The way YPP currently runs is that channels apply and are manually approved based upon their social metrics and content focus (crypto). This means that the type of content allowed is very restrictive and it also means that our platforms "quality" is being defined by these channels. Crypto video content creators are highly incentivized by airdrops, competitions and other means to artificially inflate their metrics which means the current "grading" of channels is extremely limited--when the channel metrics are bypassed it has been said by some in our community that fake or poor quality engagement can be spotted in as little as 1-2 minutes (https://discord.com/channels/811216481340751934/812343711870091285/1137024409840926800) and there have been some observations about the quality of engagement on channels:
"now gleev has too many scam videos which nobody watches. nevertheless, authors of this kind of content are getting paid for this trash. these videos take a lot of storage space => SPs need to run new servers => council needs to increase SPs salaries => $JOY is falling. for what? for keeping scam content on gleev. my goal is to reduce costs on junk content storage which 1) makes gleev more attractive and useful for new users and content creators 2) keeps $JOY rate from falling." - svasilenko election candidacy note (https://pioneerapp.xyz/#/election?candidate=0000002p)
Simultaneous to this we are turning away content creators who seem genuinely interested and may prove to be of high value to the platform (https://discord.com/channels/811216481340751934/813361923172335648/1138234736247066685).
From the channels that have been approved for YPP it appears that few of them have "engaged" with the community in any substantial way so far. It also appears from some applicants communications that there is a sense that being approved for YPP is a given - while there have been some videos creators have made showing their onboarding to YPP it gives a sense that the YPP approval is mostly autonomous and that these channels aren't engaging with the DAO community--who will eventually be in fully control of rewarding all types of content on the platform.
While a DAO operated YPP has been investigated it appears that given resource and personnel restraints that this is not going to be easy to do currently, it also is the case that we do not have many compelling apps utilizing Joystream and that the complexity of operating two distinct YPP programs would likely act as a net negative for current growth initiatives.
Additionally, we have resource constraints (server capacity) that must be adhered to for Joystream to be successful, while there have been some recent changes to make sure particularly large channels can be avoided there isn't much sense so far of being able to throttle the number of channels that get approved nor is there much social excitement surrounding approved channels.
The DAO community is also not proactively involving itself (or doesn't have the capability to do so) with the YPP channels that get approved - in the long term the DAO community needs to take ownership of the type of content it would would like to see on the platform--this decision is a difficult but integral one that will dictate the type of content that in the future that is not only uploaded and potentially rewarded but forms the basis of Joystream's culture which will be formed by content creators.
Solution
For all types of content, replace the current manual approval process for YPP channels from JSG with a dashboard that a chosen subset of Joystream community members utilize to vote channels for approval. This would mean expanding beyond crypto content.
As a starting point, I would recommend that the council be requested to submit a proposal listing 10 active, trustworthy users who are given voting permissions. This can be changed later on.
The dashboard would list all channels that apply for YPP along with some metrics from the channel and a link so that the voting users can take a glance or an in-depth look at the channel and decide whether to vote for it or not. The dashboard would also list more general metrics about how many channels are submitted so far (these are very much things that people screenshot and share on social media!)
Users would be able to click any of the channels on the dashboard and see the current number of votes along with the rationale from voters.
For users that are approved would click to vote for a chosen the channel and include a rationale that would be submitted as a metaprotocol/remark transaction.
If a channel gets enough votes to pass a preset threshold, the channel gets approved for YPP rewards and syncing. Alternatively a time interval which is something like "the highest voted channel per 24h interval is approved"
Inspiration + Benefits
Mirror.xyz executed something very similar to this some time ago and it was massively successful--it resulted in an extremely high grade of content for the most part and also generated intense discussion from the community and wider social media & web3 users as well as resulted in very proactive participants.
*"$WRITE RACE is a weekly showdown between people joining the Mirror DAO. The community votes for who gets DAO membership next. At the end of each 2 hour round, the top 10 people are airdropped one $WRITE token, which can be redeemed for Mirror membership, a subdomain, and future community perks." - https://mirror.xyz/race
Some examples of engagement that $WRITE Race generated:
I fully believe that utilizing such a system to approve YPP channels would serve Joystream well into the future (it can be carried on after JSG's YPP program ends) and it would help with our outreach and marketing initiatives to have people being excited about how many votes their channel currently has--it would be amazing to see content creators asking their audiences to vote for their channel to be approved for YPP using social media and could immensely help with awareness of our platform.
