ADALove, interesting and relevant point. Let’s look at it from a perspective as to what motivates persons to be actively involved and committed to work on an initiative. Several extrinsic and intrinsic motivators that could apply to the Cardano forum with some thoughts around them:
- Recognition: this has two dimensions: appreciation by forum members that translate through views, hearts, bookmarks, replies (certain types). Being part of ‘community’ is important for most persons and meaningful and respectful engagement is an important motivator. Recognition by the Cardano team that can translate through ‘Great thought, we’ll look at this’, ‘Could you expand on that’, ‘Have you thought of this, what’s your feeling about…’, ‘Actually, we are looking at this’ or ‘Well, this is the way it actually is’. It’s easy to do (but needs attributed resources, and an active monitoring of the forum and input of Cardano team members who have direct links to key team members to be able to inject ideas or obtain feedback. I think this is important in making the ‘connection’ to the forum. In the issues that I find interesting I have not seen any of this. Either there is no interest from the team or it is missed. It is clear that if there is no engagement with specific threads by forum or team that the threads die, and with it comes a demotivation to further engage in the forum.
- Payment in ADA: an option and certainly a motivator, ADALove has worded these well. I understand that the Cardano team has no real financial issues (for the moment), so contributing would show a commitment and recognition of the team to the contributions of members. A caveat here though is that different persons come to the forum for different reasons, some come for support (technical ‘, this doesn’t work as it should’, mental ‘ the bottom is falling out, hold my hand…’, understanding ‘ how does this work?’), some help by giving ideas/ approaches how to do things, some are interested in trading/ making it big, some want to see how they can ‘use’ Cardano in their work/ life, others are more interested in exploring the potential social/ financial/ political implications of Cardano/ the blockchain. All of these are valid, but not all of these are equally popular, by using only ‘easy indicators’ like hearts you may push the forum in a certain direction. The incentives should be used in a way that all real contributions that add value are supported. Incentives steer, and I don’t want the forum to only have messages like ‘got an ADA tattoo today’ or ‘HODL, HODL, HODL…’ (luckily we’re far from being there for the moment, but if the incentives are used in a wrong way it could go that road). Incentives should be based on added value brought to the forum and the Cardano movement, and measuring this has to go beyond ‘likes’ (ADALove: not saying you’re advocating for this, I just want to add some additional thoughts). We also need to understand that this forum is silo-ed based on language, There are parts that are inaccessible to most of us, and these may get very little attention because nobody can read them, yet may possibly yield the most insightful posts… Another caveat is that bringing in ‘money’ changes dynamics and perception, so it has to be managed carefully.
- Being part of a movement: reading comments I have the feeling that many actively choose for Cardano, not because it will make them ‘big bucks’, but because of what it is and what it could bring to society. Feeling part of this ‘movement’ and better understanding Cardano, and feeling that we may be contributing to this will also be a motivator for many I think. How motivating would it be to get a message from a key person in Cardano saying ‘Great idea, we’ll be looking into that’ or a question to the forum ‘what are thoughts around this…’? Involve us, drill into and use the quality of thinking on the forum, from what I’m reading it is clearly there.
- Understanding: many probably want to have a better understanding of complicated and complex domain that is trying to find its place in society (and that could potentially be a very disruptive - and positive - technology).
- Opportunity: both extrinsic and intrinsic, opportunity to use insights or technologies to advance ones own work and activities/ priorities, possibly even at some point get professionally involved around Cardano and its roll-out. Financial by playing the markets cleverly, and a whole wad of other opportunities that involvement in the forum and Cardano could bring.
There are probably other elements to mention but I’ll leave it at that.
Ultimately, everything is about cost and benefit. For me, working as consultant, the time I put into writing for the Cardano forum is time I’m not prospecting for future assignments, developing new approaches and tools, studying or that I use to strap on the snow rackets (we have 40cm snow for the moment) and dashing off into the woods for a 2-hour stroll with the dog enjoying nature while doing a work-out … The last weeks I was quite active on the forum, but the balance makes that I will not be able to continue maintaining this level of engagement. What is the cost, what are the benefits? Just to make clear, my main motivator is not money (though we obviously need to survive). While as an individual I’m not important for the forum, I think that there are others like me on the forum who will ultimately have to balance their commitment. What type of forum do we want, one-liners, or a forum that tries to go a bit deeper?
The key message to the Cardano team is: if you see value in having a rich and vibrant community, that could potentially feed innovative ideas to you, and who could potentially help in rolling out specific parts of the programme, then do identify and analyse what extrinsic and intrinsic motivators makes people want to get involved, and create the forum you want by pushing the right buttons…