The Elephant In The Room...(Engagement Farming)...THOUGHTS?

Community
1

So I have been doing some thinking lately and would be curious the communities honest feedback.

In December when I began going “crazy” with POAPS, what I did for about a month most likely fit under the category of “engagement farming”. That said, it was done in ignorance and we have sense as a community began to address it.

But here is a some thoughts I had. Please offer feedback. I am having a conversation soon with the POAP team, (who are awesome) and would be curious questions you might have.

This will be a good conversation because I truly do believe there is/has been a confusion of what exactly “engagement farming is and is not”. My doctoral work was in digital media and human behaviors. My dissertation focused on exactly what we are talking bout in a broader perspective and on other platforms.

So clarity of terms matter and defining what is subjective and objective.

Terms like…Proof, Attendance, Engagement, Farming, etc…

The larger conversation is not just Twitter engagement farming but rather Discord AMA Engagement Farming, Twitter Spaces Engagement Farming, and so on.

IMHO- only real way to prevent engagement farming on all platforms is to NOT announce a POAP because ultimately we are rewarding people for a behavior. Whether that is a comment, RT, attendance, etc…

Yes, they showed up but it was only for a POAP. Just look at the craze in our POAP discord after the first AMA.

The announcement of POAP incentivizes behavior. That is at essence “engagement farming” if we are using it to get more people to attend. Just my opinion. Fun conversation. We must learn to live in the tension and protect the integrity of POAP to keep the value and sacredness of it. We don’t want to cheapen them but at the same time they can be a great utility.

Just thinking out loud. So my final statement is this…IF you announce a POAP ahead of time…for anything…you might be engagement farming at some level.

Dr. Malachi

PS- The farmer bots have become much easier to spot :slight_smile:

PPS- After AMA call today I love that the POAP team is creating for Twitter. The Degen bot that is.

2 Likes
2

@DrMalachi

We are creating more educational content regarding farming

Looking forward to sharing it with the POAP Community. :dizzy:

All the best,
The POAP Curation Body

3

Engagement farming is a complex topic. I agree with the basic idea that the difference is timing of distribution. At some level, if what you’re doing can be framed as “Do X to get a POAP”, there’s a great likelihood it doesn’t pass the smell check.

Example:

Obviously engagement farming.

4

This is an excellent thread worthy of revival and perhaps certain Issuers from the Appeals section could be directed here, to understand why their petition might have been rejected.

Two quotes for me stand out:

1 Like
5

I completely disagree here. Engagement farming is in a sense what POAP is. You attend an event you get a POAP whether you say this explicitly or not it doesn’t matter. By way of what POAP is, stating if you attend you’ll get a POAP is stating what a POAP is.

If you don’t attend you can not obtain a poap can you?

I would actually suggest that using poaps as an incentive is not a terrible thing. I would also add to that, that perhaps having issuers pay for the mint would be a fair ask.

In fact as a Community Manager in multiple Web3 communities I’d be willing to pay a POAP issuer membership of say $15 usd a month on top of the cost to mint. It is my understanding the cost to mind 100 poaps is quite low so maybe the $15 usd membership would even cover that as well.

Why hinder the potential and be beat out by rising competitors? Instead embrace the use case that is has found and turn it into a way to generate revenue and create a governance token.

For me this is probably the most logical answer here.

I would ask, what is the greatest threat to POAP by allowing people to use POAPs in this fashion?

1 Like
6

See my recent comment in regards to this issue.

7

Hey @MilkMoney – I appreciate your candor in disagreeing with our stance on this.

This is a nice idea. Unfortunately in practice we (POAP) tend to be target for cybersecurity threats as a result of people wanting a POAP from somewhere they didn’t go. Additionally, issuers are subject to social engineering and general pestering by farmers.

  1. Several people who want to do engagement farming creating a toxic environment for the broader POAP Issuer community where people can’t give out POAPs to “only our community members” without being exposed to unpleasant behavior.
  2. Aforementioned cybersecurity threats.

We appreciate your input on recommended POAP business model, but we have other ideas for how we’d like to drive the business.

1 Like