Cover photo

Customization is Coming

Farcaster Frames and Cast Actions customize social experiences

iSpeakNerd

iSpeakNerd

Welcome to the 41 people who've joined since last Sunday!

Thank you to those of you that collected my writings, it helps me out and keeps me going!

Grateful to all 221 of you for reading, hope you're having a great start to your week!

Enjoyy the content, take it higher, and join the /nerdery channel on Farcaster.


Key Takeaways

  1. Farcaster Frames lets devs use individual user context for processing and presenting information. ex. You (cast viewer) have ${amount} DEGEN in your connected wallet.

  2. Transaction frames let devs propose transactions for users to approve and execute. ex. You (cast viewer) tip 50 $DEGEN to @ispeaknerd.eth.

  3. Cast actions let users initiate those frames on other users' casts. ex. ${userB} has ${amount} $DEGEN in their wallet.

  4. Cast actions can be transaction actions too! ex. I (cast action-er) tip 50 $DEGEN to ${userB}

Customizable Community Interface

Farcaster is leading the way with custom social experiences using crypto. Devs a lot to work with when user data is all transparent and accessible thanks to blockchain. User-level customization is the ability to cater experiences to the context of each user; I love board games but @colin prefers to cast about his (delicious looking) dinners.

Connections with other users (social graph) and onchain data from your connected wallet address is rich soil for developers to create contextual experiences within the context of each user.

One of the most easily understood examples is Roastcaster, a LLM-powered roast generation frame. Here's mine:

post image

It pulls data from my connected wallet about my POAPs, Zora mints, and ENS as well as using my Farcaster data.

Frames and Cast Actions allow developers to empower users with custom content using that contextual identity of each caster.

Frames

As I said previously:

Frames are small apps that run inside of casts. Interactive off-site content, basically telegram/discord bots that interface with users within a single cast.

Frames allow for personalized interactions because apps can leverage Farcaster profiles as user identities. Transaction frames let devs create transactions to be signed by user wallets, giving apps a path to onchain user interactions, not just API-based ones.

This is to say that, Farcaster is rolling out onchain versions of offchain features. Discord & Telegram bots that interface with users through APIs can now be transaction frames to broadcast user actions onchain.

Cast Actions

Cast Actions take it even further, allowing users to install up to five actions that can be performed on any cast. These are frame actions; they combine user context with outside information to report to the caster.

Think of them as the Farcaster version of user-installed slash commands on Discord. They use a specific bot but only work for users that have installed them, i.e. granted the bot access to use their data. This gives users not only customized experiences, but also users can initiate those experiences on any cast. They are not limited to casts with that particular frame in them.

Devs have been busy so here are some of my favorite actions to let users:

  1. Analyze a caster's post history to determine if they're a Bot or Not

  2. Tip DEGEN onchain to other casters

  3. Make a haiku from a cast

(2) is especially intriguing here because it shows that if frames can propose transactions, and actions are frames, then actions allow casters to initiate onchain interactions with other Farcaster users directly from the social feed! I foresee only further customization for Farcaster as devs build ways for casters to interact with off- and onchain with both each other and with apps. Very exciting stuff!

It seems that the Warpcast team is being very careful to curate a safe set of actions to approve for now, but eventually they will decentralize it. At that time we will likely see scam frames attempting to initiate sketchy transactions. I expect and hope that they are working on solutions to safeguard us.



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Arweave TX

Wa4gH39NTjoresQK1Nwbg9n6m3PwQUJgcgeyU661OZs

Colin Johnson 💭Farcaster
Colin Johnson 💭
Commented 11 months ago

It’s been a few weeks (months?) since cast actions were implemented. Buoy & Degen tip are the only ones I’ve used to date. Are there others people are loving? https://www.weponder.io/surveys/1490

ZachFarcaster
Zach
Commented 11 months ago

I hadn't used them until I had to with channel mod stuff.

Colin Johnson 💭Farcaster
Colin Johnson 💭
Commented 11 months ago

That seems to be the true forcing function

artlu 🎩Farcaster
artlu 🎩
Commented 11 months ago

1/ Action to open any cast in Supercast, Nook (rip), Farquest, or Vasco 2/ Decent Bookmarks to own my BMs 3/ Fart Action 🍑💨 ofc

JacobFarcaster
Jacob
Commented 11 months ago

my everyday carry

Colin Johnson 💭Farcaster
Colin Johnson 💭
Commented 11 months ago

Niiice. I’m adding them like hotcakes now. I didn’t recognize you with that new PFP!

JacobFarcaster
Jacob
Commented 11 months ago

yeah 8^) i got tired of the fur hat guy, and i'm in my artist arc now i might need to send you @atlas but happy to have you test it out, it's preeetty rough rn

ZenigameFarcaster
Zenigame
Commented 11 months ago

Bot or Not and Not a Token are daily atm as I'm studying how things are scored on here Beyond that, the degen frame works as a bookmark

GhostlinkzFarcaster
Ghostlinkz
Commented 11 months ago

I said daily, but only cuz im forced to in order to curate channels via @automod otherwise the answer would be rarely. The other question to ask is: how many ppl know that this page warpcast.com/~/discover-actions exists?

