Hire An Experienced Social Media Professional

Proposal Name

Replace A Governance Facilitator With An Experienced Professional

Proposal Category

Process

Abstract

The community facilitators group was created as per AIP-240 in which @Lost.Admin was seeded as the primary facilitator, while two others @Chris.Admin and @12GAUGE.Admin were voted in via DAO wide vote.

AIP-240 passed snapshot with a 38.2% margin.

Screenshot 2023-07-29 120754

Recent activities here in the community by various members of the ApeCoin DAO has raised questions about ethics, accountability and transparency in the Ape Foundation.

Motivation

Much has been written about successful community moderation in the name of fairness and to cultivate a culture of fairness and equality. I can’t cite every instance, but here are the most popular ones for guidance (1, 2, 3, 4).

As a member of the ApeCoin DAO, each and every member should be treated with respect, kindness, and with compassion. For those of you who need a refresher course, please see AIP-1.

Rationale

This AIP is in line with ApeCoin DAO’s values of Equality, Transparency, and Collective Responsibility.

When a member of the ApeCoin DAO community is treated unfairly, targeted due to unpopular opinions, and humiliated as part of a concerted effort to make it an uncomfortable space for them to stick around, it breeds a culture of negativity and hostility. It also opens the ApeCoin DAO to legal liability.

I joined this community exactly one month ago on June 29th. And in a very short amount of time, on June 18th, I reached Trust Level 2. Here is my profile summary for your review.

I have been active in various Discourse topics, including @yatsiu AIP-297 where I posed some very tough questions and opinions about the optics of that AIP. What followed - and I have all the receipts - was a targeted harassment campaign because I dared to do this.

Following that, I also saw yet another incident of unfair treatment toward another ApeCoin DAO member. I decided to chime in because I felt that this person was already being unfairly attacked and derided for daring to create AIP-277 which sought to reduce the salaries of the members of the Special Council.

After becoming a co-author of AIP-277 and publishing a detailed and factual synopsis, things took a turn for the worse for me here in the community.

Then it got worse whereby I had to be aware that at any moment in time I could be attacked, admonished or even banned from the community that I have invested so much of my time to helping.

As I am a public figure who is “known” here, my online interactions aren’t subject to the anonymity that others enjoy. And so, I always take into account this very aspect when I am online, having been subjected to attacks, racism, harassment and death threats over the years due to my work in the videogame industry. People online are unfairly targeted every day; and in some instances it spills into the real world where there are usually consequences.

I have the following details of ALL of the aforementioned encounters since these hostility began. They are available upon request, complete with dates, time stamps, images and videos where applicable:

  • Discourse DM with admins
  • Images from Discourse incidents
  • Images & videos from Discord incidents

I will focus on today’s incident that left me no choice but to write up this AIP.

Today, Lost, a seeded (not voted in by the DAO based on merit and experience) of the Governance Facilitators Group, made my concerns come true on Discord where he proceeded to give me a 24-hr timeout, after defaming and threatening me - without cause or reason.

  • 3:41 AM - chat start for 07/29 in GENERAL channel
  • 4:20 AM - Nash posts about AIP-277
  • 8:36 AM - my first post in the channel
  • 9:02 AM - Lost arrives and promptly accuses me of trolling
  • 9:19 AM - my first post in the GOVERNANCE channel
  • 10:03 AM - Lost puts me in 24hr time-out

I don’t want to litter the AIP with too many images. So, I have converted the Discord channel captures of what transpired from start to finish. IMAGES - VIDEOS

All I did when I arrived was answer questions that @NashAhmed.eth has already been asking in the channel related to AIP-277. As the author of the incident AIP, I felt obligated to bring him up to speed, correct some of the inaccuracies (posted by others) etc.

Lost, who had earlier this week said not to post grievances and such in the Discord general channel (because it’s the first channel that new users see), blamed ME for the discussions that were in the channel this morning. This despite the fact that I had NOTHING to do with that incursion. And then, out of nowhere, he bans me for 24 hrs.

