I've observed a loop where newcomers latch onto welcoming "big" accounts by participating in a growing discourse centered around said accounts like pseudo celebrities which reinforces their mundane posting and makes them more relatable but then newcomers mimic this and instead get punished for "not being interesting" even though they're doing all the right things and big accounts aren't doing anything bad and it's all weird and I forgot to use punctuation and follower counts are bad okay bye

Host /videogamemusic - Warpcast Peeps Podcaster - Weekly Comic Fwarkast! - Mod /justbuild /ogiri - Casts in ENG/JP

I think the team’s approach to leaning in to video format is understandable from a business perspective of wanting to maximise growth by tapping in to popular mediums… but also think that at the cost of wiping out the text loving culture, it’d be at a cost of the literature types who can write beautiful insights in short or long form,ultra imatrlyleafin if the video format gives way to too much brain rot media. 

I think mundane posts are good too, with good balance like you mention. Because not everyone can pump out extraordinary every breathing moment.

I guess the real question is if we go video/graphic heavy, what is Farcaster aiming to be, without being a clone of IG or TikTok? And if it’s just about adding crypto to the mix, what’s stopping IG or TikTok from doing that, such as adding a crypto wallet or tipping function to their existing platform in the future. I mean, monetisation and live stream tipping already kind of exists anyhow. 

It’s hard to put in to words, but Farcaster has its own allure from being different in culture and feeling from mainstream apps, while having niche advantages like miniapps, building in public, builder culture and first hand interaction which other platforms find hard to do (they focus more on oneway signal broadcasting to th masses and less discorse/mingling without the quibbling) But Farcaster still faces the problem of needing to kind of become mainstream in the future to maintain relevance and show growth results to stakeholders etc. In some way or another something’s gotta give I guess.

🎯

And for what it's worth I think mundane posts are okay from time to time! It's just a matter of balance. The huge follower counts for some accounts have made it very hard to balance things.

Farcaster feed content is much closer to IG today than it was a year ago. Which can be off putting because the app is not optimized for image/video posting, and if people wanted IG it's already there.

I feel like SNS and video services have sort of done a gradual whittling down of celebrity awe over the years by making these “stars” relatable through private life exposure, whether wilfully or not. 

I think when details about the life of said celebrities was left to imagination and rumour this sort of elevated the mystery and intrigue about them, with only real coverage about them emerging from their professional works or specialties that have them saod status. 

Now we have people on the platform who may be in this celebrity status doing mundane casts like “I eat ice cream for breakfast” and everyone’s like “banger”when it’s just kind of low effort mundane casts but get standing ovations from their inner circle. 
When people see this success, naturally they want to replicate it and reinforce the feed with mundane casts. 

Making everything relatable is in a way a watering down of sophistification of the feed.

I think video will make content easier to consume but harder to create. It doesn't help that it's (currently) a clunky experience compared to the platforms that are hyper optimized for video.

I am all for making more interesting content if it means balancing out all the posts on crypto and tokens and Farcaster itself! It's the only way to grow out of the current userbase.

Alternatively, having a tightly knit network of enthusiastic builders (prepermissionless) may have been the peak experience. But I'm unsure how it could have scaled as a business, so I understand why we are where we are today.

It’s hard to know how to fit in! I think Farcaster going more video focused may help here as a lane to open. (Saying this as someone not posting many vids).

I wrote a reflection about my first month on Farcaster.

Honest feedback is welcome. Don't worry about my feelings. I'm more interested in your POV, especially if you have a strong reaction. :)

https://paragraph.com/@patriciaxlee/most-people-dont-know-how-to-be-interesting

Building a little space at /thenextwave and watching everything on /videolab.

I like your efficient and impulsive word wall. Same message. :)

Definitely much better structured than my small word wall I impulsively posted right before sleeping 😆

It was indeed a great read!

Similar thoughts from @patriciaxlee.eth 
https://farcaster.xyz/patriciaxlee.eth/0xb41aa7f2

It’s weird. It will get better. Or worse. Who knows.

It is wild how real this is you said what most people just feel but don’t say.

feel like it's more often the other way around, incumbents latching onto select new accounts in desperate hopes that they'll find farcaster "cool" to validate their/our own time spent here

building /quidli 🦑, casting in /justinahn, daoing in /🍊 & /🟪

💯

https://farcaster.xyz/stevedv.eth/0x04f54d4a

which then creates a loop of new accounts that repeat key engagement farming points like "wow, fc is great" or "i can't believe i get paid to post" until the next crop of anointed new accounts takes their places

(sorry, i'm not usually so cynical)

Exploit loop. -> level up -> close loop. 

Exploit loop. -> level up -> close loop 

Rinse repeat.

I won’t speak for others only for myself. Just as you’ve observed this pattern, I’ve noticed it too, and perhaps I’m experiencing something similar. But to this day, I still haven’t figured out what exactly I’m supposed to do about it

« Heres my lunch! »

Your lunch is bad and you should feel bad!

« Here’s a walk and talk of founder thoughts »

If your not D-fucking-R I don’t wanna hear it!

the system or algo isn't a fair one and some things need change real fast

This hits way too real. It’s like the “relatable cool” only scales with social proof — newcomers mimic the vibe, but without clout it reads as noise. The algo rewards legacy, not nuance.
Weird loop. Beautiful mess