Farcaster

Why can't I request to join a channel?

See the points from the FAQ below, but basically we wanted to avoid creating yet another inbox for owners. Additionally, owners may not want to have people requesting to join. Your channel, your rules.

Additional thoughts 

1. Channels are not hashtags. We tried that version for the last year or so. Didn't work. With the new direction, they are communities run by individuals or small groups. They are opinionated. We think that's a good thing.

2. One way to think of channels now is they are text-based Twitter Spaces—some people on stage, but a large audience.

3. Reminder: you can always cast in your home feed (goes to all of your followers) or create a new channel.

4. There are already a bunch of tools like Cura from @openrank, /channel-kit from @zachterrell, or @modbot from @haole to let channel owners opt in to have request to join flows. Or token gate with @moxie.eth or @hypersub.

5. We added a link in bio that works with frames to help make this easy.

Why Channels 2.0 is good for new users.

I was the ~6,000th person to join Farcaster. When I got here, I did not know anyone. And believe it or not, 6,000 was a discouraging number, since everyone had pretty tightly-wound histories, statuses, jokes, cliques, etc. 

To re-consider that situation through the Channel 2.0 lens: It's as if Farcaster itself was a big channel that I was not a Member in. 

I earned my membership by replying genuinely one-by-one, day-by-day to people who I found interesting. But it took upwards of a year to be really in.

Saying this here because I believe that Channels 2.0 Make Farcaster Cozy Again – a blend of exclusive, yet approachable. For new users especially, it's less like a 60,000 person gorilla, and more like a matrix of those 6,000 (or 600 or 60) person cohorts that OG users originally encountered here. 

tldr: I think Channels 2.0 are a way for new users to find their exclusive social opportunities even more quickly than OG FC... which was already fantastic. Win-win-win.

playing /bracket, assisting /bracky, talking /greatbooks

It seems like it’ll be all good for new users, only for them to see how most of the channels where they will get good visibility are gated and they’ll have to pay or spend something to be a part :(