You don’t notice all this complaining is that we need to attract crypto-native while simultaneously complaining that everyone “crypto-native” came, took the free $, then ran away? Yet another shitstirring debate a la the weave. How’s that working for Farcaster with mass adoption? It’s not. No one outside our world has ever come close to hearing about FC. How’s it working with Elon’s 4chan? It’s not. Normal people are running away in droves. Does anyone wish to ever step out of this bubble and understand the demographic of the twitter user or average human? Are you capable of going there? You want to throw everything in that ring here only appealing to:

60% male
40% 25-34yo
75% unfavorable opinion 18-34yo
decrease in teen use since 2014-15
only 23% of American adults
25% of US saying they’re done with it

Of course you do - the more bros the better. The more that align with a “talk over women” policy the better. The more in agreement that “you should listen to me while I hide my identity” the better “but trust me I’m an expert I swear.” The more “Andrew Tate actually makes good points” the better. The more “I’m right you’re wrong and here’s why” the better. The more that believe in a Peter Thiel / handmaids tale future the better.

Why is there so much whining about what ISN’T being built here? Nobody is forcing you to keep using it. I’m baffled by the vocalized lack of appreciation lately as everyone juices each other up while the @orb team is dedicating their everything to building better social media and losing sleep creating an extremely high quality product. There was never a plan for a @lens app, why bring that up now? What is really expected? What is this, Handouts-R-Us? Why aren’t you in Zuck’s replies daily? Meta has been talking about whatever the “Fediverse” is for over a year now and I see ZERO companies building on their latest scheme, nor receiving funding for such, or what Bluesky is built on - singular app on “decentralized protocol,” or what Farcaster is built on, same deal - only apps to cross-post and being beholden to Warpcast. Go get in Dan’s replies, he loves the bros who are into a tech-fascist future. You’re all literally writing ON ORB. You’re choosing to use it over others and be here.

As an artist who has released plenty of work through now multiple updates to the protocol, even leaving some inaccessible, shit happens. What can I do? Is a collector pissed their $1 collect is toast? DM me, we can figure it out. Is the “NFT space” any better? Not one bit. Worse. No one is selling any work unless you are the chosen ones, most platforms closed the door to creators thinking that’s the business model that will profit, and the head of SuperRare is out here promoting a memecoin trying to convince everyone that xcopy is god instead of promoting their artists’ work that also strangely makes them money, weird. It is an entirely discouraging situation that’s been ongoing for three years now and I see zero hope for a future of digital art on-chain except for within these apps the way that has been formed right here in your hand. Apologies that I create visual imagery some might enjoy and people wanted to collect it for certain prices, not. I’m a 15+ year career creative who built from nothing, please keep downplaying who I am and what I do and where I’ve been and who I know. You literally DO NOT know me and are not my friend in any way shape or form. It will make it ever more exciting for you to see what continues to come down the pipeline. I am fueled by hate, every one of your attempts to take me down, and watching the privileged get all opportunities around. That is what apps like this are freeing me from. Someone like me, like us, now has the freedom to create, be seen, and have my work collected even if there’s never a 100k $BONSAI sale again, and not be bothered every day whilst doing so. Freedom = having a block button.

That being said, while a positive for releasing collectible work, the future of social media isn’t for me, a near 40 year old. It is likely not for you. It’s to get the youth. It’s to get people who want real time news. It’s to get lovers of creativity/content seeing what they enjoy without their data being harvested to turn them into the aforementioned demographic that doesn’t know up from down but is convinced they are Confucius-level thinkers. It’s certainly not to attract middle-aged conspiracy theorists that want to downplay fact and science because they saw enough of it on the internet somewhere after being red-pilled so it must be true if existing in multiple places bro and therefore must troll you to infinity if you don’t believe it because duh free speech and damned be censorship and I can’t believe someone would think otherwise how dare you I’m not going to leave you alone about it now for days on end because I’m free to do so. Imagine this behavior in person at a social function if you didn’t leave certain women alone (or men), will not back down, and continue to require having the last word but only in agreement or their forfeit. It would not end well. The sympathizing and acceptance for this is questionable with management, but it’s okay because once this app and others are built the right way, the way they’re already in motion to be built to attract the right people amongst / from the masses then these sentiments will be merely a drop in the bucket and those who truly don’t contribute to anything in any way creatively or constructively will be right back where they started - being left behind.

To close, I see some clearly taking up a problem with what I’ve done lately to combat this and care to criticize without naming me. Feel free to @ me in any allegations, or say it direct for all to see, I welcome it. Just as I’ve done where I have a problem with certain people and what they are doing not only to me but to others in this community that is currently akin to a small room where everyone knows exactly what’s going on and who is saying what. Bet there are plenty of receipts, though. If I’m bombarded in what feels like constant coordinated efforts between three particular individuals who have a surrounding team of apologists then I state what I need. I’m looking out for the people I care about while no one up top has bothered to because they don’t want to drive a couple basement dweller incel types away, aka this desired crypto-native user base and kowtowing, desperate artists attached because dollars, while plenty of great humans have already walked away from Lens/web3 because these types are too loud, proud, and obnoxious to deal with on the regular. But you keep doing you. The real ones, especially the women, have finally had enough of this garbage and are paving their own path in so many ways because no one else was willing to do it for them, they’re doing it their way, they’re disregarding your constant opining, and they’re going to succeed.

The great thing about @lens is that anyone can be anything here and if you have something to offer for people to look at or read or hear and enjoy then there may be a direct correlation with success.

Many of us believed in it for over 2 years, dedicated a lot of time, and nothing was gift wrapped / fed on a silver spoon like the early Instagram days were for some. It wasn’t an exercise of figuring out how to dominate an algorithm or adjust what we do just to please a certain crowd - there was just a vibe, an excitement, a willingness to help each other via support and shares because we all found ourselves here for similar reasons. Now, we’re here on the verge of potential mass adoption, the mobile apps are pleasing to the eye, and features are being introduced almost daily to what I think is an extremely diverse community of individuals who have shown a desire to care for and look out for each other.

As an artist today I’ve always wanted the NFT thing to work out in a big way. I mean, it has for select individuals but only marginally for the rest. I still believe there’s a place for digital collectibles, but attracting normal humans to the platform is the priority if any of this is to continue its existence so it’s hard to care in that regard, or pay attention to dev language even I don’t understand or things that only please a fraction of a fraction of the future user base. Digital art marketplaces are as gatekept as ever and fairly useless to the average person who sees promise in decentralized social. All tools are at your disposal from day one here - not just some for you and others for them.

As we watch Farcaster go farther into the realm of crypto and away from connecting with regular John and Jane Doe I’m excited for @orb, @phaver, @buttrfly, @hey to focus on every day consumers while we still also have creator-forward applications like @mysticgarden, @ornaart, @yup_io, and implementations in all of the above that allows us to put our work in the hands of fans. It’s never too late to share your gift and have it be seen across the the protocol if you work hard and be nice to people.