Announcing the first student project of my class: Proof of Blind -- a way for unknown authors to get recognized & rewarded quickly
Proof of Blind
This project represents an idea that I shared with my students a couple weeks ago and at least one student (a finance major) has decided to pursue it as his semester project.
image used under license (shutterstock)
A quick overview of how Proof of Blind will work ...
Content creators can submit original content to be posted on Hive (submission instructions will be periodically posted via @blind.submit).
Submitted content will be subjected to a plagiarism review before being accepted into the project.
Plagiarism-free content will be posted via the @proofofblind account (typically within 24 hours after submission), with
- the original author as an 85% beneficiary,
- the person (e.g. student) who coordinated the plagiarism review and finalized the @proofofblind post as a 10% beneficiary (may be split if more than one person works on reviewing and prepping a given post),
- @proofofblind will retain 5%.
Voting from my primary accounts (@trostparadox, @trostparadox.pob) will focus first and foremost on those original-content posts submitted via @proofofblind.
- This is to ensure that, during the early launch of the project, every post submitted via @proofofblind will have a reasonable chance to earn some significant author rewards.
- My sincere hope is that other curators who genuinely value high-quality content (and want to reward it accordingly, especially for new authors), such as @onealfa, will follow suit.
- NOTE 1: FWIW, I intend to cast all my votes within 24 hours after each piece of original content is posted via @proofofblind; however, I will likely wait at least 12 hours to intentionally give other manual curators a chance to cast their votes before any of my votes (and any curation trails that follow me) begin to influence the voting.
- NOTE 2: As suggested by @revo in this comment to my post requesting feedback for student projects (which was generously supported and promoted by @theycallmedan -- thanks!), we may eventually try to incorporate some extra curation rewards into the project, to reward those who manually curate via @proofofblind.
Caveat: If we end up with more submissions than we can initially handle, we may institute a random lottery to decide the order in which submissions get posted (until we can scale up enough to handle all submissions). Authors who submit original content that ends up not being selected for posting via @proofofblind will be free to withdraw their submission and post it normally, if they so choose.
Double-posting of content (including posting one’s own content from another source without proper references) will not be tolerated and will result in a permanent ban from submitting content via the Proof of Blind project.
Why authors should participate (especially new or relatively unknown authors) ...
We envision Proof of Blind as a mechanism for new authors and/or authors who have not yet been able to establish a following to get their original content quickly seen by prominent Hive and tribe (i.e. Layer 2) account-holders.
Although individual posts will be ‘blind’ (in the sense that curators will not be able to see who the author of a specific post is, unless they intentionally check the beneficiary list), we will post periodic (e.g. weekly) statistics (via @blind.stats) showing which authors are posting to Proof of Blind and the rankings of cumulative and median rewards earned by each author. This can serve as a gateway for extremely talented authors to quickly establish a name for themselves. These periodic reports will also serve as a way for manual curators to easily expand the list of authors they choose to follow, thus enabling relatively unknown authors to readily connect with proactive manual curators.
As such, we envision Proof of Blind as a project where talented new authors can earn modest rewards in the process of becoming known, then move on to greener pastures once they’ve established their own following.
Why curators should care (especially those intent on manually curating to reward new authors for exceptional content) ...
One of the worst experiences for a manual curator is when you upvote a particularly well-written and informative post, then discover after-the-fact that the ‘author’ was actually a scammer who merely copied someone else’s work. As a curator, you instantly feel cheated and robbed, because [1] you spent your valuable time reading and evaluating the fraudulent content and [2] you will receive zero curation rewards (because if you remove your upvote (as you should), you receive zero curation rewards and you can’t get your vote back, or if the post gets downvoted to zero (as it should), then your curation rewards will also be zeroed out). So, it ends up being a lose-lose situation for the curator and merely a no-gain situation for the fraudulent ‘author’ (meaning they are likely to repeat the process if they only get caught part of the time).
Although plagiarism reviews are never perfect, we will be using a state-of-the-art plagiarism-review process that incorporates far more than mere publicly-available documents. Even so, there is no fool-proof way to vet posts for plagiarism; as such, we will be offering a guarantee to curators. If a post is found to be fraudulent after initially being posted via @proofofblind and before the voting period has closed, we will [1] coordinate downvoting and/or muting the post to remove as many misappropriated rewards as possible and [2] refund 150% of any would-be curation rewards lost by such action (subject to a lower limit, e.g. $1 worth per token per curator).
What to expect in the near future ...
Within the next few days, we will make our first post from the @blind.submit account, which will clearly detail the procedures that need to be followed in order for a new post to be posted via @proofofblind. As soon as that post is live, I will add a link to it here.
In the meantime, be sure to follow the @proofofblind account, so that you can have a chance to see how this project progresses, and to upvote some of the great original content that is sure to follow.
What to expect in the distant future ...
If this concept takes off, we might eventually try to develop a custom front-end, e.g. with its own onboarding process, to allow the benefits of posting original content via the Hive ecosystem to be more easily experienced, far and wide.
Closing remarks ...
I (@trostparadox) am really excited about this project -- both as a learning experience for my students and as a way to improve upon and encourage the process of manually curating original content on Hive.
In addition to vetting content for plagiarism, we will also make the final determination as to which tags get included with each post (to prevent tag abuse). As such, original content posted via @proofofblind can potentially earn more than just HIVE.
With that said, if you are a tribe owner or moderator and discover @proofofblind content that should have been tagged for your tribe and wasn’t, or vice versa, please reach out to me (e.g. via discord at trostparadox#8559) and we will make adjustments moving forward. Or, if you want to be proactive and send me some specific guidelines up-front regarding what Proof of Blind content you do and do not want to see tagged for your tribe, please do so.
