitude.

THE BITTERSWEET COMPLEXITY OF THE SEASON

As the leaves dull and continue to fall, we anticipate the cruel narrative twist: winter is coming. One reason we might find Fall to be the most beautiful is precisely because of knowing what’s to come.  The sun sets a little earlier every day. The air is a little cooler. We fiercely hold on to today.

post image
A melancholic sunset as we hold on to Fall before Winter arrives

The Farcaster scenius knows this feeling all too well.  How lucky we are to be part of an early social network! To help form the social norms! To see the primordial ooze turn to something valuable!  In the weeks leading up to Farcaster becoming permissionless, we celebrated and held on tightly, oh so tightly.  We had captured lighting in a bottle, and we didn’t want to give it up. 

Spam, bots, scammers, air drop framers, self-promoters, zero summers, we know they are coming just as sure as we know winter is around the corner.  But just as sure as Spring follows Winter, we know we need to get through the growing pains of permissionless to let our Farcaster protocol grow in many orders of magnitude and realize its fullest potential. 

Fall is the most complicated of all the seasons. We hold two opposing feelings – the love of the present moment and certainty of impending melancholy.  It reminds me of the complicated, nuanced people of Farcaster, infinitely more capable than the rest of the internet to hold opposing thoughts in our heads.  Farcaster is the only place I’ve witnessed respectful conversation about world news, politics, culture, and even mundane warpcast features like quote casts.

The channels that most embody this spirit are f/news, f/philosophy, f/history, f/science, places where the mind can wander and wonder in good company.

WHAT DID I MISS?

Thank you for joining me on this celebration of the best season – FALL– and of the best social media platform – FARCASTER. I’ve drawn a few parallels between the season and the protocol, and highlighted a few channels that mirror the autumnal spirit. And now I’d love to hear from you. What did I miss? What did I get wrong? What would you add?

When I was preparing to write the essay, I asked for reasons why Fall was the best season, and the scenius did not disappoint. @links @galazio @kagami and many others captured the beauty and harvest theme, @greg, @dr3a and @linda were all about the comfy vibes, while @tombeck.eth and @sanchitram hit on the complexity of the season.

There were so many good contributions and I'm thankful to everyone who responded. But it was aaina who had my favorite answer:

there are so many reasons, fall is the quintessential whole greater than the sum of its parts

As the essay comes to an end, the Farcaster Fall scenius celebration rages on. It’s the best type of celebration – decentralized, permissionless, co-created, weird, and playful.

What will you contribute?

Collect this post as an NFT.

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Arjan Tupan
Arjan Tupan
Commented 1 year ago

What a brilliant, kind and loving essay, Adrienne. It was such a joy to read it! You missed a thing. A rather new thing f/Poetry. It's starting to get really nice in there. I personally am very happy with f/F1. It's a fun place to hang out over a shared passion. Differing opinions, fans of different teams, chatting like long-time friends about the races that are happening. You can see activity spike every race weekend. What I will contribute? I am not completely sure. More poetry. Not just from myself, but from artists grinding their way through life. That's why I share an onchain poem in every GM post I do. And of course, I will add a poem to Farcaster Fall. When I was creating it, I realised something I love about autumn, apart from the colours and harvest. The reason it's harvest season, is easy to see when you walk in a park or forest. Apart from their leaves, the trees also drop their seeds. So Autumn is the season when new life begins. Just like new life is sprouting on Farcaster.

adrienneFarcaster
adrienne
Commented 5 months ago

Throwback to an essay I wrote last year for Farcaster Fall 🍁🍂 "...what makes Farcaster truly special are the people" this was true a year ago and it's still true today https://paragraph.xyz/@adrienne/farcaster-fall-an-ode-to-the-season-that-outshines-them-all?referrer=0xaeA4A0dEDb94BA5b2b8ED9477A8a54379C584542

adrienneFarcaster
adrienne
Commented 5 months ago

@cameron remember farcaster fall 🥹 /nostalgia

Cameron ArmstrongFarcaster
Cameron Armstrong
Commented 5 months ago

yea that was so nice

JulyFarcaster
July
Commented 5 months ago

you are one of the people

adrienneFarcaster
adrienne
Commented 5 months ago

🫶

Zach LippFarcaster
Zach Lipp
Commented 5 months ago

thanks for sharing, I’ll check it out

doja😻🎩Farcaster
doja😻🎩
Commented 5 months ago

When I clicked on the read Mine is not opening Is it only me

Dan RomeroFarcaster
Dan Romero
Commented 1 year ago

Encouraging to see how many people answered with: "the people". https://warpcast.com/dwr.eth/0x0149db35

adrienneFarcaster
adrienne
Commented 1 year ago

“While technology is important, what makes Farcaster truly special are the people” I dedicated my Farcaster Fall contribution to the people of farcaster 💜💜 https://paragraph.xyz/@adrienne/farcaster-fall-an-ode-to-the-season-that-outshines-them-all

