AlfaFrens

Next up if stepping back and thinking through the actual design of the app. This was a speedrun in basic functionality.

I can now view "channels that @wake is subbed to that I'm not", but there's still a ton to do to make it more usable and more valuable (and less ugly).

To be continued!

Fall in love with the problem, not the solution.

Today's AlfaFrens Channel Hunt work could almost be considered technical recon. This is valuable in and of itself. Fortunately, rather than just building features, I was implementing a feature to solve a real problem in new channel discovery. 

Let's dig a bit deeper.

Thus far, channel discovery in AlfaFrens has been primarily based on economic value. 

Look at the categories...$ALFA, Cashback, Income, Stake. The first two are purely economic, income is an outlier that (in my experience) hasn't been useful because new stakers come in so quickly, and Top Stake is a prestige leaderboard.

Of the four, Top Stake is the closest to figuring out which channels are actually valuable because popular creators _tend to_ attract higher stakes. High $ALFA does this too, but it's too volatile to be useful for valuable channel discovery.

Wanna be the very best. Building @moxiescout and /buck. ゼニゼニ

In the early days, the flywheel was spinning positive, which meant you were essentially rewarded for subscribing to as many channels as you could afford to...regardless of content. 

When the system shifted towards value-based content rather than economic gains, these categories lost a lot of value.

The team is keenly aware of channel discovery problems and are working hard at fixing them. I'm sure they're exploring some of the obvious ideas, like adding categories and making it possible to describe what your channel is about.

The rjs discovery problem: 

How does someone on AlfaFrens discover that @rjs has an incredibly valuable channel if they've never seen him before on FC?

The "highly staked but empty" problem:

I won't name names, but there are quite a few accounts of popular FC users that are all but empty in AlfaFrens. If you're chasing pure ALFA returns, maybe they're ok but even then.

How do you avoid subscribing to these? 

Is the only way to pay gas and take a peek inside? This seems unnecessary and wasteful.

Do all AF users share the same discovery needs? 

Of course not. 

Why is it that some users are asking for channel recommendations? What kind of pain are they feeling?

Speaking for myself, I'm in a position where I want to subscribe to channels that are valuable regardless of ALFA, but that also have reasonable ALFA returns. 

Why do I care about AlLA at all? I still see it as a proxy for investment in the platform and somewhat of a "take me seriously" flag.

Especially with depressed subscription activity and current highbreturns, it should be easy for any channel that cares to get to a level of decent returns.

Stepping back even further, why subscribe to AlfaFrens channels at all? What do they offer?

For active channels, AF offers a dedicated line to people I'd like to talk with and learn from. 

Connection, learning, alpha, guidance, advice, insight, fun...this is what I value.

For others, I bet that intel on coins or airdrops from artists are also valuable. 

These aren't my primary areas, but I like to look at them as well. 

So there are multiple users groups. What do their stories look like? How do their lives change through channel discovery?

As someone who subscribes to connect and learn, perhaps my most valuable subscription has been @burrrrrberry .

I'm not a natural at social media and learning from her has been both invaluable and had a measurable ROI in terms of engagement here on FC. 

I was lost, and stumbled upon her channel, and now have a better life because of it.

Are there others who might make this journey too? I'd bet there are.

Similarly, I treasure the ability to ask burning questions to @wake.eth and @rjs . I wish @jacek were still on!

So in my own case, I'm eagerly trying to find channels that help me learn and connect with others here.

How do you do that within alfafrens? 

It's currently not possible...

This is but a taste of the problem space.

But it's fun to dive deeper!