Hey all, I’ve decided to sunset automod.

Channels are changing and Automod needs to adapt to work well with the new design. I like the new direction for channels and think it makes the right trade offs but it requires major changes and a renewed commitment that don’t make sense for me at this point.

Real quickly:
- Automod will run until the changes go into effect.
- All remaining subscription time will be refunded.
- Automod is now open source with APIs to port moderation configurations.

I’ve worked on automod nearly everyday for the past 7 months. I’m proud of it and thankful to everyone who gave it a shot.

Thank you.

building /automod, /glass • prev manifold.xyz, twilio.com

“I already paid for months of automod, what happens now?”
Automod will run until channels switchover, any subscription time remaining after that will be refunded in full.

“Couldn’t you make the changes and then open source automod?”

I considered this but Automod has a lot of stuff both product and code-wise that are irrelevant or unimportant in the new model so its a lot of work. I also think its a good opportunity for someone else to step up, make something and start relationships with channel owners.

“Where’s the code?”
Check the readme.
https://github.com/jtgi/automod

“I want to build channel membership tooling, is there any userful code to reference?”
Yeah, do check out the README.md and then validation.server.ts. All the rules are reasonably decoupled into simple functions. You can reuse or use them as inspiration.

“I’m interested in forking automod and migrating it to the new model, can you help?”
I won’t write code but I’m happy to walk you through it, outline a plan to change things. If you fork it, I’m happy to review a PR as well. I spent some time on the readme so do check it out.

There’s a branch with a start to get you a sense of the scope of the changes: https://github.com/jtgi/automod/pull/2

“Can the channel configuration data be imported into another service?”
All channel configurations are now available by public api: https://automod.sh/api/channels.

“Do you think a business can be made with channels and moderation?”
Yeah. I view three important parts of channels: curation, monetization and rewards. There are early bets in each but nothing holistic. A channel moderation tool is the source of truth for approved content and now members.

Another opportunity, and what I would do if I was continuing automod in the new direction, is to take a cut on tokens required to be a member for a channel. You can bake it into a frame that vends invites.

“If you think that then why aren’t you?”
I’m 7 months in. It’s requires the second major refactor of automod, channels are still experimental, farcaster is still nascent and I’m keen to try something else outside of crypto.

[supercast cut off my thread, continued..]

“Do you still recommend building on Farcaster?”
Yeah, definitely. When I started building here in January most of the interactivity was through bots. Now we have frames, cast actions, programmatic dms, composer actions and so on. Infra providers like neynar and airstack have great coverage now.

Most importantly the culture still celebrates newness and tries everything, hard to state how valuable that is as a builder.

“What about building a business on Farcaster?”

Yeah, with the obvious caveat that building a business is tough anywhere and the success rate is low.

For a farcaster native app, I would be cognizant of dau, your time pref and how you plan to monetize. Your typical twitter-like power user tool might take a bit more dau before it pans out at typical burn rates, but there are notable exceptions like supercast and neynar. In general I think apps have better results in crypto by taking a cut on transactions. Mint fees. Swap fees. Listing fees. Distribution fees etc.

Building a frame, using the social graph, etc? Yeah, those are low effort and high leverage. No brainer.

“If you like the channel changes, why stop building automod?”
- It’s a lot of work to change and I haven’t been able to monetize well.
- I plan to take a break from building in crypto.
- I want to spend significantly less time on social media.

“Are you sure you like the channel changes?”
Yeah, I think it makes the right trade offs. I’ve always been partial to the cozy corner idea because my favorite channels are that way–small or heavily moderated. I also like that its leaning heavily into memberships and invites, extremes are a good way to get signal that things are working. Can open up later.

It’s a great start. I’d like to see ability for members to better signal (reputation, flare, top casters) and common sorting options (24h/1wk/1mo/all-time).