Brainstorming - How would you attract new users and their participation in the DAO?

[Moonlyght]

Hey all,

I hope this topic finds you great! I’ve been thinking about an idea to attract new users to the platform reason why I wanted to post this topic. I believe the problem we currently face is a lack of participation from the overall community within the DAO.

I’m not aware of the KPI’s (Key performance indicators) of the DAO & Apecoin Forum but ideally we would love for the numbers to go up whether it’s in users or participation. Here’s an idea/solution:

• Create a gamified experience by bringing back the Apes Vs Mutants game introducing a referral system in game with leaderboard rewards to encourage people to own and enter the ecosystem. This could be Web3 people referring Web2 people as an example. (Similar to what Binance is doing for the Halloween game experience event).

What are your thoughts on this? If you have other ideas please share them aswell!

-Moonlyght

[Moonlyght]

Here’s some interesting KPI’s from @RedVulkan 's Twitter:

[RedVulkan]

This was interesting chart shared on Twitter here showing Apecoin DAO participation levels aren’t too far off those of other DAOs. However, I do agree we still need more participation in general.

Re-instating the Apes vs. Mutants game is an interesting idea. Some questions I have that immediately come to mind are:

• How do we get people to participate on forums/voting/etc. instead of only coming for the game?
• If we accomplish the first bullet point, how do we then get these people to stick around and participate long term?

[Amplify]

Hello @Moonlyght, thank you for your ideas! I loved the Apes vs Mutants game, so much fun!! Have you seen this from the Apes vs. Mutants team:

Arcade

Also, be sure to check out:

AIP-124: Thank APE: Rewarding ApeCoin Members for DAO Contributions!

Proposal Name: Thank APE Proposal Category: Ecosystem Fund Allocation Abstract ApeCoin DAO members deserve to be thanked for their contributions to the DAO. Doing so should enormously increase appreciation, engagement, and value for APE holders. We propose thanking all contributions to our ApeCoin DAO with APE, charitable donations, and an on-chain thank you note. [ApeCoin-proposal-Image01] Motivation APE is a governance token, yet the current governance engagement of our contributors is…

I’m really excited for Thank Ape and the precedent it’s setting. I’m not aware of any DAOs that are proactively rewarding contributors vs. retroactive funding through grant proposals. There’s another AIP which, if passed, would funnel fee’s taken from the ApeCoin marketplace back into the Thank Ape initiative, essentially providing a perpetual funding mechanism for active (meaningful) contributors. See:

How should we use marketplace funds?

Abstract | Last month the ApeCoin DAO community approved AIP-98 for Snag Solutions to build an official marketplace for ApeCoin DAO - enabling the sale of Yuga NFTs with reduced marketplace fees. As part of that proposal we agreed to set aside .25% of each transaction in a community-held Gnosis multisig until a use of funds is voted on by the community. The purpose of this AIP is to: Propose to use the .25% as a funding source for AIP-124 - the ‘Thank APE’ proposal. Summarize other top optio…

Thank you again for your ideas and contributions to the DAO, they are much appreciated.

[0xSword]

Any conversation that has to do with attracting new users has many considerations. KPIs regarding forum participation, things like posting & user numbers, aren’t always the best indicator of forum health.

As of now, when a new users joins, they are greeted by the usual enthusiasts, and encouraged to collaborate and participate. It’s easy to imagine a situation where a thread then is overwhelmed by low-quality comments, poor forum ettiquete, and smart conversation gets buried beneath them.

Imagine 10x the users posting on the AIP threads, but they are not knowledgeable, instead just debating and typing for the sake of typing. Currently, when a token holder goes to vote or look into an AIP, they are able to browse threads that generally have intelligent and thoughtful posts by experienced users, and the number of those continue to grow. Our forum community has always tried to help “level up” others.

So while it may feel like “Oh, we need 10x the forum users,” there are considerations for how best to approach this, and what is best for the token holders who arent active here everyday. Should they have to dig through 100+ comments of varying quality on an AIP for further information? In that respect, I’m unsure if a big drive to push forum participation is worth considering. If you want to hear the game plan so far:

• Identify dedicated and talented voices in the DAO
• Involve them in early discussions about upcoming proposals
• Working groups form behind the scenes to recruit these talents

I think @Amplify brings up great points, especially the Thank Ape. Once implemented, I can look to see how a user has progressed. If they’ve researched, completed quizzes, or joined a future discord channel, all of that is easily visible. It becomes a roadmap for participants to follow to get started. Catapult’s proposal has the ability to sort into working groups, and I’m excited to see how that implementation can change the landscape. ApeClub also will allow users to browse other freelancers and peoples professional abilities.

I’d like to also chime in to say, 1) without the Apes Vs Mutant team, please don’t form a proposal, and 2) Offering game rewards as a way to increase forum participation is likely not best course of action.

[AaronLeupp.eth]

This is a great chart. I am very active in Decentraland DAO and do agree it is very active and I think three major reasons is 1. people get to see the results of the enacted proposals very fast. 2. there is on going events some even weekly within the community. We even host our weekly events in the metaverse Waifumon Wensdays at 4:20pm PST 3. it has been around for a while so got to learn through its growth.

I think if we did weekly events in a metaverse like Decentraland or anything it def could help too. I def things like what @Amplify @0xSword @bc and others doing with the AmpComms weekly twitter spaces is def helping with this long term.

