[DAO:590e5dd] Would you join an Unofficial DAO Discord server?

by 0xd5e9ef1cedad0d135d543d286a2c190b16cbb89e (DougNFTWorld)

For the purpose of this poll, we are comparing:

Existing Official DAO discord: https://discord.com/channels/894658869391933540

New Unofficial DAO discord: https://discord.gg/mMkUGZ5V8s

Problem:

The Official Decentraland DAO discord runs great events but the channel chats are consumed with toxicity. We see the same content from the same individuals continuously. The system isn’t working. The mod in there (kanwulf) has strong prior experience in moderation but has limited authority from DCL management team. Also, there are many problems with the tool being used to facilitate mutes:

  • 7 day mutes can be converted to 24 hour mutes by the muted individual
  • Alt accounts can be used to submit votes
  • The vote counts are inconsistent between users, and even between page reloads for myself personally
  • There is no transparency in the data (we are told there are x votes of each choice as of a specific time and date but no backend data to support it)
  • Muted individuals go right back to their previous behavior once the mute is lifted, leading to an endless cycle of personal attacks, name calling, and harassment by the same individuals continuously

As a result, the content of the server is not as productive as it could be if it were moderated more strictly similar to most other discord servers. Valuable community members withhold their participation in the discussions either out of disinterest in the immature and unproductive content, or for fear of becoming a target themselves.

At the root of the problem is a system that is broken which has been chosen by a select few individuals behind the scenes with very little transparency. Key community members have all but begged for bigger changes to be made for enforcing the rules of the server but the behind-the-scenes decision makers continue to govern the server with policies that favor the toxic individuals.

Solution:

I would like to gauge interest from the community in creation of an Unofficial DCL DAO discord that would be enforced more strictly. The same rules apply, but with less tolerance, especially from repeat offenders.

Key differences in this server include:

  • Stricter enforcement of the rules by mods with complete authority - not community votes through a clunky tool (such as that which the official server uses)
  • Consequences shall be applied to toxic individuals directly, rather than being shared by the community. For example, Slowmode will not be used. The voice of the community at large shall not be limited due to toxic behavior from a few individuals
  • Alt accounts will be limited. To enforce this, users who join the server with accounts created less than 2 weeks prior will be autobanned. Valid brand new users may rejoin after the 2 week period. Inactive users will be purged (criteria for this may change periodically to limit abuse by bad actors). Of course, even with all this and other measures, there is no sure way to prevent determined users from using alt accounts on Discord, so alt accounts shall not be banned outright. As long as the content posted from any account adheres to the rules and meets a standard of productivity, it doesn’t matter which account its posted from anyway as long as the user has good intentions. If someone has a valid personal reason and is willing to expend the extra effort to switch between accounts to post valuable content with good intentions, then so be it. However, abuse will not be tolerated (such as using alt accounts to agree with themselves, or push their own agenda).
  • Feedback from the community will be incorporated in a more transparent manner

In addition to offering a safer and more productive environment to facilitate DAO discussion, the Unofficial DCL DAO discord may also offer additional in-world meetup events, community exposure opportunities, and other utility outside of what is currently provided in the Official Decentraland DAO discord.

If you would like to see the server in action before casting your vote, please feel free to pop in and see if this is something you can get behind:
https://discord.gg/mMkUGZ5V8s

Additional thoughts and ideas are welcome below!

  • Yes
  • No
  • Invalid question/options

Vote on this proposal on the Decentraland DAO

View this proposal on Snapshot

This seems more like an attempt to advertise the Discord you already made then a genuine attempt to get a sense of what the community would like.

Please provide evidence

Please provide evidence.

This is a lovely advertisement, but it would seem that given you are currently accusing 25-30 of the most active and well-known, and respected, members of the DCL community as “alt accounts” I don’t think you are the person for this job.

Hey @jar0d! May I say that it is not surprising to see your objection here since you are the source of much of the toxicity in the community that this poll intends to help remedy.

At any rate, thanks for adding your thoughts. And please note that for the same reasons as I have blocked you on Discord, and that you are the most often muted individual in the Official DCL DAO discord, and currently muted in the DCL Foundation discord, I wont be engaging with you further here.

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So… no evidence?
evidence

Even right now this second there’s beef in the DAO discord, it’s disappointing.

But why wouldn’t you just use one of the dozen community discords or, call me crazy, the Foundation Discord that Doug is already a moderator of?

This is for the DAO.

Is this a joke? Silencing, banning and trying to manipulate users is so web2. Ofc, NO :smiley:

Doug failed bad with his website: daily unique users: ~25
Also failed as moderator, he just made so many enemies.

Is this discord server a panic marketing trick?

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RobL of District X should spend more time making good on his promises to his contributors and less time in the forums being petty.

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Some of us (not a new user) prefer to hide our identity hence why we enjoy web3. I’ve been running around DCL for a bit now but had never participated in any conversation regarding DAO or any discord server for that matter. I was banned/kicked from server with no warning or reason after some of my comments on a grant bothered some people I guess. This should not be the way a person is received to the DAO server new or not, where the main intention should be to discuss grants and proposals. Can only a selected few discuss, critique or disagree with a grant? Can only some people act the way they act without repercussions?

