Hi everyone,
Starting out by saying I love Treasure, I love Magic, I love the free mints, I love the ethos of what you guys have promoted and am the biggest supporter of everything you have done here so far.
Sybil resistance in NFTs is one of the hardest challenges to crack. Once a brand like Treasure reaches the popularity it has, there is incentive for bad actors to use their advantages to gain as many spots as possible.
For this I have sympathy for the teams and know that they are doing all they can to prevent this from happening.
One trend however that I have seen creeping into NFTs as a whole is the development of vague and unclear guidance around how to achieve a WL spot. Often this is communicated by teams in the form of "stay active, be helpful and you will be rewarded."
Of course engagement is important and wanting an active community is key, but without adding clear rules and guidelines, real, legitimate humans who want to be part of the community are forced to spend the majority of their time worrying if their 50+ messages a day is enough to catch the eye of a moderator.
It encourages meaningless conversation, the same story on repeat for days on end as people feel obliged to "keep vibing."
It allows for favouritism and hidden biases, as moderators are able to hand-pick the people they like, whilst promoting conformity. Freedom of expression is removed as everyone falls in line to repeat the same tone of messaging as everyone else. Phrases like lets goooo, or I'm grinding, become the most thoughtful conversations that take place.
It generates anxiety for those that have attended every call, participated in every event and told friends, family and loved ones about projects, that they still, despite all of their efforts have not yet been picked.
It promotes outsourcing - paying bot farms and individuals on Fiverr to grind WL spots for them across numerous accounts.
Above all else though, it causes disillusionment with a project. Make the WL requirements too hard and people who were once big fans actively begin becoming your biggest critics. I am now seeing, in countless discords, when a project name is mentioned more people being critical of the process than talking about the brilliance of the project.
Regardless of how good a project is, the game, the art, the storyline, without a clear and robust WL process, you risk losing or alienating your target audience within the first few weeks.
Whilst Treasure historically has been brilliant at their processes, it is imperative this is kept up, for a badly done WL doesn't just damage the brand of the project, it damages the brand of Treasure as a whole.
I would like to propose the TreasureDAO begins to develop some clear rules and guidelines around what teams can set as their WL requirements. Sure, make it difficult, make it challenging, make commitment be required, but please please please, can we ensure that projects are upfront about their requirements at the very beginning, so people are not trapped in an endless anxiety inducing loop of misery.