[Mantis]

The gamified experience with AvM is a good start. Speaking directly to the title of the post:

I just had a conversation with a person who definitely knows what he’s talking about in terms of DAOs. I’m keeping the ID private, but If I told you his name and what he does you’d be impressed.

While comparing notes, we saw patterns. It’s no surprise that defi-based DAOs are more financially solvent (Maker already has a sustainable 7-8 figure payroll) and social based DAOs are the ones who want to pass branding proposals all the time. Yet both types face the same issues of participation.

Both DAO types must reach outside their comfort zones in order to go to the next level. In terms of this DAO, it means a focus on creating jobs alongside branding. People will participate when they have a financial incentive. Giving away $APE for participation is a good start, but that’s all it is. A start. I can tell you firsthand from my experience in other companies employing the same strategy — if your strategy doesn’t expand beyond that, people reduce you to it.

Create jobs and opportunities to connect over shared interests. This means weaving responsibilities that require defined skill sets and financial incentives into branding incentives. The Comms team and the Special Council can’t be the only ones getting a salary. Every single proposal should have an element of integrating itself into defi-crypto and pulling yield from that to pay people for ongoing maintenance of a product, service or idea.

Proposals should also link people of like minds and needed talents around the idea. This means you have to get to know your fellow Apes, find out what they do, what they’re trying to do, and think of ways to employ them in their dream positions. Let Apecoin fulfill the promise of “in the future, you will work for a DAO” we’ve all heard on CT.

My two cents. May have more as I converse more with people.

[Hangout]

I am ApeCoin newby, but involved in a few DAOs/communities. Most people have a huge amount of positive intent and desire to involved. However imo its really hard to find a way to add real value in a dao unless its a service dao and your providing that service.

I think if there were clear objectives to be achieved, contribute on this project in ways x,y,z and get this kind of reward (not just financial, social is equally important) then it becomes much easier for people to get involved.

Building out a bounty board, reducing the friction to doing something useful for the community would be a great help for those trying to help!

[Moonlyght]

Hey @Amplify thanks for sharing your ideas and the reply to this topic! Yes, I’ve seen the Arcade game thay have developed (I’m an Arcade Land owner too ).

Yes the Thank APE initiative creating a loop with the marketplace funds from the other AIP idea sounds interesting and something I would love to support!

[Moonlyght]

Hey 0x! Glad you could join this conversation, would love to add some thoughts:

@0xSword

it’s easy to imagine a situation where a thread then is overwhelmed by low-quality comments, poor forum ettiquete, and smart conversation gets buried beneath them.

Agree, this is a problem that I believe could be solved by having proper systems in place like Moderators and ways to have those “smart” conversations on top. Either way increasing user participation from ApeCoin holders I believe should be a priority (Love the idea from Thank APE team for example), instead of having the usual small groups with biased opinions.

@0xSword

If you want to hear the game plan so far:

• Identify dedicated and talented voices in the DAO
• Involve them in early discussions about upcoming proposals
• Working groups form behind the scenes to recruit these talents

This is great to cultivate and internally grow the ecosystem imo, that’s why I believe we can’t be satisfied with the status quo. Ideas like the Thank APE initiative are interesting and open up the conversation. So 100% agree with what @Amplify has shared and will look forward to the execution of the Thank APE and potentially Catapult’s AIP.

@0xSword

1. without the Apes Vs Mutant team, please don’t form a proposal

Agree here, I wouldn’t even think to form a proposal without their team and some degree of participation potentially from Yuga.

@0xSword

2. Offering game rewards as a way to increase forum participation is likely not best course of action.

Agree that offereing in game rewards to increase forum paticipation is likely not the best course of action, but a referral system that rewards those that make the referral would be interesting to explore imo.

[cosmosis]

[quote=“Moonlyght, post:1, topic:9111”]
bringing
[/quote]By amending the DAO constiution to allow for 1 vote per holder of coins, which can prevent whales or other such commercial interests from hi-jacking the ape-space… I mean this to be a blocking mechanism once the 1 coin 1 vote procedure has run its course… if the community by numbers of individuals, could prevent any AIP from proceeding, it would push real democracy into the governance of the space… I believe such a revolutionary DAO constitution would give added peace of mind to newbies and would attract very many who at present shy away from the APE community as being the preserve of the very wealthy, albeit being really attracted by the enormous success of the progenitors.
What do you think, or is this heresy in the land of the largest coin holders?

[Amplify]

Not heresy by any stretch, but something to consider is how to prevent Sybil Attacks.

Currently there is nothing stopping a whale from taking 50k coins and sending them to 50k wallets and voting 50k times.

Snapshot has several types of voting mechanisms, each with different trade offs, but none of them are perfect solutions.

There is also the dual governance approach, like what Optimism is doing with their Token House, and Citizens House. All very compelling governance mechanisms. I’m curious to hear what people think as it relates to our DAO.

[Moonlyght]

How about 1 KYC = 1 Vote? But yeah some people might not wanna do that but potentially could limit the whales on “owning” votes. Thoughts?

[Marklar]

As suggested in AIP-118, ApeCoin DAO owns a marketplace and pays marketplace fees to $ape stakers.

$APE utility. Although outside the scope of this proposal, ApeCoin DAO should consider an $APE staking module that remits finder’s fees directly to stakers (potentially acting as membership to a marketplace subDAO / working group).

[Amplify]

Now the conversation becomes who is paying the roughly ~$11 it costs to KYC each individual member of the ApeCoin DAO? I think we should also stop calling ourselves a DAO at that point as well.

[Moonlyght]

Yeah that won’t work then.