Cover photo

Crossing Cringe-ple Creek: On Content Coins 'n' Creative Shame

mark mollé

post image

The this meme 👆 and this caption 👇

Content coins will work if you get people to post them with sufficient quantity and frequency.

Until then, there will be a lot of push back. But the only way through is posting more.

Swap “being cool” with “established coin norms” and “being cringe” with “creating more coins”.

shared by Dan Romero (@dwr.eth)

on Farcaster https://warpcast.com/dwr.eth/0x720cb896

in connection with the Base × Zora Content Coin launch

struck such a

                nerve

  (it rang like a struck glass —

    & i’ve passed it

      around

        a dozen times today)

because

  (in a time when people built apps like sandcastles

    & watched the waves of users (not) come in)

  i made one

    called Definer

  a word-forger

    for naming the unnamed

we coined (oh yes)

  words from the wild static

    things you could feel

      but couldn’t yet say

and even then

  we were haunted by

    a hush

      (not silence exactly—

        more like a knowing cough

          in the gallery hallway)

it came (softly)

  from the marble hands

    of Instagram

  that god of

    curation

      restraint

        symmetry

  where trying

    was the only sin

“post once (if you must),”

  they whispered

    “twice if you’re at an event

      “but never — please — flood the feed.”

(we weren’t meant to be seen making)

  only

    seen

      being

then came

    snapchat

      (an ephemeral house party)

not a gallery

  but a place where

    the punch was pixelated

      the light—bad

        & everyone danced anyway

you could send your worst face

  your rawest thought

    your breakfast bagel

      & no one

        saved the receipt

(goofy

  fleeting

    true)

and when stories spilled from that party

  into the insta-gallery next door

    the shame

      followed

        (in a long coat

          with many buttons)

because shame

  is migratory

    — it nests in every new tool

      until it’s evicted

        or turned into something else

and now

    it lives

      (in a quiet little villa)

  inside all user-generated-content apps

including

content coins

that same shame

  old wine in new bottles

    tastes just like:

  “do i look like i’m trying too hard?”

because between

  what you mean

    and what you create

there is

  (inevitably)

    a gap

      (a tremor

        a blush

          a breath)

i’ve named that space

  as one names a valley

    from the hilltop above

Cringe-ple Creek

(hear it?

  it struts like the baseline of

Up on Cripple Creek

    but its boots are dusty pink

      and muddy

and cringe AF)

this is the place

  where you pause

    ask

      is this dumb?

        will they laugh?

          should i post/mint/do this?

            (am i desperate?)

but

  (dear friend)

  if you don’t cross

      that creek—

        the culture

          doesn’t move

the cool ones?

  those shimmering avatars?

    they didn’t wait for approval

they posted

  through it

  they minted

    anyway

they made the norms

  by ignoring the ones

    that hadn’t worked yet

andy warhol had

  a phrase for this:

    so what

  that moment

    when you unbutton the shame

      toss it in the bin

        & get back to work

if content coins are to grow

  they must be minted

    before they’re finished

they must be expressed

    before they sound wise

they must be posted

    before they know

      what they’re saying

there is no shame

  in being seen

    trying

there is no shame

  in being

    early

there is no shame

  in making something

    half-formed, full-hearted

to cross

  Cringe-ple Creek

    is to stop

      self-curating

        and being

          freely creating

so

  post

so

  make

so

  mint

and when shame creeps in

  as it will

    on sock-feet

        holding a clipboard

          saying “are you sure?”

you tell it:

  i’m not just sure

    i’m loved

        unconditionally

and then you can say

  (with me

    and with andy warhol)

so

  what

Crossing Cringe-ple Creek: On Content Coins 'n' Creative Shame