What would determine a user to be valid? How would they know to join the server 2 weeks after if they are auto-banned/kicked?
Why would anyone want to continue participating or even join a space where they got kicked from just because their account is new or their content perceived as malicious or unproductive?

Another Discord he can be a moderator of and kick out people he doesn’t like? Why doesnt he just invite the people he wants to hear from in his own server or group chat?

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Very good questions. I’ll do my best to answer!

If you look at the discussion here, its very similar to the Official DCL DAO with the same toxic individuals resorting to the same behavior. So you’re not missing much. The Unofficial DCL DAO discord presents you with a new opportunity to engage in productive discussions. Feel free to pop in and say hello :slight_smile:

“Valid” meaning a real unique person such as a friend that you invite in who just created their account. The intent here is to prevent people from using alt/duplicate accounts to control the narrative in their favor. Unfortunately there is no automated way to distinguish between valid and invalid new accounts so the 2 week restriction must be applied to all new accounts.

The server bot that handles this feature will send a DM to that account, notifying them of such.

Remember, the goal of the server is to facilitate productive conversations in a safe environment - not to try to gain as many members as possible. If a new user decides not to come back after the 2 week period, then either the server isnt productive enough for them or they werent that interested in it to begin with which are two very different problems. If their content is perceived as malicious and unproductive, then they are misaligned with the goal of the server and always have the choice of using the Official DCL DAO instead where they will be in better company.

I hope I got them all but let me know if I missed anything, or if you have any others!

Thank you for your responses all very reasonable.

Although I can’t agree 100% with…

unfortunately, we cannot control how someone perceives one’s intentions. I do agree we must remain as respectful as possible when seeking productivity.

I would not join, but I can understand why there is a desire for this.

I speak for myself when I say this.

I’ve joined for the past 2 days and all I can say is that it is definitely a more mature crowd with less bickering. In the same time that I’ve been in there, the main DAO general chat has gotten into yet another disruptive argument about U.S politics/racism?

I am really encouraged with the turnout and participation so far. I wouldnt say its a more mature crowd, since the same folks are also in the Official DAO discord. But its a more mature and productive conversation.

@Canessa I understand that the Unofficial DAO discord will never be a replacement for the Official one, and its not meant to be. Other than that, is there anything else specifically about this concept that you disagree with, or that I can clarify that would help you reconsider your strong stance against it? Asking moreso out of curiosity than persuasion :slight_smile:

I don’t think there is anything wrong with groups setting up their own discords for like-minded conversation - however I do take issue with it being a competing discord intended to move DAO conversations elsewhere - this can be considered a vampire attack, and if this unofficial discord got more popular than the current one, it would likely result in a centralized force directing discussions away from any dissention.

I would not join, as I believe the DCLDAO should always be the focus for DCL DAO related discussion, and do not see how we could avoid the toxicity without direct centralized entities making decisions on behalf of the community - which goes against the ethos of a DAO.

The DCLDAO having it’s problems is a feature, not a bug, it is part of the growing pains of trying to build a decentralized governance platform full of anonymous users - look at how messy the IRL governments are, and they aren’t even anonymous!

The truth is, the only way to end toxicity is to A.) Remove all self-interested folk, and B.) have a centralized authority that decides exactly what is right/wrong.

While this would be incredibly easy to do in a secondary discord, it ignores the purpose of decentralization - perhaps setting up a guild (similar to last slice) that you can have a more organized structure around would be more appropriate, as opposed to setting up an alternate DCLDAO.

I will be very clear in stating that the Unofficial DCL DAO discord is not meant to compete with the Official one, nor is it meant to move conversations. The intent is to improve productivity by enforcing the rules to prevent toxicity. Which leads to more and different conversations, not moving existing ones. If the Unofficial discord ended up having the same conversations, it would not lead to any increase in productivity, I would consider it a failure.

Problems can be resolved. Creating an Unofficial discord is only a stop-gap measure until the problems are resolved in the Official one. Its a proof of concept of how much more productive conversations can be when the rules are enforced to prevent toxicity. It is my hope that the Unofficial DCL DAO discord becomes irrelevant at some point since this would mean the Official discord will have made the necessary changes to preventing toxicity in order for it to become more productive.

Yes, enforcement of rules requires a central authority. These are what we call moderators. Even the Official DCL DAO discord has them. No one ever said decentralization cant exist in a safe and respectful environment.

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With this poll closing, I encourage anyone who wishes to see this proof of concept in action to join the Unofficial DCL DAO discord for themselves (using the invite from the poll above). Thank you!

Would you join an Unofficial DAO Discord server?

This proposal is now in status: FINISHED.

Voting Results:

  • Yes 73% 5,113,959 VP (77 votes)
  • No 17% 1,215,098 VP (23 votes)
  • Invalid question/options 10% 733,369 VP (13 votes)