Secret Sauce of SN’s Success \ stacker news ~meta

1997 sats \ 32 comments \ @cryotosensei 25 Jul meta

On paper, Stacker News shouldn’t have succeeded. 100k sats is not a huge sum in the grand scheme of things, but it gives a strong signal that people are willing to incur losses (at least initially) and slog it out to make their territory profitable.

And it’s not just the monetary cost, either. Founders must invest their time and energy - which are arguably more vital currencies than sats - into building a vibrant community. This involves cold-messaging strangers on Nostr and other platforms in hopes that some will set foot here. This may also involve gifting top posters of the week some sats as a form of encouragement.

Just what is it about Stacker News that appeals to so many Stackers to embark on this high-cost venture?

The desire to contribute back something to SN?
The opportunity to build a curated space that they can call their own?
A profound passion for their subject area and drive to spread it far and wide?
A wish to benefit from the high-voltage signal that Stackers are contributing?
A sense of responsibility to fellow Stackers who post in their territory day in, day out?
A desire to be more actively involved in the sats circular economy?

The reasons for the motivations behind Stackers’ steadfast commitment are probably multifarious. What strikes me as interesting is that the interplay of these local conditions and high-functioning individuals fosters the cultivation of territories and continued growth of SN. Do you think it will be (im)possible to replicate SN’s success elsewhere?

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264 sats \ 4 replies \ @grayruby 26 Jul

I am not sure SN has succeeded yet. Certainly proven a value for value model for content sharing can work and people will pay to run territories. After paying out rewards for the month I don’t think SN has much left. They are definitely not profitable yet.

40 sats \ 1 reply \ @Satosora 26 Jul

What? It has to be profitable, since they are able to pay the core group, right?

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @grayruby 26 Jul

No, they raised venture funding a couple years ago.

#44287

20 sats \ 1 reply \ @cryotosensei OP 10 Aug

What can we do to make SN profitable, if I’m not in the position of running a territory? Will donating to the rewards pool help?

@koob

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @grayruby 10 Aug

Ideally eventually the daily rewards pool would be sponsored and SN would keep the fees and the territory fees and the sponsored rewards would go back to the stackers. That seems logical to me unless you want ads all over the site.

265 sats \ 10 replies \ @Undisciplined 25 Jul

One of the more concerning comments I hear people make about what they like about Stacker News is "This is what _______ used to be like."

I think the secret sauce, assuming SN doesn't become a "used to be", is @k00b's obsession with making sure the mechanics of the site are serving us. Personally, I think he may have fixed social media.

73 sats \ 8 replies \ @Satosora 25 Jul

And also @koob's interaction. And the other main people that I interact with on a daily bases, usually :)

72 sats \ 6 replies \ @Undisciplined 25 Jul

I agree that there are great people here, but that has happened elsewhere and failed to sustain. If this works, it will be because it's designed to avoid the fates of other platforms.

21 sats \ 0 replies \ @Taft 26 Jul

I agree that there are great people here, but that has happened elsewhere and failed to sustain. If this works, it will be because it's designed to avoid the fates of other platforms.

That’s right!

I also agree that the secret sauce is @k00b.

21 sats \ 4 replies \ @Satosora 25 Jul

This platform has been here a while, right?

20 sats \ 3 replies \ @Undisciplined 25 Jul

Three years, but most of the active users have been here less than two years.

21 sats \ 2 replies \ @Satosora 26 Jul

Oh really? I notice some old faces popping by once in a while. Seems like the new crowd is here to stay.

20 sats \ 1 reply \ @Undisciplined 26 Jul

That's how it seemed a year ago and many of them are gone.

21 sats \ 0 replies \ @Satosora 26 Jul

Right. You cant see it when you are in the thick of it!

reply on another page

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @carlosfandango 26 Jul

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32 sats \ 0 replies \ @cryotosensei OP 10 Aug

I think it’s amazing how SN has allowed people to gain ownership of their territories

312 sats \ 1 reply \ @softglitter2d 26 Jul

The secret sauce I think is the financial incentive but for the most logical reason: we have money ready to spend. Hear me out fren.

Do you have something for tip?

