Problem
Dash doesn’t have a strong enough visible presence on social media when it comes to active social media engagement and that can be a problem at times. If you take a look at the comments posted in response to Brian Armstrong, the Coinbase CEO’s recent reddit post, that suggests Coinbase is moving towards integrating other cryptocurrencies, Dash was totally absent there and it's not for the lack of a big community. It's because paid activists of a rival projects swoop in and stole the spotlight. It also lead to an article where Dash isn't even mentioned. Dash didn’t manage to get enough Stackexchange.com votes for the same reason. The community just wasn’t motivated enough to get actively engaged. To provide another concrete example, the Overstock CEO of the US retailer Overstock, Patrick Byrne, issued a community challenge, asking which 2.0 Crypto platform is the best one and in that case, following a strong community showing, Counterparty was selected because it had the most vocal community. Dash stands to lose a lot by not having a vocal active community presence on social media and the previously mentioned Coinbase reddit interaction or lack thereof is a good example of that.
It would seem the average age of the Dash community is higher than that of other crypto communities and that doesn't play in our favor at times when it comes to active outreach.
The high barrier to entry when it comes to owning a masternode could be a reason why this is the case. The young, social media savvy active people, have less disposable income according to statistics and are less likely to be actively involved with Dash. The older population tends to be more lethargic on social media and less engaged than the younger generation.
Perception is reality, as they say. This is especially true in the cryptocurrency space. If you're not out there creating it, others will do it for you and most often than not it won't be in your favor. PR agencies work to some extent, but they are slow to react, and bureaucratic and don't have what it takes to work in the current environment and tackle some of the challenges, where active engagement on Reddit, for example, is often more important than articles that may appear sterile and unimpressive. Often, the comment section is way more important than the article itself. For example, you can have a bunch of Dash pieces, but 2-3 negative comments placed there by competitors, set on ruining Dash to prop up themselves, is often more than enough to nullify all the positive of that press release or Dash related article, especially when no Dash community members step in to engage them with sensible counter arguments.
Solution
I've put together a team of Dash activists. Our aim is to be actively engaged on social media and to fight for Dash wherever & whenever it would be required. Other projects have well organized teams conducting such efforts in an effective manner. Our Dash Force team will be limited to 7 members. Our team won't be about making social media announcements. There are folks already handling that. Our aim is active engagement, reddit discussions, forums, twitter engagement, article comments. We also aim to weed out Dash disinformation wherever we find it because there's plenty of it and to present the Dash value proposition in a positive manner.
We will also combine this proactive approach with the Swarm model that was used quite successfully by NXT in the past. All community members, aside from our main team. will be encouraged to link, retweet, post, like and engage in exchange for small Dash tips. A series of bounties will be created in order to achieve this goal of getting community members engaged. A screenshot proof or link to their social media contribution will have to be posted in a dedicated document or in a dedicated chat channel.
This approach will be very cost effective. I believe that having a strong social media presence can go a long way and have a big impact on how Dash is perceived as a project. Not being seen or heard on social media can create a negative perception, that of a project that doesn’t have a strong following. Bitcoin managed to get where it is now because it had a hardcore community following of crypto enthusiasts. Dash Force aims to be the engine driving community growth by energizing and mobilizing the Dash community.
175 Dash will be allocated to pay 7 active Dash Force members who will be the bread and butter of this community activist effort and will also act as community coordinators.
100 Dash will be reserved for Dash Swarms, an organized effort to incentivize all community members to get actively engaged in the Dash Force community outreach efforts.
