Stacker News Growth Deck \ stacker news ~meta

6627 sats \ 34 comments \ @sn 16 Feb meta

This week we put together a Stacker News growth deck. It highlights:

Some of the growth experiments SN has run to date
Some of the growth ideas we're considering experimenting with in the future
How stackers can help grow Stacker News
Some of the stacker success stories to date

We'd love to hear your feedback on this deck along with any new growth ideas you want to see Stacker News experiment with moving forward.

One important note for context on SN's priorities (as discussed in our Q1 roadmap call) is that our top Q1 priority is enabling new wallet connections, followed by iterating on territory features.

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1118 sats \ 0 replies \ @Undisciplined 16 Feb

I'll try to be better about sharing great posts onto nostr. I always zap and repost them when I see them, but I haven't been taking it upon myself to share them.

1782 sats \ 3 replies \ @cryotosensei 17 Feb

Great sharing. I really like how empowered I feel, like I have a role to play in expanding SN’s presence. Glad to be part of the exclusive 27 Stackers who have cowboy hats that span more than 30 days haha

In my humble opinion, I think attracting newbies is not the problem. Here are my results after a few targetted posts:

As you can see, retention is the problem. Why do newbies come but not stay? I guess that a check-in survey be sent to their email accounts, soliciting feedback about what they like n dislike about SN, as well as what SN can do to make them engage actively. Only then can we spot some patterns and address our up-scaling efforts accordingly.

To motivate people to do the survey, perhaps a 1000 sats bounty will be given to successful completion of the survey. I wouldn’t mind contributing to this bounty pool; I’m sure others will gladly do so too

My two sats’ worth

180 sats \ 2 replies \ @kr 17 Feb

good ideas

134 sats \ 1 reply \ @cryotosensei 18 Feb

I have another idea.

Was looking through my earlier posts and realised that some Stackers who were active in the past no longer post here. Why don’t we allocate one day a month to “Zap A Long Lost Stacker” so that active current Stackers can zap and leave a message for those Stackers whom they miss? Preaching to the converted ought to be easier than inviting newcomers all the time.

@birdeye21 if you are reading this, I have been missing your posts. Time to come back 🙏

300 sats \ 0 replies \ @birdeye21 18 Feb

👀🦉

1808 sats \ 4 replies \ @grayruby 16 Feb

Thanks for sharing. I think SN really needs to focus on its social media presence. It's shocking to me that there are bitcoiners out there that still don't know about SN. Stackers need to help with that as well.

Trying to attract prominent bitcoiners to the platform will help with this as well. I know we have had a number of big names do AMAs on SN but they don't see to regularly post.

Have you guys done any paid ads on social networks? How about advertising on bitcoin podcasts? I think there is still a lot of low hanging fruit available simply via word of mouth and network effect without having to do paid ads but that is something to consider.

Also, I think as we get a bit more attrition with the territories over the next few months and eventually whittle down to what will be the core territories, there should be a cohesive marketing strategy between SN and SN territories as their would be with a brand and its franchises. Eventually territories should be a gateway to bring new users to SN. I still think territory specific referral links is a good idea. 100 sats to new users that join via link and cost can be shared between territory founder and SN.

589 sats \ 0 replies \ @Bell_curve 16 Feb

I don’t remember how I found out about SN. I think it Reddit or Twitter in 2022

589 sats \ 0 replies \ @doofus 16 Feb

It’s kind of against it’s ethos, but we could add an option to crosspost to Twatter or Reddit.

115 sats \ 1 reply \ @kr 16 Feb

good feedback.

we have run a few paid advertising experiments on Fountain to date, and will likely run more in the future. Podcast advertising could also be an interesting option.

one note is that we want to make sure that we can reliably count on high retention before we advertise aggressively. it’s easy to waste money and time in the early stages of building a product watching users come in one door and go out the other.

as we get more confidence in our ability to retain new stackers, expect marketing to ramp up.

830 sats \ 0 replies \ @grayruby 16 Feb

Fair points. Yeah I caught a couple of the SN ads on fountain.

I first heard of SN on bitcoin Twitter. I still think this is the lowest hanging fruit.

