CryptoRESPECT. All of us need to stop trying to drown each other in public. We're hurting ourselves here!
If the cryptocurrency space was a swimming pool, you'd see people trying to drown each other. This isn't good.
As the cryptocurrency space, and related technologies like Steemit begin to flourish, there is a problem that will stop all of this from becoming mainstream:
Lack of respect for one another.
I'm talking about technology and community bashing. Excessive FUD (fear, uncertainty and death)
This is not a rant.
It's going to be positive!
Please continue reading...
After Bitcoin was born, and other cryptocurrency coins forked the code and came into existence, we had a lot of pump and dump scams that appeared. It was due dilligence of people to publicly debate these new projects and find the holes in the technology to avoid being scammed.
That's understandable.
However soon people started to realize "hey!" If I show up in a community forum, and start yelling scam, or start poking holes in something, maybe I can create FUD which will damage that project's reputation whether it is warranted or not. This might get people to run away from it with me, and I can gain their investment support elsewhere.
IMAGINE THIS:
Cryptocurrency and decentralized projects like Steemit could be like science experiments at your local highschool during your annual "science fair"
Or these same projects would be like tables & booths at a Tradeshow convention.
Many of these projects have been peer reviewed, and are actively being developed.
Soon it's time to open the doors to the science fair, or the general public, and let them come in and see what we have going on.. It's time to share the various creations with the rest of the world.
...EXCEPT THAT WE CAN'T
There is way too much in-fighting inside cryptocommunities. Too much cross fire going back and forth between different cryptocoins or Crypto 2.0 or 3.0 projects.
We're treating this place like the wild west, cowboy days, where anything goes. But while we're sitting here shooting at each other, we're going to hit some innocent visitors to our town, and scare everyone away.
Cryptocurrency? Decentralization?
That's nothing more than a bunch of computer geeks who constantly can't agree with one another, who constantly flame and war with each other. Non-stop fighting. There is no respect. We steal and trade developers. That community has developers badmouthing our developers, and vice-versa.
Who would want to attend a science fair, or tradeshow, when there is verbal abuse bombs going off everywhere?
It's time that we recognize this problem if we ever want any of these things to gain wide adoption and acceptance by the general public.
In the normal business world, you have anti-competition bureaus, statutes, regulations, courts, licensing, bylaws, advertising practices, etc. Very little of this applies to cryptocurrency and decentralized environments when a blockchain is not owned by any geographical entity. It's decentralized ownership.
However, respect itself is "mutual". You do not need a law or regulation to govern how much respect you give someone, or something.
Bad mouthing a project, its followers, investors, or its developers, and creating FUD causes this:
1. It smears the project and those who work hard to improve it. You're damaging countless hours of hard work by some people, who might be trying to improve the system. DON'T DO THIS
2. The person doing the badmouthing, doesn't do it with clean hands. You also damage your own reputation when you fling mud and FUD at someone else. DON'T DO THIS
3. What ends up happening is you just confuse people. Now no one knows who is right, and the issues get clouded on both sides. DON'T DO THIS
4. The media and government love this, because we look like a bunch of geeks, with constant fighting. We're destroying ourselves infront of them. This makes them happy. DON'T DO THIS
5. If you show mutual respect for an opposing or competitive project it shows that you're taking the high road, and not the low road. Bashing other projects is not a good marketing scheme. It's the worst way to get people to follow you.. it really is..
6. We should come up with a socially acceptable way to handle these issues. What we've been doing until now, is creating a lot of bad habits that are exploited by day traders on trollbox chats. These opportunists are using our lack of respect for one another to bleed money out of the system from true long term supporters and investors who really want to see these projects get traction and go somewhere.
So.. if you want government, media, and day traders who suck money back to fiat, to benefit at the expense of tainting everything we build, then change nothing, and cryptorespect should mean nothing.
If we want to scare away the public and mainstream adoption by the rest of the world and keep this a geek-only space, then change nothing, and cryptorespect should mean nothing.
I'm not the leader in the cryptorespect idea. I might be one of the few to publicly post about this problem, but I'd like to find like minded people who are concerned about this as much as I am.
Together we might be able to brainstorm some solutions. Please comment and share this post as a reference.
One thing we need is a catch-all term, so we know what we're talking about, when we confront these situations.
Here's some futuristic sentences..
In lieu of your recent myth about [xyz], I want to emplore you to show some cryptorespect. Those issues have been dealt with already. Proof of that is [def] link, and [efg] link...
I'm sorry, but due to cryptorespect ideologies, I refuse to badmouth [xyz] as a developer or his work. However, I do suggest you ask him yourself, and let us know what you find.
Yes, I've heard about these possible problems with that other competing project, but this is not the place to discuss them. Let's show some cryptorespect, which is only fair.
HELP! -- I NEED YOUR VIEWPOINT - PLEASE COMMENT.
