Dan Romero on Farcaster

Dan Romero pfp

The challenge with channels is there’s no consensus on what they should be. 1. Distribution vs. niche interest 2. Open but tons of mod work vs. Closed but frustrating for new users A lot of this is a result of our iteration on the feature and not having anything work. A simpler version not dependent on the Farcaster app—but not emphasized by it, would most likely mean other app developers could solve for the various cases. And now with mini apps, you could imagine channel-specific clients as mini apps. https://farcaster.xyz/dwr.eth/0x19ce197c https://farcaster.xyz/dwr.eth/0xd7e9b71b

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CHRIS DOLINSKI pfp

agree with @nounishprof for popular topics, it feels awkward not to be able to post in a channel, if channels exist for example /ai - a good amount of my posts would filter nicely into there can see the distinction of tags and broadcast channels, becomes a UI/UX headache to have both perhaps keep channel and then have a toggle of [ all | channel members ]

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Pichi pfp

Looking at casts from just “good users” on the network, what’s the breakdown of overalls casts to channels vs casts to the home feed?

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Nounish Pro ⌐◧-◧🎩 pfp

Nounish Pro ⌐◧-◧🎩

If I couldn’t cast directly into channels from here, I’d probably just stop using channels. We don’t use our @gmfarcaster acct much because it’s easier to use /gmfarcaster — that way both @adrienne and I plus others can cast easily in there. If there was a major switch, I’d probably just shift to using @gmfarcaster more and my guess is that’s what would happen with most brands/projects/token channels. That would be unfortunate imo. For other channels, if it was as easy as using a hashtag like #food or #travel that might be fine. What I don’t think will happen is growth from channels if it’s required to use another client to use them. I think it will just kill them.

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nicholas 🧨 pfp

To me, Channels want to be twitter style subreddits. Channels let you subscribe to a subject, curated by mods. Channel Mods decide who can post what. Software like @cura automates rule execution. Channel Followers see top posts from Channels they follow in their main feed. This includes posts from Farcasters they don’t follow.

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Kazi pfp

I like casting directly into channels. Easy and effective.

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vrypan |--o--| pfp

I've shared so many (failed/bad) ideas on this with you, that I'm hesitant to do it one more time... but... - Assuming that by "channels" we mean a programmable, alternative view of casts. A custom "select". - Considering that there are enough devs, and we have some pretty good tools that we did not have 6 months ago. My proposal: Define as channel(fid) the result of "select casts where cast liked by <fid>" So, now, a channel is defined by an fid and a fname, for example: @mycoolchannel. If someone wants to cast to my channel, they have to mention @mycoolchannel. Then my bot will decide (custom rules) is the cast should be added to the channel, and if so, add a like using @mycoolchannel's appkey. FIDs that are used as channels are normal FIDs. But they could have a special user_data_type to indicate to clients that they should be rendered as channels (for example, show the reactions view as the default view).

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Mikado pfp

What was wrong with channels before they were membership based?

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Lucas pfp

My 2 cents - the main feature to double down on is the categorization of content and allowing users to filter down to a specific type If I want to view food content, I can go to /food and see all food related content whether or not it was casted there directly. Ideally could have an LLM auto sort content when it’s casted and put it in that channel. To your previous post - feel like it should operate more like a hashtag than a full gated channel

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Arjan | That Poetry Guy pfp

Arjan | That Poetry Guy

I think channels have evolved into different things, and it will be hard to try and find one fitting alternative for them. Part of the channels (food, travel, art, degen, farcaster) have the effect of hashtags. You can find posts on a topic there, and maybe using hashtags (or other forms of keyword searches) is a better solution for that use. Other channels (/poetry , /f1, /live-the-same, /los-fomos, /farcasterunion are more communities or cozy corners. They have a different function. /firefits is another example. These channels are destinations. I might not visit the channel pages immediately, but I have a feeling (and expect that) posts in these channels show up in my home feed. Even though I was sceptical of channels at first, because I did not know how to use them, I came to love the channels that are cozy corners and communities. They serve a purpose. Maybe you can find a way forward in separating the usage along these lines? I think it's adjacent to what @nounishprof already wrote.

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osama pfp

kill channels. bring back the #. let clients/users get creative with taxonomy. let it flowwww

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dexx pfp

Channel = UX battleground. Mini apps = escape hatch. Curious to see which dev teams build the first fully client-owned niche app.

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Elias VM pfp

It is an interesting question/dilemma and you may find examples of miniapps already working for this purpose like @tunecaster working as an “interface” for the /music channel. It is interesting but it’d be nice for channels like the music one to be open and maybe only curated/mod by creators - UNLESS you were thinking in a monetized/gated community. Not an easy answer that satisfies everyone imo 😓

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Naiya.eth pfp

This would be a really fun problem to workshop in person at, say, berlin blockchain week ;)

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Naiya.eth pfp

If you look at the origin of yelp (a bit of a reach but hear me out), the devs didnt design it with the intention of generating user input. That feature was a small option a few clicks into the site and was nearly cut out. But people found it and began using it and the devs shifted their course and ultimately made this the point. My point is that ease of access isnt a necessary requirement for quality adoption. "Channels" or whatever dont need to be designed around ease of access for quality content. Ease of access generates quantity

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The_Girl_Analyst pfp

The_Girl_Analyst

@the-girl-analyst

Enabling the hashtags will make even visiting a channel a huge workload, if the members can link from wherever they are hereby reducing activities in channels

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Uniquebeing 👻📝🌠 pfp

Uniquebeing 👻📝🌠

@uniquebeing404

Totally agree! By decoupling channels from the main app and enabling mini apps/clients, you're right, it'd allow other devs to experiment and find solutions that work for different use cases, rather than trying to fit everything into one mold

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SerenusSage.base.eth pfp

SerenusSage.base.eth

why not a bit of both, i don't think it is like that now. Channels can be huge for a few different reasons, such as connecting and community building but it needs a way to be found and be promoted. So the way it shows up in our feeds are really cool because that's how i learned about some channels. There needs to be a cleanup process set up that if it is inactive for 90 days it's automatically "archived" meaning it doesn't actively show up in feeds until there is sustainable usage. and maybe have another tab on our profiles that shows the channels we are a part of and what we have posted in those channels, so we can check them out? channels do need to be moderated and putting that in the hand of the channel owners then causes them to think about how serious they are about community building. I have spent many years doing community building, and that is the one thing i see. People see it's easy to start a community but to maintain it and keep it going is another task that requires a lot of work

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Marin Dulgheru pfp

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JR ↑ pfp

This Tech Simplification seems Like an added user / interest group barrier with worse ux. 1️⃣ having a similar access ux would already be much better > Click to follow + fulfill x requirements to post 2️⃣ with 3-4 heavily modded top channels, we’d have a townsquare aside the niche interest groups, and main feed. I expect plenty of Volunteers for Content and modding & a place for newcomers to follow along crypto news, token trading (trenches), DeFi, crypto x ai .. 3️⃣ The big advantage I see for channels/chats on Farcaster (vs discord, twitter) for crypto projects or interest groups is that they are close to all the other crypto/farcaster users and can better share internal content with the rest or external content with their Community. >> Distribution only in Channel is fine. People can reshare to main feed (or user miniapps to grow their sub-community/economy) 4️⃣ it‘s on Communities to manage Channels (Tools). Filters would be cool for Manager (Content Type) and User (words)

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