093. The jury’s split on Diamondapp💎
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Ello mates,
It’s 2am in the Netherlands. @nvo here live to regale you with the latest from DeSo, bitclout.com, and the newest beauty on the scene, diamondapp.com 💎💁. I’ve got a double espresso queued up after a night out on the town with @Cryptographr, @MGC, and @dripcult. ☕🍻 Let’s see what I can do.
Normally I wouldn’t work for 4 hours after 4 drinks (this article made possible by jenever), but you can thank my dedication to my craft for that 🥂. With that, we bring you another edition of @BitsTODAY. Proceed 👇👇👇.
Bits on the menu tonight:
Ubiquitous UX drops: new front end + referrals = high octane ⛽?
General absurdity: ‘around the horn’ (of cape ‘clout) 🏴☠️🚢
Diamondhands’ drops 💎
#1 BuzzClout️: Today’s numbers from @designal and @bithunt ⚡️
Before we get any deeper, @designal, how about you share the latest from the creator coin front with us? Looks like some of ya’ll have been making big moves, eh? 👀📈
One more thing before we get to the big news. @bithunt, who is making waves on the community project side of things? 🌊 We’re all ears 👂
#2 Ubiquitous UX drops: new front end + referrals = high octane ⛽
In our edition on Monday we alluded to how @nader has been teasing another *big* announcement this week. Well, turns out we got a few different releases today that we’ve been expecting for some time… all at once 💥. Not only did a new and improved app built on the DeSo blockchain roll out, but it comes complete with referral functionality that allows OGs like us to earn cold-hard $DESO for inviting our friends to the platform. 💸
Let’s start with the new app. Now live on diamondapp.com is a sleeker version of bitclout.com. While the landing page leaves something to be desired (so said our expert panel of designers at dinner), the app itself is certainly a massive improvement on bitclout.com, which looked like Twitter from a decade ago with some casino elements rolled in 🎰. diamondapp.com meanwhile feels like a website that’s been brought into the 21st century:
Here’s how @nader welcomed in the new redesign, as well as a few other release notes that are part and parcel with the app:
What are some of the changes that we took note of immediately on the new app? If you’re an existing user, after logging in with BitClout identity, you’ll immediately note some key changes across the board, e.g. that only active creators are featured on the right pane under “Top Creators all Time” 👏. Shoutout @CreatorFundIncubator, you’re officially whale #1! 🐋. You can toggle this on and off to show reserved profiles still too, but we’ll probably leave them off for the most part personally ;)
More importantly (and in addition to the sleek UI across the board), there are brand spanking new features like a “hot feed” that @nader described in his post. Lucky for us, @tijn has already done some digging on how this feed works — in short, it champions content that is quickly rising the ranks of DeSo in terms of recent engagement, also weighted by the coin price of the folks that are engaging with the post 🔥🥵:
Of course, there is also already some good clout controversy and community criticism of the hot feed. The way the algo is set up, it’s easy for folks with high coin prices to gamify and dominate the hot feed (e.g. by interacting with their own posts with likes, comments, etc.). Future nodes will be able to customize this to their liking — hopefully some folks take the reigns & make it better 🤔:
For good measure, here’s a full list of technical feedback from @tijn, too 🔨.
In addition to the hot feed, there’s also a “New” feed … which tbh it really just looks like the global feed? Hmmm not sure what the deal is with that. Why not call it global? or better yet why not add a “new” feed of recent posts?
Beyond the UI and the new feeds, incentives to engage and invite folks to join DeSo have now been rolled out front and center above the feeds. While the incentive to go through the KYC process has been bumped down to $5 worth of $DESO for people who are already signed up (we think?), the incentive to refer folks to diamondapp.com is a whopping $100 for each of the first three people you invite 💰. That’s a nice reward for the OG’s around here 🤙 Oh what’s that? You don't have an account? Why yes we do have a referral link for you. Sign up here and get $100 free!
There’s multiple links all over the UI (both on bitclout.com and diamondapp.com incidentally) that allow you to explore your referral links:
Careful out there tho folks… we may have already overloaded the servers with referral attempts… lol:
In all seriousness though, there do appear to be plenty of issues with the referral program at this stage. Lots of people have reported unsuccessful experiences trying to onboard new users. For one, the criteria for what these new users need to do for both parties to get rewarded should be more clear. Secondly, what the incentive is for those who get referred is also unclear ❓
Hopefully, this stuff gets sorted out quickly. Indubitably there’ll also be tons more to explore here in the coming days. We look forward to all the Easter eggs folks find 🐰🥚. One easter egg many of us did notice already? The NFT feed on diamondapp.com links directly to @Polygram. Congrats for that tip o’ the cap, @jckly! Keep building dope shit 💪
While diamondapp.com is definitely a better app overall to invite our homies to, there’s still plenty of lingering questions. For one … why .com? That’s a total boomer web2 domain to go with when something using .io or simply “diamond.app” is right there for the taking 🙅. Another question that’s worth addressing? What is diamondapp.com really? A node? Something else entirely? The community has been having some solid discussions about this already. Here’s where the experts are landing so far 🕵️.
Here’s what we DO know from @nader… it’s that @Zordon is the man behind diamondapp.com, and presumably, the first person to get an investment from the $50M Octane Fund (to the tune of $1M, or 2% of the total fund). 🥳
#3 General absurdity: ‘around the horn’ (of cape ‘clout) 🏴☠️🚢
We know, we know. We’re outing ourselves as DeSo boomer by using ‘clout’ now that bitclout.com is an ancient relic of the past, soon to be replaced by a swarm of new DAUs on diamondapp.com (we hope at least) 🤞.
As long as we’re aging into irrelevance? Let’s take one last walk around bitclout.com to track down good ol’ fashioned general absurdity. Tharrr she blows, off the portside! 🐳
The first storm that’s been wreaking havoc on the otherwise calm (you know, only 3k DAUs and all 😉) seas of bitclout.com? It’s @PixelPirates. With their recent resurgence amidst the generative NFT revolution on DeSo, even the OG @diamondhands is back on his old handle to get in on the action.
Keep an eye on their whereabouts, you’ll definitely want to team up with a @PixelPirate if you get the chance! 🏴☠💀️
Elsewhere? Well, another OG captain and verifiable meme god, namely @Dharmesh, hasn’t forsaken bitclout.com yet either. In a recent presentation, @Dharmesh even donned the old BitClout logo in favor of the new-fangled DeSo one. That’s commitment to old-school ways right there 😎.
Last but not least? The homies were CRUSHING it with the memes surrounding the new diamond app release. Not that they ever took a day off tbh, they been seizing the memes of production even when $DESO cost $50.
In sum? You’re telling us we have to curate content from TWO main apps now? Woof. Well, we’ll do our best. C ya next time. Maybe 🤣.
@BitsTODAY