1096 sats \ 4 replies \ @UCantDoThatDotRugged 16 Feb

Incentives: I think they are currently well aligned. Adoption is pretty impressive, in comparison to Nostr and Bitcoin Lightning, for instance. Unless there's some really active posters with multiple accounts each :D I think growth will take care of itself, honestly - as each user has incentive to help. I would caution against sinking money into sales and marketing. I think the greatest advantage you have over others is that very little is needed. Awareness could be accelerated, but it will occur organically. I HATE the idea of paid advertising. I would look into trading advertising with other principled businesses in the space and avoid paying for advertising of potentially ambiguous benefit.

Anon Posting: Love it, along with anon zapping. Is there a way for a person to use existing auth apps / extensions without sharing their info with you? Or with the new browser based specs coming out? Randomized usernames for each post might be easier than throwaway nostr addresses, if the security profile is the same. I'm out of my league, but could be interesting. One thought, if anons can post, does it still cost sats to post? Or will filters be introduced..

AMAs: Perfect - this brings mutually beneficial scenarios at zero cost - this is the model I would prefer if I were you. In my mind, one of the great fallacies of modernity is the need for expenses to gain growth. Generally speaking, growth purchased is weak and expensive and temporary and disruptable, while growth earned is the opposite.

Cowboy hats: Still don't know what this is, I read the whole FAQ I think :D That might be ok - part of the culture could be figuring out what these, and easter eggs, even are. And there could be more of them. Could territories make their own? Kind of like badges I guess? Or even badges that are bots that have distribution capability? Could be a marketplace for these?

Thunderstorms etc: Sounds interesting. Could be a lottery, you rain down a thunderstorm on all who are posting right now, all you've previously zapped, all who've previously zapped you, up to your specified amount, including some to stacker - and you have a 1/5 chance to get double back what you sent.

Leaderboards: Muy statistico es bueno. Not just 'top' - list people who zapped the most times, least average per zap (the egalitarian award) - those who zapped the widest variety of vocabulary - those who zapped the most images - those who zapped the fewest images - those who zapped the most zapped posts - those who zapped otherwise unzapped posts - those who zapped soonest after post was made - will also help identify gamers of the system.

Paywalls / subscriptions: ugh. I mean I guess give the option. But also the option to crowdwall, where once anyone or group of people donate up to a certain threshold it's unlocked. And for subscriptions, lots of programmable options by territory owner for what subscribers get would be cool. Like everyone can read everything, but only subscribers can comment more often than once every x minutes. Or subscribers get zapshare to x%. etc

Competitions: love it. reminds me of Fark photoshop contests.

Amplifying top stackers: Sorry I'm too new to know (and see next paragraph). But is this easily gameable? Like I just zap myself from another account? And then get free advertising? Just want to make sure it isn't. In other words, want to make sure 'top stacker' is a valid proxy for 'most valued creator/curator.'

Formula / Algorithm Experiments: The way sats are divvied should be transparent and adhere to game theoretic and economically sound principles. For instance, there should never be someone who decides that zapping top posts gets rewarded - because what about the guy who is trying to find underrated posts that haven't been zapped yet but should be. And vice versa. I don't like the idea of a centralized org determining the distribution of wealth based on the theory du jour, but rather like the idea of something so simple and economically sound that it is an example to the entire community. I would ask the Austrians.

"attract advertisers to fund daily contests': "This contest brought to you by ____ + logo + two sentence description" - love it

84 sats \ 0 replies \ @kr 16 Feb

Cowboy hats: Still don't know what this is, I read the whole FAQ I think :D That might be ok - part of the culture could be figuring out what these, and easter eggs, even are.

Zap around and find out 🤠

21 sats \ 2 replies \ @kr 16 Feb

great feedback overall.

curious to know, why do you hate the idea of paid advertising?

904 sats \ 1 reply \ @UCantDoThatDotRugged 16 Feb

I think in general it does not bring the return it advertises. Buying adspace directly from a website that is known to be a fair dealer would be different, or trading adspace here, for adspace there. But radio or TV or print advertising, where it is always guesswork how many people are reached and how many of them buy. Those numbers are always exagerrated by the seller, and therefore prices are inflated. These forms of advertising are typically only a good return for the established player who gains additional value (aside from purchases driven directly by the ad), such as helping to maintain market dominance, or control/ influence over the network/station/paper/publisher (Pfizer), or brand saturation (liberty, liberty, liberty). For an upstart competitor entering the market, falls on deaf ears IMO. Any service that provides 'impressions' in exchange for 'cost per clicks,' is as gameable as youtube views are. Buying podcast mentions is guesswork, but probably pretty good in this space, assuming you go directly with the bitcoin friendly podcasters, and not to some service.