When you put a bitcoin business and you want to pay/receive payments nominated in sats, most of these projects will fail because most bitcoiners don't have any bitcoin ready to spend. Now, how do I know this? Because these sats are offline or in a hardware wallet with extra security, spend these sats instantly is almost imposible because is not easy to access the money.

So, where is all this money ready to spend? Here comes the magic of Lightning Network, which puts you in a position where all you have to do is aim to a QR code or send a lnbc1.. invoice, pay some sats (2-3 sats) and you're done. This is money ready to spend, cachai?¹

Imagine you put on-chain processing, where all the money come from? non-custodial wallets? I think the money routing the bitcoin products development gives you an idea: the money comes directly from custodial wallets and that's because exchanges, custodial services et al need you to spend your bitcoin.

The secret sauce: money ready to spend

How all these is related to Stacker and the success? Stacker News is a no-brainer onboarding where you sign an ID, charge 500 sats² and in order to give likes, pay. In order to reply, pay. In order to thumbs up, pay. Downvote, pay. See what I mean? I think the success and the ability of @k00b et al is to build something that has the real benefit: Pay for the content is stupidly easy.

Imagine happening this in 2014 at Bitcointalk, I see almost impossible because on-chain payments doesn't incentivize -at my criteria- to spend your money and that's OK, incentivize the long-time preference (LTP). But other way to see the LTP is to pay for good content with Lightning Network.

Now, does it mean that I fully and blindly support LN? No ser

I support the system made by SN where you put me easy to read and pay. I don't want anything related to broken advertising system and if you give me cash nuts instead of sats in order to keep this system...man, I'll take it.

My two cents.

Cachai means you get it? in chilean dialect ↩
I spend on average 500 sats/day here with no remorse. I think the content quality is outstanding. ↩

16 sats \ 0 replies \ @cryotosensei OP 27 Jul

I think just educating me Cachai = You get it is worth my sats! Thanks for educating me!

21 sats \ 0 replies \ @398ja 27 Jul

The secret sauce? I think it all comes down to sn charging you for posting your thoughts.

31 sats \ 0 replies \ @didiplaywell 25 Jul

I'm unsure, I'm solely motivated to scam Stackers into a rug-pull scheme through careful social engineering. I don't think I could have the same success twice, you think so?

21 sats \ 0 replies \ @nichro 26 Jul

It's the cowboy hat.

21 sats \ 0 replies \ @IamSINGLE 26 Jul

SN is very special, at least for me! I've never liked any other models of social media to be combined with a notion of value for value.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @asterisk32 28 Jul

What does Youtube, X(Twitter), Spotify and SN's share in common?

Attention is their commodity.

They incentivise creators to create for users' attention.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Satoshi__Nakamoto 26 Jul

I did not know. That

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @2053456d48 26 Jul

Thanks to Stacker News and its teams for the great Web 3 initiative. Where anyone can benefit from its uses. Long live Bitcoin and Stacker News

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @GregAsks 26 Jul

Less SPAM here (you need to pay Satoshi to send a message) and you can also earn Satoshi if you gave value.

That why I like SM 💁‍♂️

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @BitcoinAbhi 26 Jul

The secret sauce of SN success lies only in the model of Value for value! Bitcoin completes this and as it's the God form of money, nothing is going to stop it.

0 sats \ 2 replies \ @Satosora 25 Jul

I dont know....I think it would be just as successful without the territories.

63 sats \ 1 reply \ @grayruby 26 Jul

Agree but territories are a gateway for non bitcoiners or new bitcoiners to participate in conversation beyond Bitcoin/lightning/tech and Econ which dominated the content on SN before. And SN is a much better place for non or new bitcoiners to learn.

20 sats \ 0 replies \ @Satosora 26 Jul

That is true. It really organizes everything.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Octopus 26 Jul outlawed

stackers have outlawed this. turn on wild west mode in your /settings to see outlawed content.

21 sats \ 0 replies \ @77edb424fc 26 Jul outlawed

stackers have outlawed this. turn on wild west mode in your /settings to see outlawed content.

Do you have something for tip?

The secret sauce: money ready to spend

Footnotes