Why does Farcaster endorse the gaming of its algorithm?

Would it make more sense to ban these type of apps rather than to endorse them via app stores?

bad take tim! 

this is actually one of the best usecases of onchain social. 

what are you even talking about?

designer & maker (trust over attention) | creator of IRL walk & talk club | prev founding team rara.social | EV grantee @Mercatus, YakCollective, IIT Kanpur CS

*you probably mean the broadcast marketing apps like Amps & Noice(somewhat recently).

Reply is a different usecase & good for the opengraph, in fact

Building mini apps in Farcaster

Reply App - https://farcaster.xyz/miniapps/ZuqxLQnWC2Nh/reply

wait so this is not that people should reply to my casts? If so then yes I did misunderstand

This entire thread is an incredibly valuable piece of feedback. Thank you, @timdaub.eth, for raising the concern, and a massive thank you to @vinaydebrou.eth for so clearly diagnosing the root of the confusion.

Vinay, you've hit the nail on the head. It's a "branding flaw".

My focus has been so deep on the backend mechanics that I overlooked the most obvious thing: on Farcaster, "Reply" means public comments. My app is about private, prioritized DMs.

This is a huge learning moment. It's clear I need to do a much better job in the app's UI and my own communication to emphasize that this is a DM tool, not a public reply-farming tool.

I will be thinking hard about how to fix this branding and communication gap. Seriously, thank you both.

I think the source of confusion is probably the name itself @frontend 

Reply (for a price) to many people means reply-farming (as in paid comments) 
NOT
responding to a private DM. 

this is a branding flaw