This is completely OUTRAGEOUS and is conduct unbecoming a moderator of a Discord that belongs to a DAO with a $750M small cap. Most companies hire professionals to do this sort of work because, for the community and also for corporate liability reasons, they have procedures and adequate training in place.

There is zero accountability in this DAO. Hence the reason that something like this could even happen. Even with @Gerry - a member of the Ape Foundation - present during the entire exchange.

Benefit to ApeCoin Ecosystem

This AIP benefits the ApeCoin DAO by replacing a seeded and unqualified community moderator with a more experienced and trained individual who is aware of the legal ramifications and processes required for an organization such as this DAO.

It also benefits the DAO by ensuring that this AIP serves as an example of the inclusiveness and safe environment that the founders envisioned it to be:

  1. Participating in idea submission, commentary, proposal submission, and voting is restricted to ApeCoin DAO members. Holding ApeCoin is the only requirement for membership in the DAO
  2. The goal of the APE Foundation is to steward the growth and development of the APE ecosystem in a fair and inclusive way.

Steps to Implement

  1. Clarify who owns/created (as per AIP-196) the Discord server; and if the three Governance Facilitators (Lost, Chris, 12Gauge) are moderators of both Discourse & Discord.
  2. Call on the Special Council to implement guidelines and processes for the Stewards and Governance Facilitators who interact with the community. This would be visible for ApeCoin DAO members on Discourse.
  3. Hire (via in-place processes) a professional and experienced social media person to lead and augment the efforts of the Governance Facilitators. This could be an individual or a third-party company (there are many). Or, pay for online training courses for the three Governance Facilitators so that they can gain the knowledge and training required to moderate and handle the community of a $750M small cap DAO.

Timeline

  • The voting process will begin immediately after this AIP is approved.
  • If passed, the selection and voting process for a replacement Governance Facilitator will commence within 7 days of the vote being passed.

Overall Cost

  • There is no cost to the ApeCoin DAO

Proposals submitted to the AIP Ideas category can be vague, incomplete ideas. Topics submitted here are not required to be submitted as a formal AIP Draft Template, however, you may still use the template if you wish

23-07-31

I have updated and clarified the AIP topic as well as “Steps to Implement” section of the AIP idea.

More changes will come as I receive comments and opinions.

Reserved for future commentary2

I want to add that, just about 1hr ago, yet another incident happened whereby an OG member of this DAO proceeded to insult me because he didn’t like my response to this AIP idea.

And in that thread, yet another steward, AllCityBAYC - who I mentioned in that AIP post - liked the aforementioned abusive post. So, I flagged it, and immediately sent the images to the SC members and other stewards via a message. The post was subsequently deleted, and so I deleted my [very polite] response as well. I will not be posting them as that would violate the forum rules since they already removed the offending content. If you want to see them, you can message me. My DMs are open here and on Discord.

I have 7 other instances whereby I felt like I have been targeted by some members of this community. All of them documented and catalogued.

As I mentioned above, this DAO is headed for major legal troubles if they don’t stop treating this as a country club. This is what happens when you don’t hire experienced people to run an org. Instead, they are placed based on a dodgy voting system that’s controlled by whales via the amount of token they carry.

I mean, look at this. Just look. And in that thread, we have members of the Ape Foundation, LIKING a post that contains devisive commentary like that.

And that AIP wasn’t even mine. I just wanted to help a fellow DAO member navigate the complexities of it because I felt that they were being treated unfairly.

This is a serious community problem. And yet, people wonder why the APE ecosystem is stagnant and not growing as it should. So much potential wasted and squandered.

And you know what? There’s NOTHING that we can do about it because the voting system is mostly for show, it’s completely unfair and open to being riggged, and all the “friends” will just continue to rule the DAO as they see fit because transparency & accountability are treated as mere suggestions. And that’s why I keep saying that if they don’t start doing things properly and in a legal fashion befitting an org such as this, the DAO is going to face major legal ramifications. It’s Web3 and a lot of people are waiting for the next fiasco so attorneys can get even richer.

