Cameron Armstrong
@cameron
3) Not enough good content
Devs building apps here are mostly trying to show people their client is better at matching them with content.
Communities come together around ideas/values and that makes for good content.
Novel, high quality content is the hole. Solve that and people will put up with a lot of pain.
Manuel
@manuelmaccou.eth
This is a solid point which is why I like your @saymore integration. It promotes creating good content. And then….people can endorse them with @mosaicnetwork if it’s good 😏
Author Reply ❌
Farcaster Comments
Matthew
@matthew
⭐ Threadstarter
Is FC's biggest issue:
1) not enough devs building apps
2) not enough people/communities
3) something else?
Matthew
@matthew
I think it is entirely #2. There are a lot of devs already building really cool apps—the thing they all need is high quality (aka active) users and communities.
The struggle right now is that FC is a single community / mono-culture, and it needs to become many communities. And a few more devs will not solve that.
pete
@preach
#2 is the biggest issue IMO. Seems like there are a million people building on FC but my issue is who are you actually building for? Spent a few months away and it doesn’t seem like there has been any meaningful growth IRT usage
Sanch
@sanchitram.eth
2, specifically non-tech. Need more shit-posters, it's why I joined twitter originally -- pure chaotic content.
pete
@preach
The other issue is that things are too agreeable here. Twitter is more interesting because you can look through many different opinions but here everyone generally believes the same things which makes things extremely one dimensional.
Sam
@samantha
I was gonna cast about this yesterday but I didn’t want to be flamed: 2
FC should hire a community growth person to build the external wait list, and then a devrel person for interested and current devs
I think a large external wait list would give the FC team more feedback to build and devs more sticky
welter.eth
@fun
possibly need better onboarding?
when people see "Farcaster: Permissionless decentralized network" it only attracts people who know what that is, and deters the rest
if we switched the narrative/wording for Warpcast specifically, to something more people can understand, there might be a slight influx of new people
Tayyab
@tayyab
3) not enough time in the market to allow for emergent ideas. All in due time. Also, challenge with social apps is that they require quite a bit of scale to monetize.
Therefore, right now many of the best clients are the ones who raised pre bear.
Maybe Im Wasabi〽️
@maybeimwasabi
What’s user growth been like? I didn’t realize there was an issue 🥲
Maybe Im Wasabi〽️
@maybeimwasabi
I agree. Especially for non dev / founder audience
Maybe Im Wasabi〽️
@maybeimwasabi
Interesting…
Matthew
@matthew
I meant it more as like "what's the next thing to tackle to succeed"
I don't think it's a huge issue because because it's a bear market and FC is in a good position IMO. Just speaking about what I'd want to see more of as an app-builder in the ecosystem.
as for growth, farcaster.network is the best place i think
Jayme Hoffman
@jayme
3) not enough weekly active casters
Matt Lee
@mattlee
I think if a really unique app that is only possible on fc blew up in our community, people would be piling in to the protocol
Matthew
@matthew
yea the audience question is the big one... for @event, we're going to open things up soon to all crypto communities regardless of FC, and the hope is that it'll be a meaningful way to bring those communities onto the protocol.
that said, it would be better if they were already here 😂
Matthew
@matthew
I agree with you except the scale to monetize part. I think for some kind of apps that's true, but for others it's not, and the protocol will support both.
We just haven't seen enough of the latter yet because of your point—it's early.
Jason Goldberg
@betashop.eth
It’s all inter-related
Consumer Social is all about finding a killer app. The best social devs know this. You try something and either it takes off or it doesn’t. If it doesn’t you iterate, pivot or try something else.
Typically with consumer social each team builds on their own.... longcast.jam.so/jj3wCp
Matthew
@matthew
good ideas IMO! I just don't know if a waitlist is the right outcome there
Maybe Im Wasabi〽️
@maybeimwasabi
Thanks, I need to bookmark this.
Sam
@samantha
What do you think is a better outcome? (Not criticizing just earnest discussion 😊)
pete
@preach
Right. Lucky for you Event is one of few FC apps that make complete sense no matter what so.
Fred Blauer
@fblauer
I agree. I guess that #1 was the main selection criteria when giving out invites and/or you had to own a mac, which seems to be US centric. As more people come in, I guess it will get more diverse and representative.
Royalaid
@royalaid.eth
I think a better question to ask is why do you keep coming back. Is that value prop something would logically translate to more people. If not why. I think it will lead most people to 2. I keep coming back for alpha, between Quil from @cassie, all the Base stuff from @jessepollak.eth, and general NFT stuff it's my why.
