Connection Severed
I often see members of my Cardano family (and other chains as well) going through feelings of loss, shock, anger and self doubt when their favorite project leaves or rugs. While those feelings are 100% real for you in this moment, you have to remember that you didn’t cause them and they are a reaction to dishonesty or disloyalty of others. These are side effects of experiencing betrayal from a trusted source.
These feelings are harmful, strong and persistent and they can affect your decision making. So, while in this state you shouldn’t be making any major life or financial decisions. Just try to remember that you were the one that was loyal and supportive, while the project is the one that severed the connection.
Are You a Member or Number?
When looking at projects please be mindful that not all of them see community in a same way.
While some projects strive to build and uplift their community and members, others treat community in very transactional way.
Many of such projects just use their community as a way to crowd-source engagement. Or they may just use member generated content through social media to target and drive highly relevant traffic to their hub.
This type of marketing is unfortunately normalized and there seems to be a lot more of marketing first projects then community first projects.
Check Your Blind Spots First
So, when joining a project you should ALWAYS assume it’s marketing first type of project unless you get definitive proof otherwise.
Some warning signs to look for that may indicate marketing first behavior towards community are:
- They always expect to get something more. (Buy, upgrade, retweet, sweep, buy the new line, etc…)
- Complaining about lack of recognition by others. (Current community is just not adequate enough for them)
- Isolating their community from others (Pretending to be victims or misunderstood, thus creating guilt-trips for their members if they engage outside of their project.)
- Boasting about business or monetary success only, with out ever mentioning the role that community played in that success.
- Willingness to completely ignore and undermine community for sake of a better deal. (Re-mint assets or change the road-map with out warning or remove functionality of asset or token just to re-use it on a different asset.)
In general, marketing first projects will not treat community as part of a team. They will only accept community engagements where they can see a benefit for themselves. Their definition of success doesn’t account for what happens to the community.
Please be mindful of these realities and give yourself a bit of time with any project before you decide to fully ape in.
