Drop approved, just need the quick secret word approval pls!

Issuer Appeals Appeals
1

The drop got approved, just need a quick approval for the secret word pls!

  1. #76649
  2. Community information
    https://twitter.com/thesociethy
    Societhy – Medium
  3. Nature of the event
    20th Monday Brief, celebrating milestone for our readers
  4. Distribution plan
    Secret word in the lastest article that I need to publish today 17.10
2

Hello @SMooTH

You were approved yesterday for 50 mint links

The Secret word is not the proper distribution method for this event which is why it was negatively reviewed.
Please responsibly distribute the mint links before requesting a top up.

3

I’m confused as to why a secret word would not be the right distribution method in an article, but posting 50 different links is?

  • Enter this secret word to claim your poap.
    vs
  • Here’s 50 links, click one at random and try again if it doesn’t work.

The first option is way more concise and makes way more sense when published in an article imo?

4

Hello @SMooTH

The expectation with mint links is that you email them to people - they should never be posted in an article - just like the secret word should never be posted in an article.

5

Really? Why’s that?

Unfortunately we don’t have the e-mail adresses of our readers, as we publish our weekly updates through medium.

6

Hello @SMooTH

Because that type of behavior is called engagement farming. Getting people to go to the article with the intention of getting a POAP.
Evidence of engagement farming is cause for being blacklisted and banned from using POAP.

Engagement farming is generally defined as issuers using POAPs in a way that incentivizes transactional behavior. Any statement to the effect of “Do X to get a POAP” is basically a marker of engagement farming.

7

hello @SMooTH

this is unacceptable to post mint links in public like this

8

@SMooTH

Screen Shot 2022-10-19 at 10.40.25 AM
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9

Hey Julie,

I see what you’re saying and completely agree with the policy. However, I don’t see how our application qualifies as “engagement farming” at all.

  1. We are a small community. Even though we post our articles on Medium, nobody except our readers know it exists, and we don’t do any paid advertising.
  2. We’re not asking them to “do” anything for claiming their reward. They can just read like they usually do, and claim it. We’re not asking for any type of engagement from them whatsoever.
  3. We didn’t announce anything regarding the POAP, we just released another update as we do each and every week.
  4. We verify attendance by having them read until the end, which only our loyal followers do, and there’s no more than 50 of those.
  5. Literally every POAP I’ve ever claimed qualified as engagement farming more than ours. It was always “go there to get the POAP” or “join the VC for a chance to get a POAP”, whereas ours is basically a token of our gratitude for our readers, and we’re not asking anyone new to go read the article by flexing the POAP.

If after this, you still think it’s against the rules, I’ll be happy to take it down.

I would however still be confused as to where and how we would be allowed to publish the links however.
We’re a web3 community, we don’t hold databases of people’s emails. Medium also does not provide any information or statistics or insights about its readers.

Claiming the POAP in Discord, Decentraland, Sandbox, or Twitter are all public places that are no different from Medium, and they are places where POAPs are being given out as engagement farming all the time.

10

Hello @SMooTH

The Curators were made aware of the links posted in the article and the codes were revoked to protect the POAP Protocol and POAP ecosystem.

11

Just gonna ignore everything I said then?

Okay… so… good talk then! Nice to see the POAP team is open to discussion

Wish you the best,

smooth

12

Hello @SMooTH

Please be aware of the POAP Community Code of Conduct:

13

@SMooTH

There are other ways to distribute POAPs to people - other groups and individuals accomplish responsible POAP distribution every day without issue.
Here are some resources for your review:

You stated:

This conversation is about you as an issuer and your POAP Drop event. This disconnect in this specific case (yours) is that you posted all of the mint links in a publicly published article! This is not a behavior of a responsible POAP issuer.

We actively work to combat instances of farming and engagement farming on a daily basis throughout the POAP ecosystem.

The POAP ecosystem is built upon trust between the issuers and their communities, and between issuers and the POAP Curation Body.

14

@SMooTH

From the POAP Issuer Guidelines:

“Responsible issuance is a core responsibility of POAP issuers. Issuers must verify attendance of collectors at events and/or collector eligibility for POAPs. Issuers must also size drops responsibly.”

" Good Citizenship

  • The POAP Community must abide by a mutually agreed upon code of conduct, and should act as good stewards of the technology POAP brings to the world."

Being a responsible POAP Issuer, as well as, a Good POAP Citizen is the benchmark in the community.

15

Thanks for getting back to me!

I still don’t see how I broke the rules tbh.

Issuers must verify attendance of collectors at events and/or collector eligibility for POAPs.: Nobody visits our Medium unless they are readers. We verify their attendance by having them read until the end.

Issuers must also size drops responsibly.: I asked for 50 links, and we have 55 subscribers.

I really don’t see another solution for this situation. Like I said Medium doesn’t provide us with info about our subscribers. The only way to reach them is through an article. This article is posted on a public platform, sure, but nobody can actually get to that article if they haven’t heard from us in some shape or form.

The “articles” posted are investor updates. That means they’re meant for our holders only, and only our holders are interested in reading these articles, as they talk about our project development.

These articles are not advertised or shared anywhere else than inside our own ecosystem.

If this was an article on yahoo finance or whatever, posted publicly and easily findable through google, then I would totally agree.

I’ll be looking into other ways to distribute but so far I have no clue what else to do in a situation like this one.

Thanks for your insights and have a good day!

smooth

16

@julie

What if I token-gate it through Discord and give out links privately to the readers of the Monday Brief (our weekly article)?

  1. I can verify their attendance by asking them a question about the Monday Brief
  2. They would only be able to answer that question if they’ve followed the article from the beginning
  3. I would then either DM them to hand out the link or have them open a ticket inside the Discord to claim it.

Would this be allowed?

17

Hello @SMooTH

Token gating is a valid way to secure POAP Distribution. Thank you for being willing to think this through.

18

I’m just trying to understand what’s allowed and what’s not in order to find a solution :slight_smile:

If my proposal sounds OK for you, would you be willing to grant me some more codes for this event?

I can provide proof of the distribution way if needed!

19

Hello @SMooTH

I will get back to you on that request

20

Hello @SMooTH

Please submit for the 30 mint links to start

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