Colin Johnson 💭Farcaster
Colin Johnson 💭
Commented 11 months ago

O.o forced compliance is still compliance I guess 😂 I JUST learned that you can see the list at the bottom of the cast actions about 30 seconds ago too.

GhostlinkzFarcaster
Ghostlinkz
Commented 11 months ago

Look at us exploring the new frontier of decentralized social 😂

forestkeeperioFarcaster
forestkeeperio
Commented 11 months ago

Thank you stranger

Just BuildFarcaster
Just Build
Commented 11 months ago

I use them almost everyday. I like the translation ones but also the OpenRank cast action. It helps me do a quick eval of people I don't know to see if they are active and/or bot-ish. 😁

Colin Johnson 💭Farcaster
Colin Johnson 💭
Commented 11 months ago

Ohhh I didn’t know there’s an OpenRanm one, good call

Just BuildFarcaster
Just Build
Commented 11 months ago

Happy to help. 😁 👍

iSpeakNerd 🧙‍♂️Farcaster
iSpeakNerd 🧙‍♂️
Commented 11 months ago

They are great, shameless self shill, from after the initial dev wave but before they became widespread https://paragraph.xyz/@ispeaknerd.eth/customization-is-coming

SteenFarcaster
Steen
Commented 11 months ago

Great q. Just started using them for @automod daily-ish

Colin Johnson 💭Farcaster
Colin Johnson 💭
Commented 11 months ago

I’ve added three just from this thread 🙃

antimo 🎩Farcaster
antimo 🎩
Commented 11 months ago

I use @gif daily

Eddie WhartonFarcaster
Eddie Wharton
Commented 11 months ago

I love @botornot by @sayangel

Colin Johnson 💭Farcaster
Colin Johnson 💭
Commented 11 months ago

Ooh nice

Eddie WhartonFarcaster
Eddie Wharton
Commented 11 months ago

Helpful context as I go through mentions Ofc, if it downgrades me to average caster, bad tech

GIGAMΞSHFarcaster
GIGAMΞSH
Commented 1 year ago

Making a list of the best blog posts and videos about Farcaster. Please reply with your suggestions for degen tips. <3

Chic BangsFarcaster
Chic Bangs
Commented 1 year ago

@raven50mm has been creating a lot of educational Farcaster videos!

iSpeakNerd 🧙‍♂️Farcaster
iSpeakNerd 🧙‍♂️
Commented 1 year ago

@cameron @july have you dove into actions yet? https://paragraph.xyz/@ispeaknerd.eth/customization-is-coming

sparkzFarcaster
sparkz
Commented 1 year ago

how did i not know about /cameron

iSpeakNerd 🧙‍♂️Farcaster
iSpeakNerd 🧙‍♂️
Commented 1 year ago

probably bc of his quiet and obsequious nature

sparkzFarcaster
sparkz
Commented 1 year ago

lolz

Cameron ArmstrongFarcaster
Cameron Armstrong
Commented 1 year ago

mhm they’re really important for alt clients and quasi-clients, but they suffer from a significant distribution challenge

iSpeakNerd 🧙‍♂️Farcaster
iSpeakNerd 🧙‍♂️
Commented 1 year ago

Yeah user-install only presupposes dev ability to command attention on their product Could see pinned frames --> action installs helping

iSpeakNerd 🧙‍♂️Farcaster
iSpeakNerd 🧙‍♂️
Commented 1 year ago

Makes sense with FC alignment tho, follows = PoW But you've talked before about seeing FC go away from follows with I creased algo feeds

storming0x.ethFarcaster
storming0x.eth
Commented 1 year ago

Awesome post, can i ask what aspect ratio for those main images are? Do you use any AI tooling? im looking for something for my blog to use, but every AI image generator just does 1:1 aspect ratio.

iSpeakNerd 🧙‍♂️Farcaster
iSpeakNerd 🧙‍♂️
Commented 1 year ago

you can specify ar in midjourney `--ar {width}:{height}` https://warpcast.com/thefinnomenon/0x9dd0ae2e

iSpeakNerd 🧙‍♂️Farcaster
iSpeakNerd 🧙‍♂️
Commented 1 year ago

gm nerds, new article Frames, Transaction Frames, and Cast Actions create custom experiences for casters on social media https://paragraph.xyz/@ispeaknerd.eth/customization-is-coming?referrer=0x3eEFAa9d6e2ab7972C1001D41C82BB4881389257

iSpeakNerd 🧙‍♂️Farcaster
iSpeakNerd 🧙‍♂️
Commented 1 year ago

ty for collecting @clt and @icarusvn! it keeps me going knowing people appreciate my writing!! 💖

Soheybuildson.baseFarcaster
Soheybuildson.base
Commented 1 year ago

great article! 100 $DEGEN

iSpeakNerd 🧙‍♂️Farcaster
iSpeakNerd 🧙‍♂️
Commented 1 year ago

Thank you! What was valueful about it for you?

StormblessedFarcaster
Stormblessed
Commented 1 year ago

141 $DEGEN

iSpeakNerd 🧙‍♂️Farcaster
iSpeakNerd 🧙‍♂️
Commented 1 year ago

thanks fam, looks like the bot's not happy with you though

StormblessedFarcaster
Stormblessed
Commented 1 year ago

This other bot said my new allowance was over 1k wonder which is right

Customization is Coming