Dan Romero
@dwr.eth
Second channels question Again, looking for input. No imminent change. Assume a “yes” to the below makes it more likely that we unlock channel innovation in other apps and they are fully decentralized and that happens *a lot* sooner than alternatives. Here’s the hypothetical: 1. We remove all the existing channel functionality from Farcaster app. 2. All old and future channel casts still appear in the app (ie FIP-2 casts today but we make them a bit nicer than they are now). 3. In order to cast in a channel you use a mini app or another client like Cura or Zapper. Yes or No?
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Pichi
@pichi
@patriciaxlee.eth made a great analogy on our Union chat Monday night. Farcaster is like a party. Walking into a party knowing no one sucks. But if you see a food table, you can walk over and chat with folks about the food. If you like to dance, go groove to the music with the folks on the dance floor. Channels help us find our tribes. If we don’t have them, you will have a really hard time finding people to engage with here. I really worry about the spam label too. Channels give folks a safe space to hang out in right now.
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Patricia Lee
@patriciaxlee.eth
Based on our conversation, I’m still on the fence about channels. In theory, they’re helpful for onboarding. In practice, the moderation challenges you explained create a confusing experience for newcomers. In the party analogy, it’s like a newcomer shows up and sees people eating food. But if membership is not managed actively, then newcomer is waiting in line for weeks to get to the table. I’m still waiting for invite approval to /surfing and /sf, both channels that align with my prior casts. In more open channels, it’s easy for newcomers to step onto the dance floor. But if everyone’s just posting AI slop, you want to leave the floor quickly. The first channels I joined were the first ones I left. Channels are helpful validation for “other people on Farcaster like [interest] too” - even when they become poorly moderated. But I find that channels (as they are today) structurally do not solve the core problem of incentivizing people to cast interesting content. Maybe there’s another way.
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