So, that’s why I wrote up this AIP because it’s clear to me that some members of the Ape Foundation aren’t taking the community seriously when it comes to stuff like this. And just because I’m not from Web3 core, doesn’t mean that I should be subjected to abuse and bullying by the very people in leadership positions such as Lost.

Someone had to say something. I don’t mind being that person.

ALRIGHT RABBIT NOW YOU LISTEN AND YOU LISTEN GOOD

I think that this kind of behavior in general, such as creating and withdrawing posts, combat behavior, excessive post lengths or erratic responses, will ultimately lead to a system where users can be voted out. I implore you to to reconsider your approach to the ecosystem, and have a few thoughts as I’ve followed along.

  1. Lost is a champion in this space for every new entrant, and you have no better ally than that ape. I’d like to recommend you withdraw and take a couple weeks to touch grass.
  2. Most readers don’t care who you are, but some of us do, as articles about you have been written for over a decade, and truly you’re a legendary forum keyboard warrior.
  3. I am inspired by some of your written philosophy around Battlecruisers gameplay mechanics, there are others with similar interests here who would enjoy those kind of conversation.

Being here is a great opportunity to network with the greater Bored Ape Yacht Club, and truly what we’re doing as club members is building a universe of ape themed IP & characters. When people don’t have a good experience here then it reflects on the club, and can have an affect on membership.

  1. There may be some general crappy messaging around “buy one Apecoin and come fight in the arena,” but that’s evolving and this governance games stuff ain’t fun for most people.
  2. I implore you to stand down with your approach and instead look to some of the activations and cool stuff in the Yuga ecosystem overall.
  3. Your next steps could be to build on Otherside, or to explore gameplay mechanics that you dreamt up once upon a time and want to share!

As far as your above proposal, and even MVWG interest, I think you should reconsider your approach entirely, and instead recommend you orient yourself in the greater ecosystem. Join the guilds, enjoy HV-MTL, play the activations and try out some of IRL events. That’s what I’d like to see for you.

Learn the koda traits, go to the 288 rooms, geek out about thematic rarities and things that most here also are interested in. Envision how you’ll build a community of space rabbits or something. This proposal and approach does more harm than good, and I implore you touch some grass b4 a system is developed to vote users out entirely!

7 Likes

Just a process comment:

Incredible as it may seem given how very blurred the lines are, Discord is not a DAO official channel or property so it may not be possible to compel anything re: Discord via AIP.

4 Likes

Thanks for letting me know. This was already mentioned on Discord. So, the DAO is using a third-party service that it doesn’t control, even though that service itself uses the DAO’s auth processes and direct links. And that, right there, is another example of the legal liabilities that I am talking about. The Ooki DAO and similar cases have already created Fed case law precedent in how DAO entities can be held liable.

ApeCoin DAO will be held liable for anything that goes on in that Discord. Also, a new ApeCoin member has no way of knowing that the DAO isn’t in control of the server.

It doesn’t matter either way, because if the AIP passes it only refers to the hiring of a professional to work together with the two others (voted) to ensure a safe and inclusive community.

Thanks for proving my point, guys. And no, I am not going anywhere. Attacking me won’t change that.

ps. This is my post activity. I also have images and videos of everything that I have ever posted since I have been here. I am not new at this.

1 Like

I second this. ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎

Yes ofc, because that’s how bullying works, isn’t it?

I already stated that I’m not going to engage in any back and forth arguments of this nature. You guys keep proving all my points with your posts. And in so doing, demonstrate how this Web3 community works. I don’t have to say anything.

So, by all means, do keep posting and attacking me because you don’t like what I have to say. I am an excellent archivist and researcher.

ps. Have you seen the shorts on the $APE token lately? No?