The following article written by The Desert Lynx goes into detail to explain why such organized community efforts make sensehttp://thedashtimes.com/2016/09/26/cryptocurrency-needs-activists/
The Dash Force team consists of the following members:
InTheWoods - Dash slack owner and mod
The Desert Lynx - known crypto journalist
Macrochip - Dash slack mod, Dashpay reddit mod
SovereignBTC - Sovereign BTC podcast author
Tao - active Dash community member who runs the TaoOfSatoshi Twitter account
Elisha - Dash Times owner and author
Buster - Darq.io/The Cryptoreport author and Dash publick slack owner/mod
Proposal URL: https://www.dashcentral.org/p/Dash-Force
Dash doesn’t have a strong enough visible presence on social media when it comes to active social media engagement and that can be a problem at times. If you take a look at the comments posted in response to Brian Armstrong, the Coinbase CEO’s recent reddit post, that suggests Coinbase is moving towards integrating other cryptocurrencies, Dash was totally absent there and it's not for the lack of a big community. It's because paid activists of a rival projects swoop in and stole the spotlight. It also lead to an article where Dash isn't even mentioned. Dash didn’t manage to get enough Stackexchange.com votes for the same reason. The community just wasn’t motivated enough to get actively engaged. To provide another concrete example, the Overstock CEO of the US retailer Overstock, Patrick Byrne, issued a community challenge, asking which 2.0 Crypto platform is the best one and in that case, following a strong community showing, Counterparty was selected because it had the most vocal community. Dash stands to lose a lot by not having a vocal active community presence on social media and the previously mentioned Coinbase reddit interaction or lack thereof is a good example of that.
It would seem the average age of the Dash community is higher than that of other crypto communities and that doesn't play in our favor at times when it comes to active outreach.
The high barrier to entry when it comes to owning a masternode could be a reason why this is the case. The young, social media savvy active people, have less disposable income according to statistics and are less likely to be actively involved with Dash. The older population tends to be more lethargic on social media and less engaged than the younger generation.
Perception is reality, as they say. This is especially true in the cryptocurrency space. If you're not out there creating it, others will do it for you and most often than not it won't be in your favor. PR agencies work to some extent, but they are slow to react, and bureaucratic and don't have what it takes to work in the current environment and tackle some of the challenges, where active engagement on Reddit, for example, is often more important than articles that may appear sterile and unimpressive. Often, the comment section is way more important than the article itself. For example, you can have a bunch of Dash pieces, but 2-3 negative comments placed there by competitors, set on ruining Dash to prop up themselves, is often more than enough to nullify all the positive of that press release or Dash related article, especially when no Dash community members step in to engage them with sensible counter arguments.
Solution
I've put together a team of Dash activists. Our aim is to be actively engaged on social media and to fight for Dash wherever & whenever it would be required. Other projects have well organized teams conducting such efforts in an effective manner. Our Dash Force team will be limited to 7 members. Our team won't be about making social media announcements. There are folks already handling that. Our aim is active engagement, reddit discussions, forums, twitter engagement, article comments. We also aim to weed out Dash disinformation wherever we find it because there's plenty of it and to present the Dash value proposition in a positive manner.
We will also combine this proactive approach with the Swarm model that was used quite successfully by NXT in the past. All community members, aside from our main team. will be encouraged to link, retweet, post, like and engage in exchange for small Dash tips. A series of bounties will be created in order to achieve this goal of getting community members engaged. A screenshot proof or link to their social media contribution will have to be posted in a dedicated document or in a dedicated chat channel.
This approach will be very cost effective. I believe that having a strong social media presence can go a long way and have a big impact on how Dash is perceived as a project. Not being seen or heard on social media can create a negative perception, that of a project that doesn’t have a strong following. Bitcoin managed to get where it is now because it had a hardcore community following of crypto enthusiasts. Dash Force aims to be the engine driving community growth by energizing and mobilizing the Dash community.
175 Dash will be allocated to pay 7 active Dash Force members who will be the bread and butter of this community activist effort and will also act as community coordinators.
100 Dash will be reserved for Dash Swarms, an organized effort to incentivize all community members to get actively engaged in the Dash Force community outreach efforts.
The following article written by The Desert Lynx goes into detail to explain why such organized community efforts make sensehttp://thedashtimes.com/2016/09/26/cryptocurrency-needs-activists/
The Dash Force team consists of the following members:
InTheWoods - Dash slack owner and mod
The Desert Lynx - known crypto journalist
Macrochip - Dash slack mod, Dashpay reddit mod
SovereignBTC - Sovereign BTC podcast author
Tao - active Dash community member who runs the TaoOfSatoshi Twitter account
Elisha - Dash Times owner and author
Buster - Darq.io/The Cryptoreport author and Dash publick slack owner/mod
Proposal URL: https://www.dashcentral.org/p/Dash-Force
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