Proof of Brain: Can Something Really Promising and Positive STAY That Way?
In a bit of a departure from my usual, I’m temporarily stepping away from "general" personal and anecdotal writing to focus on a particular community: Proof of Brain.
I’ve been watching POB with a certain fascination since it first popped up within the Greater Hive Ecosystem, in large part because I'm fascinated by the ways communities keep trying new formulas to improve and tweak token distributions, rewards, curation, content quality and so on.
Whether or not there will ever be just the right ”secret sauce,” POB does seem like a very worthy attempt.
I’ll also admit that the strange case of ”the massively voted first comment” (and subsequent recovery) made the news here, so I had to check it out! ”Even the best laid plans”… and all that rot!
Anyway, in the most basic terms, my interest also stems from having participated in — and occasionally being behind — various community building efforts since mainframe based BBS systems in the 1980’s, and this is ultimately a new iteration of that ongoing evolution. Where will latest version go?
This is Really GOOD!
So far, I have been impressed!
It does seem like quality matters on Proof of Brain and I haven’t see a whole lot (if any) of ”I ate a taco for breakfast” posts get massive rewards.
I also love the fact that no "instant whales" were created via a mystery pre-mine or other airdrop/favoritism system.
However, I know from experience that human nature tends to be a devious and fickle thing, with envy and greed running rampant wherever you might find yourself.
Cynical?
Probably more realistic.
I would love to think that a good community can manage itself to remain a good community, in the longer term… rather than self-destruct or fizzle out after a while. So it’s my sincere hope that Proof of Brain can ”manage itself” well enough to not become a circus of selfish behavior and abuses.
Opposing Forces at Work?
Quality content matters… here. Or so it seems...
That’s a noble aspiration, and I personally subscribe to the ideal that ”quality content” belongs on a site that values quality content, and ”dank memes” belong at a venue that values dank memes and ”cooking and recipes” belong at a venue that values cooking and recipes.
Let's be perfectly honest: Few of us join a gardening club with the intent of being bombarded by information about auto repair. Of course, POB is a slightly different beast in that it presents itself as a general content venue. So "everything goes"... or does it?
The ”opposing force” — which is the worrisome influence I have seen essentially ”take down” worthy content sites for two decades — is the mindset that ”MY content belongs wherever I think I can earn even a fraction of a cent from posting it, regardless of WHAT that content might be, OR whether it bears any relation to the venue where I am posting it!”
Let me expand a bit on that: In the cryptosphere we talk quite a bit about ”mining,” but LONG before there even was a cryptosphere, the notion of ”rewards for content” gave life to a millions-strong army of what might be called ”Fractional Cent Miners;” and they can be as devastating and destructive as a swarm of locusts!
Those of us who live in places that are even moderately affluent tend to myopically lose sight of the fact that there are huge numbers of people in the world for whom earning 1/20th of one cent for ”clicking a couple of buttons” is actually an attractive idea.
I point this out because I have seen Good Projects get swamped and overwhelmed… and for all intents and purposes die… at the hands of ”Fractional Cent Miners.”
In a strange way, it’s almost like a psychological variant of Gresham’s Law where bad content drives out good content, because the quality content creators grow disgusted with the declining community quality and leave, thereby contributing to a further decline in overall content quality. It becomes a death spiral, and next thing you know you have a mess on your hands!
Reconciling Freedom and Rules…
Can ”freedom” and ”rules” coexist?
Alternately, can ”good actors” voluntarily limit the influence of ”bad actors” — whether they are ”Fractional Cent Miners” or misguided power-hungry wannabe ”whales” — without a ruleset?
The proverbial Achilles Heel of freedom tends to be the assumption of rational self-interest... in a world that's riddled with sociopaths and psychopaths about whom very little of a rational nature can be said!
Regardless, I look forward to seeing how it will all unfold. And I look forward to relevantly support the community, when I can.
Thanks for reading, and have a great remainder of your weekend!
How about YOU? How do YOU think the Proof of Brain experiment will play out? Can the early ideals be maintained in the long run? What will it take to do so? Or will everything regress towards to lowest common denominator? Comments, feedback and other interaction is invited and welcomed! Because — after all — SOCIAL content is about interacting, right? Leave a comment — share your experiences — be part of the conversation!
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Created at 20210612 00:42 PDT
0276/1519
I'm giving it crack and hoping for the best, but having been around a while and seeing what happened to steemit, now being repeated on Leo...yeah I've got my fingers and toes crossed. So far so good, I like it.
I try to remind myself that this all is — ultimately — an experiment. There's no tried and true formula here that's always going to produce an equitable outcome.
So far, I like it, too... and I'm prepared to support that, while also being well aware that a year from now we might all be saying "it was nice while it lasted!"
I really don't have a clue, and I feel a bit overwhelmed by the scattershot growth of the ecosystem as a whole... I like POB and I think it's a good concept, but I also like CineTV and Foodies Bee Hive and STEM. I hope we find a way to foster a number of really strong communities without getting too political or self-serving.
On a separate not, did you really post this on Peakd? I hope that is just a template element because this would obviously be a perfect post for the #ProofOfBrain front-end. Just saying. Thanks for sharing these thoughts. :)
I like STEM too, but I don't really create much suitable content for it... but I can see how it would do really well. I like FOODIE and LOTUS, but I'm not sure of they have all that much of a big-picture plan.
so far, I have only used the POB front end for comments, but I will undoubtedly create posts with it as well... perhaps when the ecency-based front end is fully operational and running. The main reason I use PeakD is because I can save drafts and templates and such, and I almost never write an entire post from start to finish in one sitting... and these hive.blog "clones" used as tribal front ends are just too austere for my liking. That was one of the original attractions of LeoFinance... they built a highly usable and feature rich front end from the ground up.
I do all my posts about pob from peaked as well... At this point the pob front end is way too basic for writing posts on...but an ecency based front end I'll use.
Have been here for a while and have checked all the community growth,which have seen that all other community also are also doing their best to move up,but I must say POB is doing well and it as moved from high from the previous value it was last week,so I want to say thier is more to come not for just POB alone but for others communities like steem and even weed
I am definitely going to start following this community more closely... we'll see what direction it takes, as it is still very new.
just like you i started using the pob interface out of curiosity and due to the support I received I decided to continue. Would the project last? i think that depends a lot on how the token is distributed. If people notice that quality matters here they will put in the effort. however, if that changes at any point and we become a community of circle jerkers, then I afraid that the worst is inevitable
Yes, the distribution definitely matters... and particularly what the distribution is distributed to. I like the core premise that "quality matters," so we are at least trying to create something like a meritocracy. Only time will tell...