I finally feel like I have the breathing room to write this. Initially when I criticized your thoughts, you flagged my post and got it removed on a technicality. You even posted this on discord:

A simple, and plain threat for just being critical. In hindsight what I posted is nothing compared to what you continue to post. What I posted is available in full on discord, which is not an official part of the DAO in case others want to see it. I would hate to see you be in any position of power. You tried to gaslight me into thinking that I had done something wrong. All I had to was wait 2 weeks, and your true colors have been revealed. You started a toxic argument with almost every single person in the DAO, to the point where you’ve been warned because you’ve been the only common person in every toxic argument.

I think it’s pretty obvious to me what you’re trying to do. You’re slowly trying to dismantle the DAO by any means necessary. You initially tried to get some power by angling for the MWG. When you realized not everyone falls for your “humor” and started rubbing people the wrong way, you started attacking every aspect of the DAO. And it’s finally ended up here.

All this is relavant because you are bringing up your personal experience as a rationale for this AIP. I’m here to provide the other side. Your experience is not the only “correct” viewpoint. So everything I said above is highly relevant to your AIP because you are trying to remove everyone who are not accepting of your trolling. Since you’ve joined you’ve been posting non stop, and hijacking everyone’s thread. As another member of the DAO who joined just before you, I feel your presence has made the environment more toxic and less welcoming. As you probably can see from my own profile, there’s been a sharp drop off in my activity since you joined. Your presence is not more important than mine, and the DAO doesn’t have to change to suit you more than me.

To the others reading this, and feeling gaslit, I encourage you to research his full name, which he displays on his profile and constantly brings up. Don’t look at his carefully pruned pages where he has control over its content. I suggest you look at reddit, or his games’ steam reviews. Some of the reviews are pretty thorough and mostly about the author than the game. You probably won’t be surprised to see what you find there. I don’t want to post direct links to content because I don’t want it to look like I cherry picked data. I encourage you to do your on research on the author and come to your own conclusion of whether is AIP is well intentioned or not. The author has admitted to being actively involved in the largest flamewar on usenet and even seems somewhat proud of it. That culture has now been brought to ApeDAO. I challenge you to find anything positive that he has brought during his long career.

This is not a problem with the Admins, Special Council or other parts of the DAO. This is a problem created and propagated by the author. The constant thread hijacking, arguing and never admitting to mistakes has made the DAO environment, Discord and Discourse, toxic.

Again, I’m sure the author will try to flag this, so I want to reiterate why I wrote the above and how its relavant to this AIP. This is not a an uncalled for, random attack because the author has made this personal experience a rationale for this AIP. So by definition if you want to be critical of this AIP, you will be criticizing his experience. I am here to provide the other side because the author had his first argument in the DAO with me. Since then I’ve mostly been quiet to keep the peace. But he constantly takes over every thread and leaves no room for other thoughts, so I feel like I’m stifled. It’s the Derek DAO now.

Now to address some of claims in this thread

I have 7 other instances whereby I felt like I have been targeted by some members of this community. All of them documented and catalogued.

Right, and none of the attacks were because you specifically being rude to them, or being toxic towards them? What’s the common thread here? You or them? Eventually this number will increase to the total number of active members in the DAO.

I mean, look at this . Just look. And in that thread, we have members of the Ape Foundation, LIKING a post that contains devisive commentary like that.

You provide the most divisive commentary of all. It’s rich for you to point our other people’s comments and call it divisive.

And that AIP wasn’t even mine. I just wanted to help a fellow DAO member navigate the complexities of it because I felt that they were being treated unfairly.

No you hijacked it, like many other threads, and finally made it about you and your experience.

This is a serious community problem. And yet, people wonder why the APE ecosystem is stagnant and not growing as it should. So much potential wasted and squandered.

This is a Derek Smart problem, not an ApeDAO problem.

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This is targeted harasssment.

Your whole AIP is harassment against other DAO members. All your posts are incendiary. I feel harassed by your posts. You hijack every thread here. Is there a process to kick out DAO members?

You can’t claim targeted harassment when this entire AIP rests on your biased claims. So in essence you can claim any criticism if this AIP is “targeted harassment”. How convenient.

2 Likes

EDIT: Leyota I inadvertently posted this in response to your post but I’m just riffing in general, inspired by what you wrote but not directed at you or your comments.

