Voting has begun for the Nouns x Farcaster prop house for 3 teams to do a 3 month sprint to create the ultimate Farcaster client for Nouns DAO. It's been interesting to watch the proposal process and I've chatted with many of the proposers while they were seeking feedback.
I thought voting was going to be tough with 38 props to review and rank but honestly it wasn't. I had a mini rubric that I kept in mind while reading and it made it easy to surface the best options.
Here was the criteria I had while going through the proposals to vote:
⌐◨-◨ Do they use & understand Farcaster/Warpcast? If you only included Twitter socials this is a BIG problem. Yes, I looked at your profile on Warpcast.
⌐◨-◨ Do they understand the Nouns ecosystem (or at least are attempting to)?
⌐◨-◨ Are they building it for the entire ecosystem NOT just Nouns holders?
⌐◨-◨ Is prop well written to convey the roadmap, timeline, team, tech, visuals?
⌐◨-◨ Is the Team known and have the right mix of experience? Can they work without a ton of feedback and handholding? (it is difficult to get feedback and everyone has different priorities -- need to be able to make your own decisions independently)
My top 8
Yeah there were just too many good ones! I couldn't pick only 3. All of the props I'm mentioning received at least one vote from me (even the honorable mentions).
NounSpace – this one is honestly pretty amazing - customizable, fidgets are interesting, good understanding of both Farcaster AND Nouns ecosystem
https://prop.house/0x767a3bdf2aa3b3201b794927a997fcf4e50d4702/21
Nero: An app for people with a nounish algo – incredible Farcaster OG on team with extensive experience in the space; incorporates useful tools like Hats Protocol, herocast etc
https://prop.house/0x767a3bdf2aa3b3201b794927a997fcf4e50d4702/19
Nouncaster - Algonouns + NounTok – interesting & fun approach; experienced team
https://prop.house/0x767a3bdf2aa3b3201b794927a997fcf4e50d4702/10
BCard x Nouns x Farcaster – another incredible Farcaster OG on team; interesting experiment to incorporate $nogs and use as incentive; looking beyond just Nouners
https://prop.house/0x767a3bdf2aa3b3201b794927a997fcf4e50d4702/18
Noggled: A Nouns + Holder Mobile App – good understanding of Farcaster and strong experienced team; thinking beyond Nouns proper to other nounish daos and communities (good video intro)
https://prop.house/0x767a3bdf2aa3b3201b794927a997fcf4e50d4702/25
The Mega Big Super Fun Awesome Nouns App! – good understanding of Farcaster and Nouns but could benefit from adding more Nounsfolk to the team (see suggestions below); incorporation of all aspects of Nouns and nounish communities; “I've learned that nouns are sometimes opinionated and like to discuss things at length" may be the understatement of the year.
https://prop.house/0x767a3bdf2aa3b3201b794927a997fcf4e50d4702/11
Lighthouse x Nouns x Farcaster – more focus on governance unlike other proposals which is good; working prototype shows initiative
https://prop.house/0x767a3bdf2aa3b3201b794927a997fcf4e50d4702/3
Nounster – good understanding of Farcaster and good demo site; not enough incorporation of the overall nouniverse
https://prop.house/0x767a3bdf2aa3b3201b794927a997fcf4e50d4702/17
Nounish Honorable mentions:
Some of these props have good pieces that I feel might be able to be integrated into other larger clients but may not be robust enough for a stand alone client or may need additional refinement. The three Nouners mentioned here could be added to other teams and help those teams to better understand the ecosystem and add pieces of their clients to those larger projects (or smaller funding to develop these aspects that might have more limited BUT useful scope):
Nouns Expansion Packs – Index - scope too small but interesting experiments that could be added to other clients
https://prop.house/0x767a3bdf2aa3b3201b794927a997fcf4e50d4702/37
498.wtf – Gabriel Ayuso - some great ideas and Gabriel is a Farcaster OG AND longtime Nouner who would be valuable to a larger team but the scope here is too small
https://prop.house/0x767a3bdf2aa3b3201b794927a997fcf4e50d4702/38
Nouniverse by NNS Labs - not enough understanding of Farcaster but some good elements and if B card team won, would be a good advisor there (or for other teams wanting to incorporate $nogs)
https://prop.house/0x767a3bdf2aa3b3201b794927a997fcf4e50d4702/29
Other Honorable mentions:
Nouns Social – the focus on reddit like client and minting aspects seem useful
https://prop.house/0x767a3bdf2aa3b3201b794927a997fcf4e50d4702/31
Nouncaster.wtf – concerned that channels are not a priority until after 3 mo sprint – should be one of THE priorities imo
https://prop.house/0x767a3bdf2aa3b3201b794927a997fcf4e50d4702/9
My final top 3 would be very different from each other so we could see different approaches over the next 3 months.
To the teams that win
I highly recommend incorporating governance aspects beyond just Nouns Camp -- Nouns Agora for one, as many of us use that platform and Yitong could be a great resource for you.
Also, get to know some of the other existing nounish tools like BotFrens and Nerman for alerts; The Noun Square and Nounish for content; Noundation for ⌐◨-◨.
Be sure to think about nounish communities such as Nouncil, Lil Nouns, and Gnars as well as Nouns Builder and the DAOs built on it like Purple and Yellow. They will be frequent users and those needs should be considered as much as Nouners.
Also, think about how nounsfolk are consuming content -- for example, Nouns.wtf is being sunsetted in some ways but still provides one of the best ways to read proposals imo. Make this a client that people are excited to use.
Lastly, think about how it works with Farcaster/Warpcast and not as a competitor to it. Personally, I'm a power user of Warpcast (got the badge and the podcast to prove it) so at this time I have no idea how often I'd use a Nouns client that took me too far away from the rest of the Farcaster ecosystem.
Good luck to all the teams! We are lucky to have you building for Nouns!
⌐◨-◨
