That’s a good point. In my opinion we should discuss all internal hot topics amongst ourselves on internal resources otherwise we are feeding external haters. Xitter, as you call it, should be solely a platform for capturing new users, not for critical dialog within the community. I’ll try to keep that in mind as well too.
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And, lest it be forgotten, headed by a CEO who is actively trans-hostile and who made sure that Twitter is an unsafe place for trans people. I’m talking here about literal unsafety, as in “You might encounter a troll who takes it upon themself to destroy your life, and the platform as a matter of policy will do nothing that might help to reduce that risk.”
The relevance of this is that it’s why I’m not there (I have an account but it’s almost entirely idle) and why I hadn’t seen or commented on any of this until I got back from holiday today, in case anyone was wondering.
My opinion: it is entirely legitimate to criticise the performance of grant recipients. That should ideally be done with more care than was taken in this instance, but rounding on @peacemonger for expressing such criticism is also not very productive.
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I feel strongly that I need to speak more on this issue.
I will do so after I sit in silence.
I want to immediately call out that, from my perspective, @daira 's decision to forego possible benefits from using The Xitter, is an act of courage and resistance that I recognize and applaud.
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Have you reflected on how other central/ foundational Zcash figures behavior on Twitter might also have created significant positive or negative impacts to the Zcash project?
We may hate the rules of the game (and referees, and the game itself), but is it worth the risk of hurting the entire project to not play by them, or by operating extremely outside of the norms of the game (?)
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I have recently experienced my friends suffering distress that is (in my opinion) very significantly augmented by-, and debatably even caused by-, the mechanisms of twitter.
I feel angry and frustrated.
Mostly I feel sad.
When my community suffers, I suffer also.
We’re the community that’s doing more than any other (in my opinion) to fix this terribly broken system.
I don’t believe that there’s one Right Posture towards this strange and terrible machine.
I think there are people who pay the cost of being in the toxic environment that is twitter. I am grateful to my community members who do that work.
I agree with you that we cannot Ostrich-Head-In-Sand away from the environment we live in.
At the same time, I am Clear.
I protest.
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It’s been a really busy week, so I’m a little late with my response to all this, but I’ll just jump right in:
I stand by what I said, how I said it, and where I said it. I do not strive for the kind of “peace” that comes from hiding our heads in the sand. I do not require an apology, and I am not here to offer one. Zcash Media took advantage of this community. There is so much evidence of that, but here’s the latest example:
ZM justified the current “host” format by saying that it’s a typical format used by educational videos, and ZCG took them at their word. But those who have worked with video production companies know that the host format is nothing but a convenient way to cut costs. Educational videos use this format because they tend to have lower budgets. If you put a host that simply talks in front of the camera, you don’t have to fill that space with actual content like expensive, time-consuming graphics, animations, etc. That’s what makes videos more expensive. It’s also lazy story telling since instead of showing engaging visuals, hosts can just read text.
The host can also be a liability, because if the audience doesn’t like the host’s personality/facial expressions/etc, they will drop off. The success of the video becomes reliant on the personality of the host, so if you don’t have someone experienced and magnetic (think Anthony Bourdain), the host is a huge risk. But Zcash Media didn’t even hire a professional. They used their own producer - someone that came at no extra cost to ZM. His appearance is a matter of opinion, but his inexperience is clear from his consistent tendency to over-emote. This is not million dollar content.
I don’t know anyone at ZM, I don’t have any personal attachments to that project, good or bad. I know many in the community know them personally. Perhaps that has clouded their judgement. None of it is personal to me. I do not believe decision makers at ZM deserve the kid gloves they are being handled with. They’re not victims. They are a company that was hired to do a job and paid really well. Frankly, this level of favoritism is disturbing. No one, that knows the details of this grant, thinks that what is happening with ZM is normal or standard procedure. The way in which this grant has been mismanaged is so irrational that there are conspiracy theories flying around, which, given the response to that Twitter thread behind the scenes, feel almost true. Almost. I think there’s a much simpler explanation for what’s happening.
Zcash Media is a bad grant, mismanaged in every way over a long period of time due to a lack of experience. ZCG members have 0 years of combined experience in marketing. $700K for this… - it is extraordinary in the worst of ways. No one with marketing background would choose to spend their marketing budget this way and expect results. ZCG’s inexperience led to a massive waste of funds, and its inability to leverage feedback from content creators and other professionals with relevant background is what led to the current situation and tone. Any frustration resulting from that is justified. Instead of focusing on the tone in which this frustration is expressed and trying to control where and how it is expressed, we’d be smart to address the root cause of it.
Instead, ZCG continues to come out with head-scratching decisions like the one posted 12 hours ago:
Hope dies last. Against all odds, the second video will surely be the blockbuster that shows us where the $700K went, and the results will outweigh the opportunity cost of dragging this whole disaster out. Or not.
Again, I stand by what I said. That tone is well-deserved and every word of that Twitter thread is true. If anyone wants to challenge a specific phrase in that thread, let’s discuss. If someone doesn’t like the tone, well… it’s a matter of opinion. An opinion that is not shared by everyone.
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Hell yeah 
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This was not a new decision. It was merely a reiteration of what we previously decided.
