@nas thanks for the application and outlining some of the general ideas on the stack you all are planning to use.
Thoughts specific to the grant’s current form
Support
- This ties in really nicely with onboarding to web3 (and hopefully) Radicle as well
- Any such communal learning platform lends itself to creating opportunity for people to grow their skill sets and the social aspect is an added bonus in that it ties people together around common goals…nothing makes a product stickier than some social interaction
I’m totally in support of this grant.
Concerns
Stackoverflow already exists and is used by millions of people (source). So the most basic features around asking / answering questions is a largely solved problem. And due to network effects, it will be hard to convince people to move to DevNod just for those basic features. Stackoverflow is so valuable specifically because there are so many people already on it.
Stackoverflow is the place to get ask/answer questions.
So you’ll need a sort of “trojan horse” to convince people to come over to DevNode.
I think the most important thing here will be coming up with features that are web3 native and provide value that is specifically useful for decentralized workflows. I really like that there’s already a milestone with tasks to help DAO’s organize their work. I imagine these features will be some of the most important. So I imagine focusing a lot of effort there will be key.
I’d also recommend to continue to do research into web2 tools like Stackoverflow and finding other areas where they fall short for decentralized workflows (remote work, DAOs, etc.). This may be a fruitful exercise for any follow-up grants.
Longer Term Thoughts
Badging
We have this grant from OtterSpace for badging.
I imagine user profile pages for Radicle that help label profiles as being certain types of contributors. I wonder if an integration with DevNode + Otterspace might also make sense in the more distant future.
As an example, below is my StackOverflow profile that shows my “badges” (see red square).
And I wonder how badges could be universally displayed across different protocols/networks, analogous to the way you have achievements for PlayStation or X-Box games online. Adds a nice bit of gamification to the whole thing.