Dan Romero on Farcaster

Dan Romero pfp

Why is a TikTok-like algorithm for giving new users a boost hard? 1. Social network vs. social media — we started as a follow-based social *network*. The core audience on the network uses a follow graph to express interests. It's also a social network vs. social media (i.e. television with an algo on phone). TikTok was a broadcast / interest-based algo from the start. 2. Narrow focus with a novel primitive — TikTok was extremely successful with a single category — young people (mostly women) dancing / singing to music with high remix-ability — and it took them several years to expand to their next category (gaming-oriented content for younger men). This existed for multiple years before Meta made the big shift to video on Instagram in August 2020. 3. User acquisition — They spent billions of dollars per year on user acquisition (infamously re-acquiring the same users multiple times). So there was a massive audience (even if not retained) to distribute the videos to (with an at-scale AI algorithm from their parent company Bytedance). So if you boost without the audience, you don't get the same result. 4. Text limitations — videos have a longer shelf life vs. text tends to feel stale after a day. There's also a high degree of unsaid context and in-group value (a typical cast from @six or @gwart has 3 layers to the onion). It's also harder to make a widely interesting text post vs. a video (or image). 5. Text is linked to who you are — a video is more likely to stand on its own (assuming it's visually stimulating) whereas what makes text interesting (on a relative basis) depends on who is saying it. Imagine the average new user coming into the network saying "gm happy to be here" vs. someone with 500K+ followers on Twitter saying the same thing. The engagement is as much about the person as what's being said. (Ironically, this is why anons have a lot of success on text-based social networks -- a lot of work to breakthrough of course -- but once you do no one is judging your opinion based on your credentials but on the merits of how smart / funny you've been).

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Dan Romero pfp

https://x.com/eric_seufert/status/1266388788361793536 https://www.wsj.com/articles/tiktoks-videos-are-goofy-its-strategy-to-dominate-social-media-is-serious-11561780861

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caz.eth pfp

Re point 5: Reddit is a counterexample to the point that interesting text is tightly linked to who the author is. Reddit gives low attention to who wrote something; focus is all on the content. You can have text-based content that is intrinsically interesting.

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Tony D’Addeo pfp

implicit ML signals video 100% of views have a clear signal on engagement in video how many seconds the user spent on it and this ranges from 0 to many nothing like this exists for text so the best you can do is look it actual engagement like likes or comments given that only a small percent of views result in explicit engagement you're discover algorithm needs orders of magnitude more views to get capture the same signal

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The_Girl_Analyst pfp

The_Girl_Analyst

@the-girl-analyst

Tit Tok algo is awesome for me. it has its way of keeping me glued for hours.

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Jason pfp

I’m pretty sure they’ve publicly talked about active king making in early days to let creators follow in their examples

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Dracklyn pfp

Well written. Remember Twitter days when a simple blue checkmark gives you an audience? There was something similar going on when FA had power badges. The insight on the first way to solve this issue has always been there but never democratized.

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mark mollé pfp

do you view farcaster primarily a text-based social network? is the goal for it to remain predominantly text-based? with video as a supplement? or is the view that at some point video content could ovetake text-based content?

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Erik pfp

if fc looked like tiktok i wouldn't be spending much time here tbh, and if tiktok fc works and there is demand for it someone will build the separate client maybe i'm naive, but i do think fc is onto something w irl connection (making friends and having convo instead of broadcasting the next viral trend), i've made friends with 100s of ppl here and have met irl with 15 or so, in multiple places around the world. hard to say if this environment can scale in a big way yet, but w an economy being built here too i think it makes sense to try to make it as similar to irl as possible community focused instead of "going viral" focus - just like irl, status games still apply in local communities lol ultimately the incentives will determine if fc wins - ownership for users, distribution for creators and ppl building things, i think it's off to a great start if the long-term shift from offchain to onchain thesis is correct

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pulpwitch pfp

How do I get a boost please? I’ve been here 25ish days

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Diñero pfp

Very eye opening thread.... Still doesn't explain why Farcaster doesn't operate like other Text based social media

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Fed🧔🏻🎩Ⓜ️☮️ pfp

Fed🧔🏻🎩Ⓜ️☮️

Engagement is measured by the level of attention, interest, and emotional connection that an audience has with the content they consume. It is not a universal concept and varies depending on the nature of the audience, the platform being used, and the goals of the interaction. As a result, it can be challenging to create a text message that appeals to a wide range of users. And, yes, the difference in mentality and interests is very great, depending on the country of residence. This is a fact.

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Ink 🇺🇦 pfp

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noice pfp

https://app.noice.so/?castHash=0xa83df8e264738dfab8bd18776920484864379eca

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