(I wouldve posted this in the github repo but it isnt public yet).
Monero needs an independently controlled forum. Reddit is basically dead, and beyond thay is controlled and full of people trying to cram their pet off topic issue into every crevice regardless whether it fits. The primary discussion forum for monero doesnt belong there, and honestly isnt really there anymore, leaving the community fragmented.
Some attempts have been made, all have failed for various reasons. This stands to possibly be the best attempt, largely due to the incentive structure. Time will tell, but i have good feelings about this site.
If it were to become a destination for XMR related discussions, it has one major stumbling block: noob/support questions/curiosity. Primarily, the need to create an account is a no go for 90% pf people. Second, needing xmr to post basically ensures the site will only host discussions by people already posessing xmr.
And, of course, is the problem of letting people post for free making the site wide open for spam and abuse.
Any forum that becomes the or a major xmr discussion forum absolutely needs the ability for noons and curious to ask questions of the community.
So i propose a way to post without an account with a PoW. This would enable noobs, strangers, curious people to post support questions, curiosity questions and the like, without requiring them to make an account, have xmr to spend.
It could be something as sime as just PoW to post, for which there are tons of pre built FOSS js libraries and modules available such as this one:
https://github.com/sebadob/spow
or it could be something more involved, such as a randomx webminer that contributes some hashes to p2pool on behalf of this site.
Some important thoughts if this were to be eventually implemented:
- PoW posts should be restricted to a specific subset of turfs,
- PoW comments should be restricted to PoW posts, possibly even using a cookie to ensure that the only PoW commenter allowed is the poster, to enable them to ask follow up questions in their thread,
- PoW requirement should be adjustable by the site administrator,
- no PoW account creation,
- no PoW posting by accounts,
- all payments to PoW posts go to platform rewards.
Maybe other important things to consider will come to mind for some of us here, but these seem especially important.
That's a really interesting idea but I'll have to think about wether this is even a desired feature. The way it works right now is that comment and posting fees contribute to the weekly reward pool or turf owners. So if we got rid posting fees, it would reduce the incentive for people to use the platform.
At the same time, it might get annoying to have to pay a posting fee all the time, especially if you have outputs locked in your monero wallet. So maybe there could be a case in which sometimes you can opt for POW instead of an onchain tx?
Also, I'm not sure if you're aware, but anonymous users can post, comment, and tip without having to create an account. Anonymous accounts simply pay more to post/reply, but also contribute even more to the rewards pool that way. You can read more information about anonymous posting in the FAQs.
the goal is not to allow everyone to post for free, it is to allow noobs to post questions about xmr, as is thoroughly detailed in the post. it would only be for people without accounts that need to ask knowledgeable people one off questions, think "where to buy my first xmr" or "my wallet is showong 0 balance" or "why should i use monero". As i said in the post, users with accounts (like me) should not be allowed to post with PoW, amd someone who posts woth PoW should not get a persistent identity onthis site.
Ok, I understand now, and yeah you have a good point. Would be a good way to remove friction for new users. We'll discuss this internally and research what implementing something like this would entail. Thanks for the feedback!