Most importantly it will allow for the DAO community to be proactive and have a say about the types of content it wants to have and reward on the platform--this is hugely important to fostering a community of content creators who are actively engaged with our platform and who make high quality content and is something that is simply not achievable by relying upon YouTube metrics entirely.
Problem
https://twitter.com/SatoshiFlipper/status/1687497168393777152 Quality control of content, or judging content is a very difficult thing to do.
The way YPP currently runs is that channels apply and are manually approved based upon their social metrics and content focus (crypto). This means that the type of content allowed is very restrictive and it also means that our platforms "quality" is being defined by these channels. Crypto video content creators are highly incentivized by airdrops, competitions and other means to artificially inflate their metrics which means the current "grading" of channels is extremely limited--when the channel metrics are bypassed it has been said by some in our community that fake or poor quality engagement can be spotted in as little as 1-2 minutes (https://discord.com/channels/811216481340751934/812343711870091285/1137024409840926800) and there have been some observations about the quality of engagement on channels:
Some of our community members as well as one current election applicant have also stated similar:
Simultaneous to this we are turning away content creators who seem genuinely interested and may prove to be of high value to the platform (https://discord.com/channels/811216481340751934/813361923172335648/1138234736247066685). From the channels that have been approved for YPP it appears that few of them have "engaged" with the community in any substantial way so far. It also appears from some applicants communications that there is a sense that being approved for YPP is a given - while there have been some videos creators have made showing their onboarding to YPP it gives a sense that the YPP approval is mostly autonomous and that these channels aren't engaging with the DAO community--who will eventually be in fully control of rewarding all types of content on the platform. While a DAO operated YPP has been investigated it appears that given resource and personnel restraints that this is not going to be easy to do currently, it also is the case that we do not have many compelling apps utilizing Joystream and that the complexity of operating two distinct YPP programs would likely act as a net negative for current growth initiatives. Additionally, we have resource constraints (server capacity) that must be adhered to for Joystream to be successful, while there have been some recent changes to make sure particularly large channels can be avoided there isn't much sense so far of being able to throttle the number of channels that get approved nor is there much social excitement surrounding approved channels. The DAO community is also not proactively involving itself (or doesn't have the capability to do so) with the YPP channels that get approved - in the long term the DAO community needs to take ownership of the type of content it would would like to see on the platform--this decision is a difficult but integral one that will dictate the type of content that in the future that is not only uploaded and potentially rewarded but forms the basis of Joystream's culture which will be formed by content creators.
Solution
For all types of content, replace the current manual approval process for YPP channels from JSG with a dashboard that a chosen subset of Joystream community members utilize to vote channels for approval. This would mean expanding beyond crypto content. As a starting point, I would recommend that the council be requested to submit a proposal listing 10 active, trustworthy users who are given voting permissions. This can be changed later on.
The dashboard would list all channels that apply for YPP along with some metrics from the channel and a link so that the voting users can take a glance or an in-depth look at the channel and decide whether to vote for it or not. The dashboard would also list more general metrics about how many channels are submitted so far (these are very much things that people screenshot and share on social media!)
Users would be able to click any of the channels on the dashboard and see the current number of votes along with the rationale from voters.
For users that are approved would click to vote for a chosen the channel and include a rationale that would be submitted as a metaprotocol/remark transaction.
If a channel gets enough votes to pass a preset threshold, the channel gets approved for YPP rewards and syncing. Alternatively a time interval which is something like "the highest voted channel per 24h interval is approved"
Inspiration + Benefits
Mirror.xyz executed something very similar to this some time ago and it was massively successful--it resulted in an extremely high grade of content for the most part and also generated intense discussion from the community and wider social media & web3 users as well as resulted in very proactive participants. *"$WRITE RACE is a weekly showdown between people joining the Mirror DAO. The community votes for who gets DAO membership next. At the end of each 2 hour round, the top 10 people are airdropped one $WRITE token, which can be redeemed for Mirror membership, a subdomain, and future community perks." - https://mirror.xyz/race
Some examples of engagement that $WRITE Race generated:
$WRITE race, there are many, many mentions of it.I fully believe that utilizing such a system to approve YPP channels would serve Joystream well into the future (it can be carried on after JSG's YPP program ends) and it would help with our outreach and marketing initiatives to have people being excited about how many votes their channel currently has--it would be amazing to see content creators asking their audiences to vote for their channel to be approved for YPP using social media and could immensely help with awareness of our platform.
Most importantly it will allow for the DAO community to be proactive and have a say about the types of content it wants to have and reward on the platform--this is hugely important to fostering a community of content creators who are actively engaged with our platform and who make high quality content and is something that is simply not achievable by relying upon YouTube metrics entirely.