TNS Creators Cohort 3
1729 Writers is now TNS Creators. Here’s what’s coming to our latest Cohort
Just as TNS Creators is beginning its third cohort (C3), the server is stirring with the next evolution of The Network State. There’s fresh energy from around the globe in Reception and leadership is rolling out new changes. Perfect timing.
I see all of us writers as students of the the Network State and writing both helps us build understanding while adding perennial value. As we grapple with topics we find interesting or challenging, writing is how we’ll come to our own conclusions and help others do the same. It is also how we bring attention to the concepts in the Network State while applying it to our specific contexts, making it feel applicable to our communities.
This essay is in the tradition of essays written at the beginning of Cohorts 1 and 2 where we provide some details on new components we’ve added. We always want to facilitate an experience where community members can experiment with new tools, build new skills, and keep building great community.
Cohort 2 recap
In Cohort 2 we wrote ~50 pieces on subjects like AI, token design, optimalism, Bitcoin vs Ethereum and Network Unions.
Thanks to the technical help of Neodaoist and Pete and the coordination of Simone we produced custom ERC-20 tokens which allowed for token-gated voting on Snapshot for essay of the week. We learned a lot and over 20 members participated, so we will continue the practice in C3.
That same team also produced soulbound Proof of Contribution (PoC) tokens as rewards for participation and support. In the end, we distributed 45 PoCs for participation, 11 for Full Completion, 30 for reading and voting, 20 for bidding at auction, and 10 for winning Essay of the Week.
The team also created and auctioned off 10 custom NFTs for winning essays. The NFTs had thorough metadata, custom visual art and the full essay text backed up on IPFS. This was a great learning experience and a ton of fun. Yours truly walked away with four of them. We will continue this practice in C3, and will move the auction to Opensea.
We raised a treasury of over 1ETH to distribute to Full Contributors, Auction Winners, and the dev team. While this was a complete success, we’ll be pausing it temporarily for C3 (more below).
What’s new in Cohort 3
With all that preamble out of the way, let’s get into the unique features of Cohort 3!
AI Visual Art
Since one of the goals of 1729 Writers is to help people build skills by using new tools, @Nicholas Patcek (aka Cuddly Salmon) has designed a curriculum that will help Creators produce AI generated art, should they want to.
We will run a weekly AI visual art competition alongside the writing program. Themes will be crowdsourced, and winning images will go to an NFT auction just like the winning essays. All TNS members, including non-writers, are invited to participate in the visual art competition and as always, all members of TNS are eligible to vote.
Writers interested in AI art who don’t want to enter the weekly competitions are still encouraged to use the curriculum to create graphic compliments to their work.
*Members who want to contribute visual art and not use AI are welcome and encouraged to do so. We love all art.
AI Writing assistance
We will also be providing support and encouragement for use of AI writing tools. Let’s learn together how these tools increase productivity and how best to use them.
Proof of alignment for onboarding
For the first time, we’re taking applications from outside the server. It’s an experiment in whether completing the cohort sorts for productive and aligned individuals. It is also our hope that it’s a good onboarding experience since new members will form relationships with each other as they enter the community.
The first group will be small (~8) and come from community recommendations. Should this method prove effective, we could potentially make it a broader onboarding tool for the server.
Writing focused on TNS
Our existing 120 pieces have covered a range of topics, all of them generally applying to the future and technology with many touching on the Network State. This cohort we’re asking writers to focus specifically on Network State content. People can still explore crypto, or transhumanism, or AI, but our request is that all pieces contain a clear Network State angle.
PoC program:
Proofs of Contribution will be awarded to participants just like C2 with the addition of a visual art award. Here’s a brief description of each one:
- Participation — Sign up and produce at least one piece of work. This goes for writing and visual art
- Full Writer — Writer completes all four essays on time
- Voting / Reading — For those who have requested and received a custom ERC-20 voting token and used it to vote in one of our competitions on Snapshot — or — they have left a detailed piece of feedback on an essay in the #Writers channel
- AI Art Winner (new) — For winning best piece of visual art at least one time in the cohort
- Essay Winner — For winning best essay at least once in the cohort
NFT Auction
At the conclusion of the cohort we will put on another NFT auction where we make collectible NFTs for winners of the essay and visual art competitions. Last cohort all of the proceeds went back to the author. This cycle, since we aren’t raising a treasury (more below), we may request a small percentage to cover costs of minting / transferring, etc. This will only be done by consent.
Collective Action
Writers tend to be so busy creating excellent work we struggle to engage in collective action like liking / retweeting / commenting on each other’s work. While the value of the cohort remains strong despite this, it’s still low hanging fruit as a way to further the cause and give each other a boost.
We will attempt to make it a little easier for this cohort by creating a twitter list of all current writers so it’s a little easier to like and support each other’s stuff. If anyone wants to help with this initiative please reach out!
Hitting pause on the treasury
The current plan is to temporarily pause the treasury. As mentioned above, last cycle we raised >1ETH and distributed it to Essay Winners, Cohort Completers, Developers, and fees. Although it was a successful experiment and incentive, we don’t have the administrative energy to deal with money, dispensation etc. In the future we will find a treasurer and bring this feature back. It is a core value to create economic incentives for writing (even if it’s more about fun than cheddar).
Couple Moonshots
As they say, shoot for the moon and you’ll be among the stars. So what would be a couple super bullish outcomes for this cohort?
Two come easily to mind. (1) Get RTed by Balaji, or (2) have an article go viral, defined (loosely) as >500 likes or >50 shares. These moonshots are not vanity metrics, but rather acknowledging that getting the word out adds value to TNS at this stage, and creating a message that is seen either by the founder or a bunch of netizens as worthy of sharing is a home run.
In closing
It’s an honor to write with you all, and bring TNS into being together. Take this opportunity to keep exploring your favorite ideas around the Network State, try to make them relatable, and (please!) like and retweet each other’s work :)
Special thanks to @grant_nissly for providing the bulk of the cohort design based on Taptive (you should hire him!), @camelliayang for helping with distro, video and interviews, @nptacek for providing AI art guidance, @neodaoist and @petratekt for very heavy lifting around producing the PoCs and NFTs, and @_simone_l_ for guidance and inspiration throughout process
Matt Harder runs the public engagement firm Civic Trust, where he helps cities strengthen their civic environment by helping residents, civic organizations, and local government work together to create public projects. Follow him on Twitter.
