Looking for input

Assume we want to simplify channels to make them:

1. Fully decentralized, zero Farcaster app dependencies
2. Allow other clients to extend them
3. No cost to create them

Which option is most appealing?

A) Hashtag approach — channels are open to everyone, channel pages look less like profiles and instead are a simple feed of casts. There’s no moderation — the feed is unique to each viewer based on their own social graph and maybe a user-controlled setting around filtering. 

B) Niche interest approach — Channels are open to everyone and narrowcast only, ie you get no distribution boost. But allows you to cast in a channel knowing only people interested in that topic will see it.

Assume in both cases membership and moderation in the main Farcaster app would go away. PYou’d be free to use a channel focused client for more community features. 

This is not an imminent change, more gathering input for what matters to people who still use channels.

hottakes

I've thought a lot about channels since they opened up to the public in late 2023.

After various iterations, I now strongly believe channels should be entirely permissionless, as in:
- no owner
- no moderators
- no fees

Gatekeeping topics adds friction to the entire network. See /ai vs /aichannel vs /theai. Everyone wants to talk about AI but no one wants to curate or moderate these channels.

Why would they? The rate of noise will only ever increase as automation improves, and Farcaster clients should be doing a lot of the noise filtering anyway.

Curation happens with likes, recasts, and replies. The best posts already get picked by the algorithm feeds.

With this framing channels become singular hashtags. No one likes hashtags because without limits they become #SEO #maxing #word #slop. A single label strongly signals the in the intent of the message. It also allows for easy mixing by quotecasting, e.g. /dont-do-this, /someone-build, etc.

Channels as a label wouldn't work. So I propose: Contexts

My gut says A.

B seems interesting but if I read it correctly, if I cast into /channelnooneknows of, it won't be seen unless others are following it too? And thus the only way to bring awareness is to first cast about it, not into it. I think I like the idea but would worry about discoverability.

Here's a longer thought of me agreeing wholeheartedly with this direction

My gut says A.

B seems interesting but if I read it correctly, if I cast into /channelnooneknows of, it won't be seen unless others are following it too? And thus the only way to bring awareness is to first cast about it, not into it. I think I like the idea but would worry about discoverability.

Here's a longer thought of me agreeing wholeheartedly with this direction 

https://farcaster.xyz/sdv.eth/0x955b9d30