Manuel
@manuelmaccou.eth
I agree, but my follow up question is how long is long enough to build up the core behaviors of the primary community before encouraging new ones. Or…maybe there is no need to build a primary community and just let them all come from day 1. Im not sure…but maybe the former?
Fred Blauer
@fblauer
I think that was a joke. I don't think you can be too agreeable, as if that's a bad thing. If you really want them, just unblock people on twitter.
Royalaid
@royalaid.eth
The problem is that there isn't an unlimited stream of this kind of content. Additionally as the platform grows the builder to normie ratio increases making true alpha drops in public harder from an ROI perspective so this will diminish in time. I expect many reasons people are currently here are similar al la vibes.
pete
@preach
I do. I also have no idea what you’re talking about in the last part.
Royalaid
@royalaid.eth
Whilst my vibes and your vibes in FC as a whole may be completely different as may our goals it's still probably true that because the community is small and gated the signal to noise is incredibly and high and thus achieves similar aims, targeting passionate members of hyper niche communities.
Fred Blauer
@fblauer
If you unblock people, you get more disagreeable persons. What's to understand?
Fred Blauer
@fblauer
What last part?
Manuel
@manuelmaccou.eth
Casts like this are amazing because it instantly activates multiple product managers. We’re are steering this ship together and it’s cool to see people activated to help find a solution. @farcasteradmin.eth or anyone else with an AI bot, it would be great to aggregate, summarize, and store these on a website.
Royalaid
@royalaid.eth
So to this point that strategy has worked and it seems like FC is seeing a plateau so now it seems like we all need to employ different strategies for growth if we want to see the platform thrive and there are a bunch of ideas. I'm all for trying them but I think a bit part of the puzzle might be larger invite batches.
Sanch
@sanchitram.eth
yeah, it was the drils and pixelated boats that got me hooked
got into the bloggers & techies later on
0xen
@0xen
ding ding ding
ccarella
@ccarella.eth
I think none of these things and Farcaster is still on track with the plan Merkle has been talking about for over a year. I realize many interests want to grow the network but they have been unwavering in their communication about the plans for protocol development and growth.
ccarella
@ccarella.eth
I think the biggest problem is that Dan was a good curator and the rest of us are bad and our invites are not being retained but his are.
Matthew
@matthew
100%
Matthew
@matthew
Yea, community is organic. It can't be planned from the top down, and people are very good at sniffing out those bad vibes.
That said, the FC community is like a web—it overlaps with many other communities, and I think it's worth it to try to bring those communities onto the protocol as well.
billzh - l/dau
@billzh
We are missing a sustainable way to invite more people (the right ones) to FC.
Matthew
@matthew
100% agree
forestkeeperio
@forestkeeperio
I think 1 is vital
Matthew
@matthew
Every community has a home. In crypto it's been discord, and increasingly it's telegram. I think the success outcome is that more communities call FC home.
That's not to say they don't have multiple homes (like the Unlonely TG group), but I think if more communities establish FC as a home, that will really really help
Matthew
@matthew
i don't disagree with you tho! I just wonder if a waitlist would solve the issue of people coming on and not really engaging.
Matthew
@matthew
One under-appreciated point about twitter is that communities often fight amongst each other, not within themselves. That's fine because twitter has tons of communities, but FC does not (to your point).
Matthew
@matthew
100%... was talking to @jakal about this today and this sounds like a potential area for improvement
Matthew
@matthew
Should have clarified but yea, more in-active people would be bad
Matthew
@matthew
Agreed, but I think the hard thing is keeping spammers and airdrop farmers out. So key word sustainable haha.
Jayme Hoffman
@jayme
Good post on this
Kevin
@kevinoconnell
2 + 3.
2: really good apps come from being around communities with different thoughts and perspectives
3.) what @cameron said
Sam
@samantha
Yeah I can see that! My opinion is that it’s much harder to get people to re-engage than to engage new users via FOMO.
I could be wrong, open to changing my mind 😊
Sam
@samantha
Yeah devrel can work on docs and help new devs too
billzh - l/dau
@billzh
Absolutely. And I need to work on invite skills
mk
@monishkumar
3. It doesn’t give most people a reason to Cast. The same is the case with Twitter. But they had celebrities and so people signed up for the service. Since this is an organic community, people don’t see the content they want.
