Hey Carbonians!
As promised, we’re updating you on the changes to the rewards system as well as some other developments.
As you know, we paused the points for “app usage” last week due to the manipulation and exploiting of the rewards system by some users, creating an unfair environment for genuine users. We’ve been working on better solutions for a while, and we’d like to introduce the new system now, with the intention of it being effective from June 16th onwards (the next rewards period).
Carbon Content Creators
Our solution is to approach it from an angle of positivity, and select users to receive a special badge which will allow them to earn points for their content. Rather than policing or correcting users constantly for illegitimately gaining points, we’ll require users to prove they are genuine and creating good, original content. This means there will be less users battling for position in the leaderboard, but all of those users have produced content that deserves to be rewarded. The end result, we believe, will be higher quality content from most users as they initially need to earn the badge.
How difficult will it be to earn the badge? Not terribly difficult. You really just need to show some history of creating original content, with some amount of thought and effort. Users who have been suspended for various terms of use violations will have a difficult time being approved as a content creator. Pasting in random images as posts with no context will not be considered “good content”, nor will posting things into the wrong groups, spamming, broken links, missing images etc. We don’t judge your content on the subject matter or your opinion, this is about quality and effort. Try to provide some value to the other users.
If a user receives the badge, they will earn points for upvotes, votes on their polls and upvotes on their comments. We can easily remove the badge should they receive it and then abuse their status or break our terms of use.
Please don’t ask us for the badge. We are always scanning the content and posts from all users and we will award the badge at our discretion. Don’t forget, this is up to you. Produce good posts consistently and we will notice. We’ll be adding the badge to new users constantly.
This is not a “freedom of speech” issue. All users can still create posts, this new system is only designed to reward the best content creators in terms of quality and effort. Your posts will not be censored or limited simply because you don’t have the content creator badge.
There will however be a special section allowing users to view only posts from approved content creators, if they wish. We will continue to allow users to choose their own experience with filters and settings, and this is no different.
We believe this new system will work well to establish Carbon as a high quality platform worth spending time in. Previously this has not been the case, we are the first to admit the poor quality posts and “posts for no reason other than for something to upvote” were becoming a problem.
Roadmap Update
We haven’t had a relevant roadmap published for a while now (despite constant updates and development). We understand it would be helpful for you to know what’s coming.
Next 1–2 weeks
Carbon update featuring the Portfolio and some other nice improvements.
Next 2–3 weeks
Carbon Messenger! Including private encrypted DMs and group chats with up to 25 users. An article specifically about the messenger will come later as it is a MAJOR new feature (particularly considering the encryption methods, it’s quite simply far more secure than other widely used encrypted messaging apps).
Carbon Content Creator badges and new points system, as mentioned above, should be live from June 16th. We’ve also made some changes to the points themselves, but no change to the ratios, we’ve just multiplied all points by 20 to give bigger rounder numbers. For example 2 points per upvote instead of 0.1 points. 1 point per poll vote instead of 0.05. 20 points per 1000 CRBN instead of 1 point.
Next 3–4 Weeks (possibly sooner)
Carbon Live: Our new activity feed section including updates on people you’re following and their activity, plus a brand new way to create quick, short text posts (similar to Tweets) within this section. Quick thoughts, with other users able to react and comment. This is an alternative to a full post and caters to those who just have something to say, but it’s not quite suited to a full post. We believe this will be quite a popular section and help Carbon to feel more alive.
Faves: The new feature we previously mentioned, allowing users to list all their favourite things 1 through 20 and save to their profile for others to view. There will also be a global top 20 in all categories so you can see what’s trending. It’s designed for fun and to help others to get to know you, and for discovery of new things.
Marketing! Once we have the messenger, portfolio and Content Creator system in place and tested for a while, we will be comfortable to begin marketing to attract users and influencers. Up until now, we haven’t had a platform that is attractive enough for users to discover and choose to stay. We’ve made massive improvements and the next few updates will take Carbon to the next level. There will simply be more to do, and better quality content. Our marketing will be aimed at gaining users. As with all marketing, there are no guarantees of impact, but we will do our best.
MetaMask vs Email
If you are struggling with the MetaMask method of login, or using MetaMask app on mobile, you could consider creating a new account with the email signup method so that you can use Carbon on all browsers. Now would be the time as the points for app usage have been suspended until the end of the rewards period. You would lose any badges you have earned, and your username would be unavailable, but the choice is yours. It would be better to switch to email now than later on, it’s still early days. MetaMask login is designed for maximum security, it will never be as “easy” to use as the email method.
Referral System
We’re working on it. :) The goal is to encourage genuine users to join and eliminate the reward for inviting alt accounts or bots. We have a good solution and it should be coming soon.
App Usage Update
Since suspended the points for content, you may have noticed a drop off in the quantity of posts per day. This isn’t a bad thing, as the better quality posts have continued to come. We’ve only had a slight dip in daily active users as the multiple accounts and rewards system riggers have largely given up, which is great news. We’re happy with the genuine user retention and confident that striving for the content creator badge will create some new interest and increased efforts by most users. We’ve only done some basic marketing so far, as the platform hasn’t been ready for mass marketing, so we aren’t concerned at all with the amount of users right now. Things will heat up soon.
General Update
We’re working hard on Carbon, non stop. It’s not easy, particularly during difficult crypto market conditions. We work long hours and have regular meetings about our future. Everything’s going fine here, and if we seem quiet, it’s because we’re busy building. We appreciate your patience and look forward to rewarding you all.
Thanks everyone!
Carbon Team
crbn.social