We will also, at our discretion, refrain from posting via @proofofblind any content that we consider ‘spam’, and any content that is NSFW.
Thanks for stopping by and thanks for your future support of this Proof of Blind project.
Very cool project!
This is good new for just about everybody except spammers. It's like Time magazine for Hive. Writers know that they will be rewarded and curators know that the content is original. I'm curious about what writers will join and I am also curious about the exact submission process in the @blind.submit account.
And the name feels to me more of a command: Blind SUBMIT!! But that is my warped mind. Most normal people would see the name as a place to submit posts.
LOL! Didn't think about that angle.
Every since I went to one of those liberal colleges everything became an innuendo. I couldn't even read a fortune cookie without adding the words "in bed" at the end.
This is really neat! Looking forward to seeing how it all works out! I’ll be sure to follow that pob tag to keep up with everything :)
Actually pretty cool
Name is bad. Idea is good.
It would be sound the same as Proof of Brain in short. I would look up for a better name. Only my opinion :)
Thanks for the feedback. The student leader for this project chose "Proof of Blind" from the various names we were considering precisely because of its similarity to "Proof of Brain".
I suppose it could be rebranded at a later time, if need be.
ok, a rebrand is always not the best thing that could happen.
Depending on how successful it will be, it becomes more or less difficult.
I would recommend picking a name that's more unique.
The idea is top-notch. Of course, everything project that helps to pimp the content of deserving content creators is always valued and appreciated.
It's a fresh idea. It can also be better. I want to see (and possibly get involved) as things develops.
Well Done.
It's a very interesting idea.
This is awesome! My upvote will be ready for these blind posts.
This is really interesting project. If my vote matters, I would be definitely willing to support the project and would be looking forward to curate the student project posts.
This is a great idea you put up. I hope this work out as projected.
One of the hardest things to do in social media is to build up an audience of people who like and want to consume your content, how does that happen through a system like this?
While they may get more rewards initially, they paying on exposure and klout in the long run. They would also build a dependency on this system, which I assume has a lifetime until you are no longer recommended to use it, which leaves them in that 'new author' condition but with some funds in their pocket.
Here is how we envision new authors 'graduating' out of the program:
In other words, we expect manual curators to regularly check the @blind.stats reports to see who is consistently receiving high votes (and 'follow' them). Also, I anticipate some manual curators will take the time to look at the beneficiary list whenever they find an exceptionally-well-written Proof of Blind post, so that they can directly follow that author.
Once an author starts gaining followers (especially once they get the attention of one or more 'whale' followers), they can start experimenting with posting some of their content under their own 'brand'. As soon as it becomes more beneficial for them to be publishing solely under their own account, then they will have graduated out of the program.
The real value of the business plan is providing the Curators with free plagiarism screening service. That is the USP that the Authors are paying for in the first place.
Is it desirable to skew the 50/50 Author/Curators split towards Curator group just because they innovated and split the job between two specialised positions (Plagirism Check and Quality Assessment)?
I do not think it is but I prefer to observe the competition between this project and the traditional model in spite of my feeling the Curator group is favoured over Author group in any free-market attempt to arrive at a fair reward split percentage.
I am not saying the proposed split is wrong. Charge the Curators even a tiny percentage and you create a huge business risk of the Curators graduating out when they have enough of a proven-Author list.
Remember, Curators are the ones bringing the money in. They are the customers. They are usually not money-oriented (quality content discovery pays no extra money) but you need to prioritise their needs over the needs of your contractors (ie Authors) whenever these two clash.
I feel the project is heavily misbranded. How hard is to keep the author undisclosed and send the rewards post-payout compared to adding them as benefactor? Is this something you would just happen to overlook if you are passionate about the blindfolded curation idea?
gave you an upvote, in oder to maybe make your comment more visible.
Cheers, feel free to quote me frequently if you feel it improves the reading experience for others.
Wonderful project
Good to have such project...and waiting to get the first post on the new account. In the mean time I am ready to curate good content from.my account as well as my community account (indiaunited).
Also looking forward to post some good content as well, ....I was not aware of it.... now followed all the related account
Is good to carryout project and expect good return at the end of broof.
This is good. This game will also motivate many people that's in this platform
thats a pretty nifty idea! kind of reminds me of the @art-anon project, although i am not really that familiar with how their payout system works or if the user sacrifices the payout for the anonymity. way to go for that student!
I looked at the @art-anon project. I wasn't aware of that before. Very interesting.
This seems like a nice project. It will finally give undiscovered accounts the opportunity to get discovered.
That is the hope and intent. I'm anxious to see how it plays out.
A solid plan with ground rules that should incentives content creators from the begging and encourage them to be part of the HIVE ecosystem. Being true as a content creator and making quality posts should shape great personalities around here.
Posted Using LeoFinance Beta
Great experiment. So this was thought up by one of your students? That's great! I'll start following @proofofblind and may even submit something. I think I'll have my kiddo submit something, too. Besides, she'll probably earn more going through the @proofofblind than by posting it herself...exactly what you've suggested! My vote is somewhat small, but big enough to matter. Thanks!
We appreciate your interest and look forward to posting your original content (and your daughter's).
Our first official post had to be deleted, though, because the content had already been posted to Hive, in violation of the rules.
Ouch!
This was originally my (@trostparadox's) idea. I shared it with my students when they were having trouble coming up with ideas. Two or three are making it their semester project.
I was thinking maybe a proof of blind token would be more beneficial if users who would could use their own accounts to posts…but I suppose the target for this project is students though so I can’t imagine whether or not they’d want to build name recognition for their homework or if they would rather keep their homework separate from their private work.
I am really excited to see what other ideas pop up. I will be frequenting your account and trying to share ideas with as many of your students as I can.