We’re supposed to focus on processes, not people.

Not everyone processes things the same way. Few can process logically and critically, much less while staying chill. Fewer still can process multiple things at the same time.

Key thing is process, not the many or the few. Majority does not = correct. Usually it’s the opposite. Read about any major news event of the past century, 20 years, or 2 years, and consider what happened in real time. The vocal, shunned, abrasive individuals turned out to be correct, or largely so - not the majority.

“If you listen to fools, the mob rules.” - Black Sabbath, “Mob Rules”

Mr. Copernicus says “hi”, btw.

That doesn’t mean everyone in the majority is a dumb sheep, or that every vocal individual is a visionary, altruistic shepherd punk rock brilliant outlier.

Doesn’t matter because if we focus on facts and process - not people - then the bickering goes away. But that requires people on all sides to be reasonable. Good luck finding any such thing in the hyper-toxic electoral and other systems we’ve for some reason chosen to replicate while patting ourselves on the back over how forward-thinking and inclusive Web3 is vs. boomer society. The irony is staggering, and the result inevitable.

In general - I’m not commenting either way on this thread specifically - SmartAPE raises myriad very valid points that shouldn’t even need to be raised by now. No reasonable person could seriously say otherwise, no matter what a majority thinks.

Tone? Delivery? Those are different things, and we all struggle with different challenges while we all make mistakes. And some can’t hear the music in what may sound to others like chaos.

Maybe for whatever good ideas are in this / any thread to see the light of day we need to look past the author(s) while perhaps the author(s) could make it general rather than naming persons (including themselves ofc).

A “community”? Only if you can keep it. Kicking people out who are clearly motivated, intelligent, and highly successful in endeavors that community aspires to is self-defeating. It’s exactly what will lead to this DAOs pillaging and demise.

Many such people quit eventually, or run screaming from the first deep dive, but not all as vocally as SmartAPE.

FWIW I’ve directly, constructively, criticized SmartAPE on items he seemed riled about. In his replies I saw self-reflection, succinctness, and thanks. That’s not a judgement or a defense, just an observation that it takes two (or more), or an entire community, to wage a war.

And the very relevant term “pyrrhic victory” comes to mind, while the general mood only gets uglier as the token drops.

Things to consider.

5 Likes

Maybe for whatever good ideas are in this thread to see the light of day we need to look past the author while perhaps the author could make it general rather than naming persons (including himself ofc).

This is the issue. I agree with you on certain issues, but the way the author hijacks pretty much every thread, tries to take down people instead of trying to work with them in solving issues is self explanatory. In the span of two weeks, he has caused so many issues. There is no denying this. The problem is, even if you agree with some of the points he makes, it makes it impossible to work with him, or agree with him in general because you know eventually it’ll become toxic.

At the end of the day, a DAO is a collection of people. You have to work with others to accomplish things together. Not in spite of them, or not against them. We should all generally try to do positive things together. But since the author entered the DAO, it’s been anything but. Can you honestly deny this? You’ve been there longer, and even sasha is a pretty critical force but I find both of your criticisms measured and constructive. Usually there’s something positive both of you are seeking. I really don’t see that with Derek. All I see is destruction of what we have.

He’s happy to name people, call people out, openly try to question their motives or competence, but when it’s done to him, its “targeted harassment”.

Isn’t that peak hypocrisy?

Everyone he is targeting could all claim the same thing.

EDIT
Just actually re-read this:

A “community”? Only if you can keep it. Kicking people out who are clearly motivated, intelligent, and highly successful in endeavors that community aspires to is self-defeating. It’s exactly what will lead to this DAOs pillaging and demise.

I agree we shouldn’t kick out highly successful and positively motivated people. I would press you to do a little research before deciding where he falls.

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You continue to make personal attacks and unfounded claims - the same reason that your very first post in my thread was flagged and removed. That’s on you. I didn’t start that.