Stated preference - good content.
Revealed preference - junk content.
j4ck • icebreaker
@j4ck.eth
agree with #2
we're kinda like hardcore company builder nerdville (with love i say this, as one of us)
bluesky people are posting pepes and hot takes and dumb shit constantly
j4ck • icebreaker
@j4ck.eth
weirdly i never found my voice really on twitter or on blueksy bc they are broad / comedy / memes / whatever you want - felt like a waste of time
here i am amongst my people
a blessing and a curse
Matthew
@matthew
agree RE irl events, for the reason i said below
maybe need to do an alphacaster x FC meetup 😉
billzh - l/dau
@billzh
Meetups are so important
pete
@preach
Invite me to bsky bbg
j4ck • icebreaker
@j4ck.eth
still waiting for the bluesky to rain invite codes on me but i got u asap
@keccers.eth was slangin em the other day
pete
@preach
Coo
Matthew
@matthew
lol this is definitely nerdville and i love it
Ivy 🌿 q/dau
@ivy
yep this right here
Klim
@bigshotklim
Not enough artists making and sharing art
MxVoid
@mxvoid
I’m trying!
vincent
@pixel
Why is weekly active casters flat when users increase?
vincent
@pixel
FC doesn't have enough art.
briang is live on unlonely
@briang
new people aren’t casting or old people aren’t casting as much
jeremiah
@n64jerry
FC needs more silly geese
Zach
@zherring
Imo FC (as well as all emerging social networks) have gotta focus on enabling better content by smaller network effects (minimum viable communities).
It's less about more people, more about maximizing quality.
Fastest way to increase quality with users FC has:
1. Add quote-recasts.
2. Ability to hide vanilla RCs
Zach
@zherring
Quote RCs allow people to contribute and then share conversations across audiences
Most vanilla RCs are sans context, almost useless and the noisiest part of FC and BS at this pt.
Matthew
@matthew
couldn’t have put it better myself
Devin Elliot
@notdevin.eth
There almost needs to be a community “manager” if too many people are just building, it could mean quiet stagnation increases as a risk
Chris
@piffie
There is no way so far to manage communities or? Can I make community exclusive casts?
Matthew
@matthew
not that i know of! would you want to make a community-specific feed? or make it so that only your community can see casts?
Chris
@piffie
We plan with our project also social tokens. Means we want to enable exclusive gated content in a way. Searching for the right protocol to base these on.
ChrisCoCreated
@chriscocreated
I've been thinking around this also for collectors of my work
tldr (tim reilly)
@tldr
Hard 2.
FC/WC has built a culture. And a core of awesome users. This is an incredible “nucleus”. Two approaches intrigue me for expanding around it:
1. Shift from onboarding solid individuals to onboarding solid COMMUNITIES (eg, nouns, Base builders, etc)
2. Let other FC clients use TPOT approach if they want!
Chris
@piffie
Tell me when you find something.
Rico
@rico-mueller
Don’t think the content here is bad at all on the contrary much more quality discussions going on than on other social networks
Matthew
@matthew
The problem is that you can “onboard” a community, but you can’t force members to use FC.
In fact, there are tons of really great communities that have a presence here already, it’s just that a critical mass of members isn’t using it yet.
Manuel
@manuelmaccou.eth
This 👆👆 Changing behavior is hard enough. Changing behavior in a new environment. Whoa. Meet your customer where they are.
kbc - q/dau
@kbc
How can I find these communities?
DuckTape
@ducktape
It seems implicit in your cast that it should grow? Why not focus on tight-knit communities and scale such communities instead?
Song Z
@songz
I would still vote for a invitation system. Just thinking loud here: kick those who don’t engage?
Matthew
@matthew
Oh yea! I was saying more-so that there need to be other communities that call FC home and thrive here. Or maybe the community here naturally starts to diverge into interests and beliefs as it grows.
Matthew
@matthew
working on a better way to explore this in the next version of @event, but right now you can go to the discover tab and look through the the top nft communities and see which members are on FC
tldr (tim reilly)
@tldr
Nice! If certain communities could have their own "tags" like purple does rn that could be a fun draw too
Matthew
@matthew
yeah it would be!!
kbc - q/dau
@kbc
How can this be done for non-NFT communities?
Liang良😬q/dau
@liang
is 1 and 2 related? if nothing new is built by dev, very few twitter users would try a lesser version of twitter just because it decentralized