So I started an experiment many months ago - a series called "Is this Worth Money?". In it, we encouraged people to spend a small amount of tokens to show us what they really wanted to be built on HIVE, and over 13 episodes we did build and have now built many things, including tools, scripts and lots of public and private advice.
In fact, let's link to the series here using our great Backlinker Tool and some easy search parameters (author:ecoinstant title:"worth money")
ITWM posts 1-13
Internal Market Viewer: Is this Worth Money? #13
Curation Post Finder - Is this worth money? #12
Thematic Art Organizer - Is this worth Money? #11
More buttons - MOAR FREE TOOLS! - Is this worth money? #10
Is this worth money #9: More faster filters for backlinker!
Is this worth money? #8: Hive-Memories
Is this worth money? #7: Market Viewer
Is this worth money? #6: Tag Engagement Chaser - T.E.C.
Is this worth money? #5: Two corporate websites
Is this worth money? #4: Unlock your HIVE blog with BACKLINKS
Is this worth money? #3: Standalone Memo DeEncrypter
Is this worth Money? #2 : More free HiveTools for you!
Is this worth money?
What happened?
I had a lot of fun with this sociological experiment of a model, especially as we filled up our pipeline and discovered who was an active, eager participant of the HIVE ecosystem, who could be worked with "in good faith"; I am extremely grateful for all the participants up to this point and I think we have done "our part" above and beyond anyone's reasonable expectations for building things - by building rapid modular prototypes, scoping tightly and working together.
And we have done this at the same time, along side, building our own brand, building tools we need and doing it all (okay well most of it) from a "back-end first" perspective. Our tools are cool! And every time I see a comment of a new Hiver seeing our tools for the first time, it makes me happy.
But where do I see these types of comments? Its not under my posts, as my followers already know a lot about what we are doing. It's under posts made about our tools, or including our tools, made by other users. Here is a recent example from user @stayoutoftherz.
I need champions
The tool in question is the Post Curation Tool, or PCT for short, and it is currently being championed by none other than our friend @friendlymoose of @topcomment. He is doing posts about the tool and managing a feature request list, interfacing with the users of the tool in a way that generates posts and almost tutorials in the process. Here is a recent example.
The story of this tool is rather interesting, and we originally raised over 60 dollars which I paid to @mirafun to mock up a demonstration model (fast prototype) using our YourFrontEnd tech. This version lasted a month or a bit more but it was clear that we needed a more robust "backEnd" for this as I could already see the feature requests start to pile up.
@friendlymoose was involved the entire way, we built out a new version of the tool "PCT", and its been running pretty much flawlessly since, with feature requests slowly being attended too. Not every feature is "easy", but the legos are coming together to make this a really good and helpful tool for curators. Users who want to take a longer view of the HIVE blockchain beyond seven days should use the TAO, which stands for "Thematic Art Organizer". It doesn't currently have a champion.
What do I mean by champion?
@friendlymoose has now produced 7 posts in his series. He cares about the tool because he uses it, so once or twice a month he also reaches out to me in DM and touches base about any new feature requests, any new donations (which he forwards on to us), even any new success stories about how our tool is working for certain types of tasks. He himself has even donated to building of the tool, especially in the very first fast prototype round of funding.
Maybe the most important thing that he does, as champion, is to actually ASK for donations, every single post. Its something that needs to be done - which is why every youtube has to say "like and subscribe", because if you don't ask people, they won't do it.
We have other tools that need Champions!
I mentioned the TAO of course, because it is my favorite, but many of our tools could use champions - TipJar minimum-click hive donation links, Project Builder build on HIVE kit, Market Viewr full information order books, Internal Market Viewer - thank @antisocialist for this great idea. And @antisocialist maybe should step up to be the champion of this one, which is still in the fast prototype stage and pretty "good enough" to do most things. But anyone can become a champion of any tool, by writing about it, using it, working with it. And "doing the ask", maybe a little logistical work in dm's once per month.
Am I crazy, or is it "that easy"?
I don't know, but I do know that I can't do it alone. And having a champion, really helps! Thanks to @friendlymoose for showing us the way and helping out this occasionally weary project manager see the light on how to move this model forward.
"My Radar" is still in effect (current price 250 ARCHON), and will be shifted to its own series of posts, which I will begin sometime in September, if everything works out according to plan.
As always you can vote our HIVE @synergy.witness, which has never missed a block!