Uhm… ok. Yes, this was not a new decision from you, @GGuy, and Brian as the three of you did not vote to cancel the second milestone - a move that could instantly free up the remaining $300K of ZM’s grant for far more effective marketing initiatives and save the community a lot of precious time and headache. Last week, based on your combined 0 years of marketing experience, the three of you made a “not new” decision not to cancel the grant. Your ability to reiterate bad decisions is not in question here.
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I’ve done my best to keep quiet. This ZM grant is the collection of essentially all of the concerns that I raised during the original debate back in 2023. I was a tiny minority dissenter against generally overwhelming, optimistic support on the forum.
There are inevitable risks with any large grant, but ZM’s second request was unique because we had so much evidence following the completion of their first large grant. We knew that schedules slipped badly, we new that the videos received lukewarm engagement, we knew that the budget needed to grow by almost 50% to get the job done, we knew that ZM interaction with the ecosystem wasn’t stellar, we knew their marketing/ audience targeting strategies weren’t ideal… the list could go on.
Despite the risks that were known, I failed to make the case for the grant to be rejected. The forum sentiment stayed strongly in favor, and so ZCG took the course that it did.
I don’t think clawing back $300,000 makes any sense. The ZM is deep into the project already and despite the cons, there are pros… the end content/ product is awesome, and it serves Zcash (and the world) some justice. Privacy in the age of surveillance governmentalism/ capitalism is a huge issue, in need of coverage.
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I think the real question is are we paying for videos to educate people about privacy/surveillance issues or are we paying for videos to encourage usage of Zcash in the context of those issues? If it’s the former, then the first video is closer to the mark than the latter.
The real problem is long-form videos don’t make sense anymore for marketing a product or service. Think about all of the social channels and the quick, easy to digest promos.
For a fraction of the cost, you can build short, direct, call to action ads that highlight critical issues and how Zcash is the solution to those issues. But it has to be something that will make someone want to watch it and give them a reason to take action after watching it.
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Only Zec is paying the full price…programers and leaders don’t understand that everything is domino efect. If you cover Tik tok, X and Youtube with good marketing Zec will have good reputacion,
But product Zec is all dead in all platform… that million dollars you can cut in 3 and cover good all major platform, you still all escape from decentrilased marketing how is working…I give example
- I have impulsuve dumb gamblers with milions… when I say brother there is one good crypto Zec you can invest your money, Ok i will check and tommorrow
- Brother this coin total dead on Reddit there is nothing positive people to say about… and that is true…
- we can bots bring there and make some noice…
When you cover this platform with bots you make positive picture atleast, all is working like that, or influensers or marketing on ZM video because views on that video are minimum. People are naive you need to wash their view, that is hard true…maybe I’m wrong but world on the crypto streets funcion on this way…
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Well said. It’s not that any of us are oblivious to the cons here.
Although we have cancelled grants, those were extreme circumstances. We take our commitment to grantees seriously. Honestly, most of what @peacemonger has said sounds completely out of touch with the process. I could go into line-by-line detail, but I’m not interested in engaging any further with that kind of energy.
I appreciate your speaking up.
Only someone who doesn’t understand how much can be done with a $300K marketing budget would say this.
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Are your two ZCG colleagues, who voted to cancel the ZM grant last week, also completely out of touch with the process?
Who said anything about marketing? Content Creation != Marketing
We all get the frustrations here, hopefully this is a learning lesson about the perks of being loud/ skeptical at the front of a big grant decision process, rather than at the back end.
I’ve given up on critiques of ZM, I spent all of that energy last year. I wish them best of luck as they wrap up this big project.
Maybe instead we’d like to spend the $300,000 on 2 Jake Paul tweets about Zcash, if marketing is the new theme of the week.
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For exampe Im watching all Zcash videos on Youtube and there are 3/4 people who make videos free, and all videos are good… As I can see all of them say
-Zcash videos are videos that people see at most and comment at most, I will keep making Zcash videos because there are deficit videos on youtube, and people are most interested in Zcash on my canal…
one is making traiding, other price action, also there are some eastern europe people that make zcash videos who have good ratio Comments/ likes/views…
That is all positive in this side…
FOR X I follow every day, there are good 2-3 holders who make good hype and tweets, this people deserve more attention from for their effort…
Im not in instagram/ Tiktok but at most on X and youtube and I can say here people are waiting for good zcash content…
Reddit is place that something is so against zcash I think XMR people or bots are writing bad stuff… that is all I can say…
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if we would want to pay some influencers. it has to be chosen very wisely.
in that case the message and lifestyle of the influencer should match Zcash values.
Jake Paul probably isnt good match. i thought of Mrbeast before but after recent stuff def not anymore.
i think there might be many smaller midsized new content creators who could have big impact and better matching audience for reasonable amounts. the collaboration should be then imo longer term also in that case also not just 1-2 videos or sth.
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Excelent, in other communities go for example on X and Youtube authentic people, not kind of fake shillers and only hype, we need reaL people who make 2 k per videos for example, people are looking for this videos also tweets only full real honest people… then wenn price go up, and numbers go up on this videos and likes on tweets… that is happening in others tokens that made succes with numbers go up… a will take Ja$my example, there I was member
- 5 youtube creators with 1k 5k views
- 5 X creators with 100-500 likes alll were authentic no bots
- 2 creators on X and Youtube who make tweets or videos for tehnology and how superior is.
- Reddit threads for positive picture in neutral people…
- main secret is when coin pump this numbers go parabolic in likes and views… is not this some rocket knowledge but this shows very good results, and some of this people were not paid at all…
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