Purple is currently running its current iteration of Purple's Retro Funding Round via Rounds in the /purple channel. It is a 10 ETH Round, thanks to a 5 ETH contribution from Purple and a 5 ETH contribution from Octant. You have 7 days left to submit your entry and anyone who has made any demonstrable impact on Farcaster can apply by posting their impact into the channel and tagging it #retropgf. Purple token holders and approved Octant voters then vote for their favorites via a Farcaster like. The funds are then distributed based on the number of Likes one receives.
This is our second Retro Funding Round via Rounds and our first one under new Grants Lead, Emre Ekinci. One thing I liked about our experiences last time is that Purple went from rewarding initially 5 people, to 15, and in the last round, over 50 people received at least some reward and recognition for their contribution thanks to using Rounds.wtf. I expect that number to be much bigger this time.
I have nothing but praise for Rounds.wtf and its team. I actually have a hard time writing about it because I think it's truly a transformational new crypto-social primitive that when I sit down to write about it I just see a big galaxy brain meme in front of me as I think of all its nuances and aligned incentives. Maybe just watch this 20m podcast with its founder, Seneca. It is excellent.
Our Retro Funding Round is designed to capture a wide range of impact from media, to channel hosting, to software development, and more. The key is that applicants must have had a demonstrable impact on Farcaster. Simply minting an NFT and sharing it on Warpcast once doesn't qualify. This brings us to our main challenge: spam and low-effort applications.
Current Challenges:
Spam and low-quality submissions: Since we're providing a meaningful token reward, we've seen an influx of spam, AI-generated posts, and low-effort submissions.
Moderation burden: Emre and I have been aggressively moderating the channel, hiding posts, banning bad actors, and checking to ensure they didn't receive any likes in Rounds. This is a time-consuming process, occurring probably 15 times a day by me and I have no idea how many times by Emre.
Potential Solutions:
OpenRank moderation: Automod could filter based on OpenRank, potentially helping to filter out bots while letting real people through. However, determining the appropriate OpenRank threshold requires further investigation. Does anyone have a suggested OpenRank number to use a justification for it? I would turn this on today.
Moderator-approved posts: Automod could be set up to show only posts liked by a moderator on the main feed. While labor-intensive, this would result in a clean feed of quality submissions to vote on. If we had a paid staff, it might be worth doing it this way to make sure all votes are going to high quality submissions.
Spam is becoming a problem across various grants programs. At CharmVerse, we're collaborating with Google on an automated spam check phase. For Optimism Retroactive Public Goods Funding (RetroPGF), we have a team of badgeholders who review each proposal to filter out spam from hundreds of submissions.
While this issue isn't unique to Rounds, it's a crucial consideration when designing a Rounds campaign. As we continue to refine our approach, we're open to suggestions and feedback from the community to make our Retro Funding Rounds more efficient and effective.
I think there's an opportunity here to set a standard on how/what posts to make, what spams are, what are the do's and dont's as I think this is a universal rounds problem also in other channels such as base-builds. We can make a general guideline and serve warnings to those who misbehave. After that, we can put them on the public mute/block list (Someone can build a one click block list since its onchain) which people can use. It might just be labor intensive at the start, but the community can help On the moderation with openrank, I think starting with a very low number then increasing it slowly can potentially work so that real people but small accounts still have the chance to showcase their work and not snubbed.
what's a good essay to send someone who is wondering how retropgf works?
I touch on it here but I'd be down to write more about it. https://paragraph.xyz/@ccarella/retrofunding-via-rounds-and-spam
thanks!
Publishing every day has been great and has unlocked a lot of ideas but it’s also hard to write every day with substance. I’m not willing to yolo a daily essay on the things I think the most about. Another idea is to write daily and publish once a week so that you can built up something with more substance but it’s much harder to hold yourself accountable that way.
I’ve been admiring your commitment & enjoying the posts. Inspired. Liking the idea of writing everyday & publishing less frequently. Keep going whatever you decide. 💜
The commitment has been easy because I bet $100 I could publish 30d straight and I don’t intent on losing that one.
I promise to use it for good. 😁
Where do you publish your works? I enjoy reading published works
i’ve been struggling with this. took a bold step early this year to start a newsletter on self growth but i struggle a having blockers on content to post & missed posting for months what do you think can help me get back
How do you manage to write every day while ensuring each piece has substance? Do you follow a specific routine or process?
For sure, that makes sense. Writing daily and then publishing weekly could give you the space to dive deeper into your ideas if you look at it that way. The accountability part might be a little harder, though but maybe breaking it up into smaller and more manageable steps during the week could help keep you on track without the pressure of daily publishing. What do you think?
where have you been publishing? would like to give it a read. i’m not really a good writer and would like to learn more about writing for /this-past-week throw in some tips that might help if you don’t mind, would appreciate it alot.
https://paragraph.xyz/@ccarella/retrofunding-via-rounds-and-spam My only tip is that I bet someone that I would publish for 30 days straight and I don’t like to lose.
that’s a great tip imo. the bet is enough motivation how many days streak are you on?
Not a writer but I’d like to know how do you get your inspiration for your topics and content I make contents on health promotion and I’d like it to grow so I’d like a tip from someone like you 🫶🏽
It’s tough, I have a list of ideas but honestly the easiest thing has been just building on something I have to solve or message in another context today.
I’d love to hear some of your ideas
It’s a tough balance,I have tried writing I end up with unfinished work every time .Maybe because of no inspiration,where do you get yours btw ? Can I see your published works? Do you think setting smaller, daily goals within a larger weekly framework could help me?
Daily writing is not authentic, we have to stop measuring quality trough data analysis of volume and start looking for something Accord to the current quantum reality where this has the potential to be a spiritual journey trough technology and not just the new way to distract us
i don’t write but i read a lot of books if i can. where do you publish? i should check it out
Retrofunding via Rounds and Spam
Nice summary. As someone who also moderates a lot of rounds, I agree it can be a labor of love sometimes to manage spam and low effort posts. Would be cool to incorporate some auto-moderation. Also, thanks for shouting out our ZEROPOD Spotlight on @seneca in your article!
Really well written. Tho open rank could be a good idea the issue comes from maybe missing out on newer small folxs that have made impacts tho have less scope here yet. Or even when I was starting out my own entry in here it has taken time and dedication that now I don't know if I could or can spend as much time on this app as I did months ago. Wish I could yet IRL has taken over and I have to focus on trying to find work elsewhere. Still the larger known accounts surpass with reach and views. I just hope I can get enough to pay for fees on hosting this community for another year but wish for more.