This is super important. It is good for us to have a strong 'in-group' that establishes the loyalty and network of obligations on which strong communities are built. But the collective intelligence produced by our strong in-group can quickly deteriorate into lame, tribalistic groupthink if we are unable to resolve disagreements and accommodate diversity in a courteous and respectful manner.
That's right, I fully agree. Current trends do show tribalistic thinking, and we need to acknowledge it and work away from that concept. If we do, we all win.
In theory, its a great idea. However, i feel many here equate "respect" with "youre not allowed to criticize me or disagree with anything i say "
This is kind of implicit in your second example in the last section. Isn't it possible for someone to have a critical take on someone elses actions and still resepct them? I would say it is.
Yes, it is possible. But there's a fine line, from genuine conversation and fud. At the moment that line is very blurry, and there is no incentive to care.
There's a bigger problem here, that no one takes time to acknowledge. We're screwing this up for all of us, unless we pay attention to the damage we cause when we continue to do it the wrong way.
That's exactly what cryptorespect aims to do.. How to accomplish constructive criticism and debate, while not doing it like fart at a tradeshow. Because when too many people start farting at a tradeshow, the whole room stinks.
Right now, the entire tradeshow stinks. So tradeshows solve it by having a washroom. If you have to fart, its encouraged to do it there instead. :)
In this example, I was thinking of someone like daytrader who doesn't own any Coin B showing up to ask someone like Sunny King.
"Vitalik" or "Dan Larimer" or "Satoshi" thinks this is the better way as opposed to Coin A. What do you think of him or his work on Coin B? I think Coin B is flawed because of DEF and a scam.
Sunny King at that point might say I refuse to badmouth [xyz] as a developer or his work. However, I do suggest you ask him yourself [about your concerns] and let us know what you find.
The basic premise here is that if you have a problem with a project, it's best to pose your questions to that same development community in charge of that project.
What instead, people might like to do, is run over to, say, Coin A and ask the Coin A developer to make a derogatory comment about Coin B, so they can run around with a quote, trying to disrupt followers of Coin B. "Well Coin A dev said this about you and your development, so your project is a scam or stinks, or can't work, or ..."
There is no need for that type of fighting back and forth.
If you look at the Automotive Industry, for instance, car manufacturers usually promote their own car or truck and talk about its features. Very rarely do they spend marketing dollars trying to smear other auto manufacturers with half-truths, myths, and exaggerations. Doing that would just invite lawsuits, and they're all smart enough to hold on to their money and avoid legal battles over it.
It's this type of cross-community communication that is often abused. Hopefully I explained it better here in this reply to your comment.
Cryptorespect!
Spot on.
Upvoted and tweeted:
https://twitter.com/kenCode_de/status/779209356789313536
Great post intelliguy! :)
Disclaimer: I am just a bot trying to be helpful.
cryptorespect. I like it. :)
Edit: resteemed.
I love you for that Luke, thanks.
Thanks for raising this, the crypto-enthusiast community needs to realize that it's still VERY small in the greater scheme of things. Hell, the total market cap of ALL cryptocurrencies is less than USD 12 billion, on the market cap of Chipotle! No point wasting energy on this in-fighting when there are bigger goals.
The more quality that gets added to Steemit the further growth of the platform will imo separate Steem from an exclusive correlation to crypto to one of the backbone of respect, integrity and community far beyond the crypto small minded crypto community. Great post!
Agreed! If all crypto communities observed these things, there would be growth, not stagnation.
Yes, there would be... We're sending so many mixed messages and confusing people, that it's easier to stay away, then to get involved. That's the wrong message we're showing people. Crypto in general should be a little more professional, welcoming and inviting. Let's do it together. :)
I like the general spirit of what you're trying to do here, but I think the devil is in the details. It's all about how we relate to one another. Unfortunately most geek types, especially young ones, lack people skills and come across as arrogant and autocratic. Again, I'm speaking in generalities.
Take your first futuristic sentence which starts out:
The tone of that sounds rather judgemental, using the "myth" adjective. Wouldn't a better approach be to open a dialog by asking why they said [zyx] about [xyz] or to ask for evidence of their (mythical) claim? Model the behavior you wish to see by doing it.
I'm not expert on the subject but perhaps this respect effort of yours might benefit from NVC techniques.
Also I have a concern that if not done well this campaign might stifle important criticisms. Negative feedback isn't necessarily bad, it in fact can provide essential information required to make improvements. How effective that is depends not only on the manor the info is delivered but also on the open mindedness and maturity of the receiver to really hear it and not just react to it on an emotional level.
I respect your efforts to encourage people to behave more respectfully to each other, but let's not turn into a body of "politically correct" nerds that are afraid to speak their minds or unwilling to "manifest truth into existence" as steemit user krnel has said. A focus on truth and the application of empathy would go a long way towards improving this issue.
nice one
This should apply to ALL of our lives.