Carlos MatallínFarcaster
Carlos Matallín
Commented 1 year ago

Didn’t reply to the original thread but concur. I was able to start my network from scratch at a very particular moment without the previous baggage

grinFarcaster
grin
Commented 1 year ago

quality Dear Actual hUmans

🗿Farcaster
🗿
Commented 1 year ago

The people who were/are qDAU

🌶️   ZACH HARRIS   📿Farcaster
🌶️ ZACH HARRIS 📿
Commented 1 year ago

Unlike me who is a low quality user

grinFarcaster
grin
Commented 1 year ago

Being qDAU > being eacc

​wojFarcaster
​woj
Commented 1 year ago

q/dau lmao

grinFarcaster
grin
Commented 1 year ago

love it I’m in

AdamFarcaster
Adam
Commented 1 year ago

The corner stone of any place worth continuously visiting

Ash (🎩🎙️) 🐹Farcaster
Ash (🎩🎙️) 🐹
Commented 1 year ago

fr, shared some insights on do’s & don’ts on “follow-ups” with some amazing fellas and got amazing feedback from them. would’ve never gotten such overwhelming response on X, lmeow https://warpcast.com/ambesh/0x728d8432

wanisiliFarcaster
wanisili
Commented 1 year ago

Same here. I didn't reply to the original post, but the feeling of participating in a great community drives me to revisit Farcaster again and again.

adrienneFarcaster
adrienne
Commented 1 year ago

Re-casting my Farcaster Fall piece for the weekday crowd. Feedback always appreciated. @aaina @links @galazio @kagami @greg @dr3a @linda @tombeck.eth @sanchitram.eth got shoutouts for inspiring why Fall is the best season 🙏 https://paragraph.xyz/@adrienne/farcaster-fall-an-ode-to-the-season-that-outshines-them-all

SanchFarcaster
Sanch
Commented 1 year ago

complexity of the season is giving me too much credit, beautiful piece 💥🍂

adrienneFarcaster
adrienne
Commented 1 year ago

you wrote about the impending sense of doom when I asked why people love the season :)

kagami 🎩Farcaster
kagami 🎩
Commented 1 year ago

a small detail with large impact-how you define a builder the inclusion as anyone who generates something that didn’t exist before is lovely and important i know I commonly associate builder with developers and creators are a separate category in web3

adrienneFarcaster
adrienne
Commented 1 year ago

Thanks kagami. I don't know if I came up with it or heard it elsewhere first, but once I started thinking about builders more broadly, it was such an unlock. Chef, gardener, parent - all identities thriving here among the developers and founders. It's more about positive sum mindset than which tool you use 💜

kagami 🎩Farcaster
kagami 🎩
Commented 1 year ago

i think that’s a really important distinction about the term “builder” in my mind, i always associate farcaster with builders. builders broadly being more technically inclined founders/developers

KalohFarcaster
Kaloh
Commented 1 year ago

What are you creating? I’ll start: I am creating a @farcaster app since a week ago!

Nounish Prof ⌐◧-◧🎩Farcaster
Nounish Prof ⌐◧-◧🎩
Commented 1 year ago

I love this thread! Working on GM Farcaster, a lil morning news show with @adrienne —and I’ll be sharing this cast on it tomorrow! And say more about your app? (If you are ready to)

adrienneFarcaster
adrienne
Commented 1 year ago

I love this thread too! It perfectly captures the spirit of what I wrote about in my essay about how farcaster is special because everyone is creating something https://paragraph.xyz/@adrienne/farcaster-fall-an-ode-to-the-season-that-outshines-them-all

KalohFarcaster
Kaloh
Commented 1 year ago

That text really captures what’s happening here 💯

KalohFarcaster
Kaloh
Commented 1 year ago

Sharing more this week!

Cameron ArmstrongFarcaster
Cameron Armstrong
Commented 1 year ago

We’re switching it up on Day 5 of 🍁 Farcaster Fall 🍁 @adrienne published a wonderfully cozy @paragraph essay on the FC Scenius 😩 Grab a mug of your fav drink, imbibe the vibes, and collect 🌄☕️🥲 https://paragraph.xyz/@adrienne/farcaster-fall-an-ode-to-the-season-that-outshines-them-all

adrienneFarcaster
adrienne
Commented 1 year ago

Shout out to you @cameron for organizing Farcaster Fall! An explosion of creativity as big and bold as the season 🍂🍂🍂🍂 A call to action to everyone seeing this: what will you contribute to this epic celebration?