579 sats \ 0 replies \ @UCantDoThatDotRugged 16 Feb

... and there's a ton of growth that can be had for $0 at this point for stacker.news - though as I said before, accelerating that growth is possible for $$

1125 sats \ 1 reply \ @benthecarman 17 Feb

bruh

21 sats \ 0 replies \ @kr 17 Feb

🐌

1272 sats \ 0 replies \ @brandonsbytes 16 Feb

This is great. While my efforts to make ~movies a successful territory failed. I am scheming a new territory endeavor to attempt in March. I think more engagement on non-bitcoin content is the key to getting new people, and key to getting new people to understand the possibilities of the "magic internet money" nature of bitcoin.

883 sats \ 0 replies \ @Tef 16 Feb

Really interesting information! When one reads about these statistics and the success stories of several stackers, one gets motivated to do his best bringing in this platform more useful and valuable stuff and being engaged in great discussion by sharing his opinion.

841 sats \ 0 replies \ @plebpoet 16 Feb

applause

620 sats \ 2 replies \ @0xbitcoiner 16 Feb

I particularly enjoyed this one:

On average, Stackers zap posts and comments every 21 seconds

841 sats \ 0 replies \ @AG 16 Feb

I see this KPI decrease soon!

32 sats \ 0 replies \ @kr 16 Feb

⚡️

465 sats \ 0 replies \ @carlosfandango 16 Feb

Really interesting reading especially the summary of top stackers at the end. There are some strong stackers out there!

820 sats \ 0 replies \ @thebullishbitcoiner 16 Feb

Wow great deck! That was a firehose of information and ideas. Looking forward to seeing SN evolve. I’ve got y’all in The Bullish Guide to Stacking Sats 🤙

579 sats \ 0 replies \ @davidw 17 Feb

Buidling the numbers in public. Not just running them.

Really should focus on my own projects, but this inspires me to think about some new feature/design concepts for SN with a few hours of downtime.

435 sats \ 0 replies \ @Karlm 16 Feb

Thanks for sharing

99 sats \ 0 replies \ @AG 16 Feb

Participating and ensuring stage presence to conferences and other Bitcoin related social events could drastically increase SN social awareness.

Having the territories is the first step to open and onboard nocoiners to SN first and to Bitcoin. There's few non-directly-related territories doing it already like ~Music, ~Design, ~christianity ~hiphop and hope there are many more coming soon.

Bitcoin is for all, SN should be for all too! Let's make this a welcoming place, open globally 24/7 for continuous learning, growth and prosperity!

21 sats \ 1 reply \ @halleck 16 Feb

How much growth is needed to reach the point of sustainability?

120 sats \ 0 replies \ @kr 16 Feb

it’s hard to quantify the exact numbers here, but sustainability will be reached when the business revenue exceeds costs

10 sats \ 0 replies \ @gmd 16 Feb

Re: marketing- any thoughts on doing the podcast circuit?

Would be cool to see SN interviewed by Peter McCormack, Pomp etc...

Seems like a common way that people do book launches, generate plethora of link backs for SEO etc.

0 sats \ 1 reply \ @positronic_bot 17 Feb

Cowboy hats and prairie dogs are confusing. Don't care for roleplay, leaderboards or Americana. K.I.S.S. Let users find their pace. If I feel the app is pushing me to the dopamine trap, I'm out and will not recommend.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @positronic_bot 17 Feb

Also growth at inorganic rate is a fiat mindset. No offense.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @TonyGiorgio 17 Feb

Always cool seeing and hearing about SN's insights into things so far, great transparency.

I agree with all of the AMA/outreach stuff. Those always seem popular. Perhaps paying for that could be worth the marketing expense.

Unsure about paywalled content though. I personally don't see value in it (i have never paid for a paywall post or put my content behind one). I zap a decent amount here but probably would not contribute to paywalls. I can very quickly bet those will be trivially reposted here unlocked so you're going to have to battle copyright.

In general quite content with SN, glad to see growth and more experiments.