proofofbrain.io brings to light the potential need for ‘classification curators’

thinking out loud

Just thinking out loud here, so please consider this a discussion-starter rather than any sort of solid theorizing on my part.

I had a brief discord dialogue last night / this morning with @proofofbrainio wherein we briefly discussed the appearance of ‘spam’ on proofofbrain.io.

wanted or unwanted?

Reflecting upon that conversation led me to the following observations:

• What some folks consider ‘spam’ or ‘unwanted’ others will consider ‘wanted’. This is the essence of ‘art’ and also, to some extent, underpins the concept of ‘community’ (we form social bonds with people who share our values, tastes, preferences, etc.).
• This means the concept of an ‘upvote’ is really only relevant within the context of ‘people who enjoy and like the things I enjoy and like’. Personal tastes in music is an obvious example, but the affinity basis of upvoting undoubtedly holds across a very broad spectrum, whether stylistic, philosophical, political, etc.

your stuff is crap, but my crap is stuff

What if we created a new (supplemental) rewards protocol that encouraged human curators to expend a portion of their brainpower solving what I call the “George Carlin dilemma.” I am referring to a classic comedy sketch by George Carlin wherein he reiterates in various ways the notion that “Your stuff is crap, but my crap is stuff.”

What if we segmented the curation-rewards pool into two parts:

• Affinity curation
• Classification curation

Under this system, a portion of the curation rewards would continue just as they currently are, but a separate portion of the rewards would go to those who do a good job of classifying each post. Classifying posts would be a useful and helpful activity that will ultimately make the user experience better for everyone.

organic formation and expansion of affinity groups

Another benefit would be that the ‘classification curators’ will help new users organically find or even create their own ‘affinity groups’. For example, a random new user comes to Hive and begins publishing posts. The ‘classification curators’ independently, yet collectively, recognize that those posts are highly relevant to the Liberty & Freedom community, thus alerting the moderators for Liberty & Freedom to reach out to that new Hive user and invite him/her to subscribe to and post to Liberty & Freedom.

Or, such classification efforts might lead to the creation of new communities or tribes to fill a niche that doesn’t currently exist.

feedback and dialogue requested

I sense that I am just scratching the surface here. I have other thoughts and may do a follow-up post later. In the meantime, feel free to reply and comment.

Or, if this discussion spurs you to create a follow-on post, please do so and reference it via a reply here.

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