This AIP idea is for a specific reason and guidance, and to point to a very specific problem because there’s no other recourse. Everything that you have posted in this thread thus far, is attacking me, completely off-topic, and has nothing to do with the AIP. And I’m the problem?

You guys creating a mob just to needlessly attack and attempt to bully me aren’t going to win. All you’re doing is proving my points for me.

While you guys can just pluck things out of thin air and throw things around to see what sticks, I don’t do that. I deal with facts and reality. My post activity says it all. You have no defense against that, but to attack and try to bully me into silence. It’s just not going to work.

I already withdrew from Ape Assembly and Metaverse Working Group consideration for various reasons. Next, I will just leave and go write about my experiences elsewhere.

Stuff like this is why this ApeCoin DAO isn’t growing. The data doesn’t lie. You’re slowly destroying it.

You continue to make personal attacks and unfounded claims

Can you please elaborate on my “unfounded claims”? Like I said before, anything I say here you can claim as a personal attack because this whole AIP is about you and your experience. I’m only interested in the “unfounded claims” part.

EDIT: Not interested in going on a back and forth with you. As usual you are stone walling and not going to say what I said is “unfounded”. if you present any real facts/evidence refuting anything I said, then I’ll reply.

1 Like

Read this first. All of it.

That was based on Discord rules for harassment - which you clearly haven’t read. It wasn’t a threat. I would have reported it had you continued. Precisely what you’re now doing here - because you have a hostile agenda. Thats why I blocked you there and have you on mute here.

And as I have no control over content on Discourse or Discord, clearly the admins who do - found reason to remove it.

So, you already had an agenda for attacking me. Well, that explains a lot - as well as your aforementioned openly hostile post that was removed, you edited it, got removed again.

And yet, there’s nothing - at all - in my post activity (which is only a month old yesterday) to support your claims.

Unfounded claims.

I had no less than 9 quotes, but then I realized that it was a pointless venture. And also I am pretty sure that when the admins come around, this will all end. So, there’s no point in responding any further.

So, you already had an agenda for attacking me. Well, that explains a lot - as well as your aforementioned openly hostile post that was removed, you edited it, got removed again.

And it got posted the 3rd time and wasn’t removed. I think you forgot to mention that? Please diff the final and original version. The difference between the two are minor.

So, you already had an agenda for attacking me. Well, that explains a lot - as well as your aforementioned openly hostile post that was removed, you edited it, got removed again.

No agenda. I actually got gaslighted by you and thought I did something wrong so I decided to reduce my participation. Later I saw you unravel and realized it wasn’t me that was the problem.

How are those unfounded claims? You currently have many AIP ideas up to change the admins, special council and the voting system. Isn’t that the same as dismantling the DAO? You also did angle for the MWG but later withdrew. You also claimed many of your posts were humor, and even got into an argument with someone else about it. You are rubbing people the wrong way, I am not the only person who has a problem with you. Remind me again, which part is unfounded?

They were minor enough to warrant removal.

I don’t have any AIP ideas to “change the admins” nor to “change the special council”. Those aren’t even unfounded, they’re just FALSE.

That you think putting up AIPs for a new voting system change or the hiring of a professional community person (to augment the two we already have) are bad things, is precisely what I’m talking about. You’re making unfounded claims disguised as concern posts - only for the expressed purpose of attacking me. It’s all very transparent. You know that right? I mean, this is you in the voting thread that I put up.

You know how ridiculous that sounds, right? You mean like everyone in the AIP idea thread who just wants to be a part of something instead of just an attack machine that does NOTHING to move the DAO forward? And it’s not a job. It’s an elected position. You know that too, right?

I gave my reasons for withdrawing. And as I had said many times, I would have done it for free.

Thin. Very thin. Written communications without context can be regarded any way depending on the target. I am certain that you know this; but your agenda isn’t to engage in meaningful discussion. It’s to harass, attack and bully the other person because you don’t like them. Just like racism - which is precisely the undertones in your posts that were removed.

Well at least you’ve admitted that you have a problem with me - and thus an agenda. I rest my case.