It's been about a month since 7 representatives of the DeSo community were elected. Their role? Be the spokespersons for the community - hence their name @DeSoVoices - so that their demands are heard by @Nader and the core team.
These elections being an initiative coming from the community (read our article « Who are the Reps? And what are they for? »), we were wondering how Nader was going to react and welcome these representatives. Answer: Silence. Nader has not yet made any anoucement on this matter. Not a word. No public statement, no private message to the "Reps". This lack of reaction is nevertheless one. By this "no comment", the founder of DeSo clearly seems to pass the message: « I am not interested. »
Some have justified his silence by the fact that only about 300 members voted for this election. Which represents barely 10% of the 3,000 daily active users of DeSo.
However, Nader could have said, « I take note of the desire of part of the community to have representatives. I promise to listen to their demands and I hope that for the next elections there will be greater participation so that the reps are more representative. » Something like that. It wouldn't have committed him to anything - who pays controls - and the community would have felt heard and valued. Nothing.
We tried to get in touch with him to ask him a few questions, but the fact is he's hard to reach except if you belong to his close circle.
Not enough community involvement
So, the representatives, whose role of volunteers is not an easy one, for lack of an interlocutor, are all over the map.
They didn't get discouraged though and began to set up a group on Discord to collect suggestions from the community and discuss solutions among themselves.
« This is how I see my mission, » explains @Randhir, one of the reps. « First, collect and prioritize the concerns of the community. Then communicate those concerns. A few days ago I did a post and @AlexValaitis [DeSo Foundation member] acknowledged it and admitted that there were gaps and that he'd bring it up to Nader. »
Representatives are starting to have fairly clear ideas on how to proceed.
« What we need to do is Create a post asking people what are the main points », says @kerstineymers, « then ask people to vote. Create the ranking, summarise the areas, take action (working groups, hackathons led by community leaders) and share with the core team. »
On the other hand, one of the difficulties they encounter is to involve a significant number of members of the community in debates and votes so that the process becomes more and more democratic.
« We have a 100+ members in the Discord group, » says Randhir. « It’s not enough to represent the community. »
« We are currently discussing the modalities of an election process that motivates more people to participate. This is all going to take time. We’re just getting started. »
We asked what it would take to make their mission more effective.
« It will help if the Core Team engages with us sooner rather than later », replied Randhir.
Lord Nader vs DesoVoices
Will Nader be interested? Eventually. But for the moment, his priority is clearly with the developers and not the mere members.
When Nader says that « the platform will be built collaboratively », he means collaboration with the developers. His vision, he has repeatedly asserted, is « social apps developed by thousands of independent entrepreneurs all over the world working together rather than by centrally-planned companies with layers of bureaucracy and middle management. »
Lord Nader is the Master and Commanbder of the @DesoWarriors
When there are thousands of nodes offering a wide range of feeds specializing in all kinds of topics - politics, sports, culture, the arts, alternative living, and all kinds of other niches that are not necessarily politically correct, then the network will truly be decentralized. This does not mean that the management of the network or of the nodes will necessarily be democratic. It means that the developers will have full control to surface whatever content they want, and that the members will be able to choose the apps according to the feeds that speak to them. This is not currently the case since the two main nodes - Bitclout and DiamondApp - offer almost identical feeds and features.
« And that's what the Octane Fund is going to help achieve », says Nader.
Of course, he is aware that the interaction with the community is an important point and that so far the core team has not really done it. « We’ve been doing a very weak job of this, » says Nader. « We have extremely active Discords and a highly-engaged community, and yet we don't have anyone from the team with deep experience on how to manage it. Our hope is that we can hire someone very talented to fill this role full-time. »
Nader will keep the community informed by publishing reports on the State of Decentralize Social.
Often accused of lack of transparency in the management of the platform, Nader published a post on October 21 where he said:
« What if we could have complete transparency on how social media companies make decisions. We could solve problems collaboratively.
That’s why I’m proud to announce State of Decentralized Social DeSo’s First Status Report. "
A promise of complete transparency? We'll see...
MISTER DESO DISCOVERS DECENTRALIZATION
This episode of the aventures of Mister Deso is available in NFT on @MrDeso.
TO BE CONTINUED IN THE NEXT ISSUE
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