I just got a message on X from someone who wanted me, as a badgeholder, to support their projectā¦
Here is my reply:
ā
Hi [ā¦]
Actually, Iām not planning to. Iām sure [ā¦] is awesome, but probably there are other great projects, too, and I wouldnāt feel good about simply jumping in and supporting one project over others on this basis.
As for Hedgeyās setup, I donāt think they should just āappointā badgeholders like this without asking first. They should realize that voting responsibly requires a proper time commitment. Not you fault, of course! Just to explain why I am not participating.
Thanks for the feedback @joanbp ! Itās a good point. I was trying to think of a way to keep the voters very Optimism aligned and thought RPGF recipients and badge holders combined was better than just OP holders, but to your point it is a huge commitment to decide something like this thoughtfully. I am absolutely taking in your feedback for the next one
I think it can be ok to have an open vote where lots of people vote on just their personal favorites. Then it is, for better or worse, a popularity contest.
And I guess I also appreciate your idea of trying to only allow aligned voters.
Itās just that Optimism badgeholders have not signed up to be responsible for every other funding round someone sets up (I hope that doesnāt come across too harsh).
The way you have set this round up, Iām now - without ever having had anything to do with your project - receiving messages from left and right from people who want to ensure my support. Those people feel a need to try and elicit my vote, even if they might have had better things to do. And it puts me in a bad spot because I donāt want to disappoint these people, but I also donāt want to vote insincerely. Especially not when I only get the right to vote because Iām an Optimism badgeholder.
hello @Lindsey that initiative looks really great. I would like to know Āæwhat parameters there are been considered to evalutate and select the finals teams?. Thanks
Hey thanks for the thoughtful question. The only eligible teams were those that completed a one month virtual hackathon at backdrop build , so that there is some proof of work before they can be voted on.
As we near to an end, I have some general feedback and thoughts as a participating project in the jokerace
The Good
We got to build relations with OP Badgeholders and projects outside of the RetroPGF season when they are swamped
We developed a new process to have a distributed jury for credibly neutral project selection!
Most of the badgeholders and projects were happy to vote and found this a pretty good idea
The Bad
Feels a little petty to trouble stalwarts like Protocol Guild, L2Beat, Nethermind etc for a few votes in your jokerace
Unable to focus on anything else during the 5 days except how to get as many votes as possible
The Ugly
Process of winning was very unfair to projects without a network in the OP ecosystem. For example, only 6 of 13 projects even got more than 10 votes and 4 got zero support
More thought and discussion on whether selection should have been network voting by badgeholders and retropgf recipients or judge voting where for example Joey from backdrop, OP grants council and yourself being the only ones having votes.
as i have positions of influence as a council member in gitcoin and octant, plus my active role in arbitrum dao governance, it was queasy taking favors from people to vote for my project.
Thatās great feedback @joanbp - absolutely agree with you and not too harsh at all. I will 100% take that in for the next time we (hopefully) get to do this and will think through a different approach that avoids this. Cheers!
We have had some time to reflect on the past few days of campaigning in public & attesting to the strength of our social networking.
Starting off. This was a great experiment and along the way we found ourselves challenged with the task of gathering votes.
The synergy between the other participants coming together to build on the Superchain is exciting.
Battling a cold here at the Fractal Visions HQ over the course of the past few days added to the complexity of this experience which felt like a perfect storm that had formed throughout the contest for the finalists.
The social networking was a lot of fun. We may have made more connections with people & projects that are involved in building on the OP Stack which is always something that feels like an extra reward when participating in a grant round.
Although it doesnāt seem like this was completely necessary. The platform for voting has received a fair amount of attention and constructive criticism. There was one thing that was brought up by voters which was fees being charged for voting.
Is the platform Jokerace taking any portion of the fee ?
There also seems to be a number of people who wanted to change their vote after discovering we were in the race.
It would have been clutch to have a few spaces that would have let each project shill or shill it forward to their favorite finalists to create more camaraderie amongst the participants. The visibility on the projects could have used a big boost from the official grant operation accounts on social media. Those are the basic gripes we wanted to toss into the hat here for the end of the campaign.
So I somehow got pulled into this even though I resigned from Optimism citizenship
Some quick feedback from me.
Please do not op-tin all citizens without asking them. We are all really busy people and getting more responsibility is not wanted
Needed time to go in through each of the grantees, figure out what would like to vote for and actually vote.
This results in a lot of spam/pressure from the grantees to the people holding votes.
I already gave this feedback to jokerace, but putting it here. There is both gas costs and fees for the voters. As some who did not sign up and just was asked to help itās a bit of a big ask to swallow 4x gast costs, 4x jokerace fees just to help some projects that dmed me online. Yes they are not super high but still ā¦ I did not ask for this or get anything out of it. So any payment is bad.
Hey @lefterisjp thanks a ton for the feedback here. Another badgeholder shared the same feedback and I feel terrible about having people spam you on this. Was not my intention and the feedback is totally taken in. I was trying to find a way to limit the people who had a voice to a more narrow line of Optimism focused people, but will have to rethink how I do that in future rounds. And thank you for the feedback on JokeRace as well. Iāll share that with David and definitely keep it top of mind for anything in the future.
also - thanks even for the time in sharing your feedback!
no need I know David and shared that and a bit more directly! Think organizers or winners should take on fees eventually or have an option to take the fees.
I believe in platforms making money, otherwise nothing works. Just incentives on who pays the fees are a bit off here.
thing that was brought up by voters which was fees being charged for voting.
here for the end of the campaign.
so incredibly much for the opportunity!