I’ve read your AIPs and it sounds quite interesting (I think the new construction is more web3 native than the previous with Lemelson Center).
Clarifying the mission of a DAO is always important to ensure that all members of the community are working towards the same goals. I have a couple of questions regarding your proposal:
How will the eight mission statement options be selected for the final DAO vote? If we using emoji vote on discord, people can vote to different options, as well people can use bots to vote base reactions.
You mentioned that the mission statement will serve as a northstar for the DAO. How will the mission statement be used to guide decision-making and goal-setting within the DAO?
You mentioned that the final mission statement will be translated into Mandarin, Hindi, Spanish, and French. Can you explain the rationale behind choosing these specific languages? Will there be other languages added in the future?
@Brazy I really liked the personality you put on the art with the skate gg
It’s at odds why? Without the why, this reply to you is entirely useless (if not condescending). As we mature as DAO, we should add oversight for these things, too. No proposal should be rejected without a concrete, clear reason.
As far as mission statement - I look forward to those discussions! I hope we all can come up with something brief and powerful.
We’ll chose different reactions for each submission and as is typical in most Discord polls and those with the most reactions will win. Since the WG0 Discord is token-gated with a 1 $APE requirement I don’t believe we’ll have a bot issue. Please lmk if you believe there is a better way to do this that doesn’t require a technical investment.
The mission statement will become a useful guide for decision-making where necessary e.g. providing context for questions like, “Does this AIP support the mission of the DAO?”
For example in the current AIP template under Rationale it asks specifically for, “An explanation of how the proposal aligns with the APE Community’s mission and guiding values.”
Without a specific mission there is much less clarity on how decisions are made and how those decisions impact the overall goals of the DAO.
Per a quick Google search these are the top 5 languages spoken in the world:
English – 1,121 million speakers
Mandarin Chinese – 1,107 million speakers
Hindi – 698 million speakers
Spanish – 512 million speakers
French – 284 million speakers
We translated the mission statement surveys into these languages, but if we have native language speakers that are willing to translate for us I’m happy to include as many languages as possible.
Excited for us to have an action-inspiring mission statement that gives clear direction to the DAO!! Thanks for taking the lead on this Badteeth, and am so excited to see this proposal from the AIP Idea-a-thon come to life!!!
Also want to emphasize how sorely a clear mission statement is needed- every time I talk to builders, whether at hackathons like ETH SF, or the Miami Web 3 conference in Art Basel, people always ask “What type of proposals are you looking for?”. And when there’s no clear answer to that, it lessens proposal authors’ confidence in showing up & taking the time to build with our ecosystem.
An inspiring mission statement with clear direction would represent a huge inflection point in our ability to attract, keep, and grow with builders for the ApeCoin ecosystem.
I had similar feedback from communities I’m involved with. A strong mission statement brings clarity around how and why to work with us.
And that’s in addition to the internal benefits. From a marketing standpoint alone it would be tremendously empowering, making it easier to define the strategy, set priorities… focus => creative freedom.
Maybe the difficulty in getting it agreed, is another signal of its value?
APE is a token made to support what’s next, controlled and built on by the community. It will serve as a decentralized protocol layer for community-led initiatives that drive culture forward into the metaverse.
As you mentioned, I agree that the token gating in WG0 Discord should minimize the potential for bot issues, but I suggest considering a few more things:
If the vote is based on individual members and not token held, each Discord member should only be able to vote for one emoji from the different options. You can check Dyno or invite tracker bots for help, and feel free to reach out to me if you need further assistance.
If the vote is based on coin held (like DAO voting settings), why not create a snapshot for it? If the process is too complex and inefficient, we can include in the AIP a request for permission to create an outside snapshot with the proposed template. On the vote event, we will do it on the snapshot.
Regarding the role of the mission statement in guiding decision-making and goal-setting within the DAO, I agree that having a clear mission statement is essential for creating alignment among members and ensuring that proposals and decisions align with the community’s goals and values. We discuss on WG0 about it, and I agree that we should focus on the DAO’s guidelines and highlight values such as innovation, creativity, inclusivity, education, and positive social impact. Let’s see how it goes, but make sure the voting process is focused on the DAO. Perhaps it’s time to consider a one-time ‘whale-off’ voting system where each wallet has one vote since the vote is not ‘in favor/against,’ but more on what each person cares about. As we emphasize on our homepage, “all equal 1 APE = 1 APE,” so the guidelines maybe need to be voted like that.
Lastly, while it’s great to see that the final mission statement will be translated into other languages, we need to discuss strategy beyond where to play but also how to win. As a DAO, we need to consider where we want to play and make sure we can win there. If we’re just playing to play, it won’t be worth the time and effort. Although these are the top five languages spoken in the world, we need to evaluate - do we have the capabilities and systems to actually win in those markets?
Thank you for your contributions to the APE community, and I look forward to seeing the final mission statement!
Love that you’re continuing with this @badteeth! Agree with @Halina.eth and @Adz. It’s amazing that we’ve gotten this far without a mission statement and can’t wait to see what we do with one! You’re persistence is very admirable.
I do have a couple comments/questions:
I really like that people will have options to submit their own, will the one that was crafted through the workshops and surveys be included among them?
Would there be an option for the community to reject all of them or abstain?
Really excited to see this again, today. Thanks for all your hard work!
I also wonder if there will be an option for the community to reject all of the submissions or abstain from voting. It’s important that we have a clear consensus on the mission statement, and I think it’s worth considering how to handle the case where none of the submissions are satisfactory.
My take is that if this gets voted through then the community is voting to have a mission statement. Anyone can always abstain by simply not voting.
Giving the community a chance to contribute their own MS and select 8 finalists and vote on the final MS seems like a reasonable way to build consensus around something that is clearly needed.
That being said I’m always open to other suggestions on how to make sure the MS process best represents the will of the DAO. Lmk if you have any suggestions, thank you!
What are the DAO capabilities and systems in those markets to actually win in those markets?
If the community is submitting and choosing the 8 finalists, then it’s unlikely that anyone would not be satisfied with the finalists. got your point here.
gg 
