Censorship and gatekeeping has been an ongoing battle for artists in the world of cryptoart. On Warpcast, it is no longer to censor a cast from the main timeline but a channel's main feed remained curated, either by a moderator or by the default algorithm. Neither are the right answer for an art community, so we are changing that.
Today we are taking steps to create an artist-curated main feed for the /cryptoart channel.
Our initial approach
The current strategy is two-pronged. If you wish to be seen on the main timeline, you must either mint an OE from the /cryptoart channel DAO, or be curated. On day one, our list of curators is quite long in hopes of getting a significant amount of curation on the feed.
Any curator may curate a cast from the recent feed to the main feed. Only DAO Council may downvote. It takes two downvotes to remove a cast from the main feed. In order to ensure a decent quantity of curation happens, we will continue to add curators from our community ranks.
If you hold any token from the /cryptoart DAO OE contract, you will be seen on the main feed. The open editions will continue to be free+fee on Base via Zora and will always be available. The current live mint at time of publication is Southside Falls by @wgmeets.
The curation strategy is in flux
As we work with the community to determine the best way of curating the feed, our moderation strategy will change. Several people have noted that token-gating is not curating but filtering and financially gatekeeping. While the OE is very inexpensive, I recognize that it may limit access for several quality contributors to the channel who dont currently hold enough ETH or cant afford to bridge to Base.
To correct this issue, we are considering removing the token-gated feature in lieu of token-gating a curator role. That means anyone who has minted a token becomes a curator. There are currently 850 unique addresses holding a token from the CRYPTOART contract. That could very well be too many people to give a curator role to.
We will revise the rules on a regular basis. When a strategy proves to not be effective or the community has expressed a lot of discontent with it, we will make adjustments. As the DAO continues to develop new projects, the curation strategy may change along the way.
We need your feedback
You as a community member are a part of this. If you are discontent with the state of the /cryptoart channel or its curation, please speak up on the timeline (or directly in DMs) and talk about why. If you have any ideas, share them. I certainly cant determine the best moderation strategy by myself. Neither I nor the DAO council can represent the community if you dont let us know how you feel about the channel.
Some background on the channel
The Farcaster /cryptoart channel has been live since the day permissionless channels launched in October 2023. It has grown from under 10 casts a day to over 500 a day. When /cryptoart DAO launched, we began our work towards making the channel a curatorial entity driven by the community. We then created an open edition collection as an easy way to gain membership and participate. After the first mint, we held a curation contest requiring holding one or more editions to participate.
The future of /cryptoart curation
The main feed is not the only thing we are curating. Aside from Open Editions, we intend to work more closely with artists in our community. We want to provide artists with opportunities to reach a greater audience and find new collectors. We are discussing ideas on the public timeline, in the private DAO Council chat, in the CRYPTOART chat for OE holders, and in the public Cryptoart Cabal chat.
Follow the channel to participate and subscribe to this blog to read about official DAO updates.
