Why Farchiver (Part 1 of a 4-part series)

Nicholas Charriere on Warpcast

App request: farchiver Casts only last for 1 year by default in hubs. This is good generally, but as a user I probably would like to curate some of my (and others?) casts and mark them as persistent and backed up. Open-minded about the interface (could be a built-in button in a client, a bot, a dedicated app).

TL;DR

• the spark

• pain points

• opportunity for delight

The spark

POV early 2023: new Warpcast user looking for ideas, still trying to grow my previous project from its MVP stage. Way too early for me to think about cast purging. Wasn't ready yet to care about future coffee spit takes. Couldn't foresee anon frenships taking over my f/Shower Thoughts.

@pushix floated his thought bubble [thread], and got a ton of engagement. (Unfortunately, most of the likes disappeared around 3 months later, ~July 2023.)

Then @dwr.eth said the magic word: permissionless.

Dan Romero on Warpcast

Important: now with Hubs, 100% permissionless to do.

Pain points

Plenty of us are completionists, hoarders, compulsive archivers and Zettelkästen crafters. No need to justify this service to you! if the idea of having your casts deleted causes an inner twinge, you already know what you have to do.

There's obvious benefit to having a record of the public discourse. A way to celebrate people who do what they say will do. To admire and partake in personal growth. To provide a perspective on how challenges shift over time. Also, a way for the Third Estate to speak truth to power.

On the world wide web, someone else preserves public information (e.g., the Internet Archive). In web3, an immutable public blockchain means everyone gets the history for free.

Alas, Farcaster social activities are not on-chain (by design!). Only the sufficient pieces of identity are. Hubs de-centralize the data + metadata, as light consensus clients for global live state. Activity does not get stored on a slow, expensive blockchain.

Arweave immortalizes this blogpost. But every Warpcast link inside the post will break within a year, by protocol design.

Opportunity for Delight

@kepano shared some cool visualizations of his Obsidian knowledge base. It became obvious that a living view of Farcaster interactions would be amazing to play with! Even better that it can be beautiful, self-sovereign, offline-first, and future-proof/readable forever.

@valcoholics proved how mesmerizing Obsidian could make one's Farchiver interactions!

V on Warpcast

my farcaster history visualized with Obsidian (cc: @artlu.eth) https://i.imgur.com/nQDnJ80.gif

Check out this lost [thread] about this from over a year ago, courtesy of Searchcaster. Try to find it in Warpcast now, you can't!

If you want to own your own Farchive forever, we have multiple plans to suit your needs!

Up Next: Farchiver as a Business