After posting a few days ago that I deleted my Reddit account, I have to say, initially, I thought something was missing. But now I can confidently say that I can do without Reddit. Now the question arises for me: How can Stacker.News become more known to attract even more users?
Patience.
Just keep exploring, zapping, boosting, and sending sats to others. Zap things that you like. This rewards those who like sats and also, surprisingly will broaden the base of ideas and knowledge. Some things might be negative or positive. Who knows?
It's cultivation. Instead of an algorithm to spin you up, you have to choose your own adventure. The platform detects where the sats go and it places those on top by funding.
Personally I have been online writing since Geocities in the late 1990s. In one month here I have been rewarded in purchasing power more than I have in 25 years! The only thing I actually did better was in person 'Zine sales. I could actually pay a bar tab by shilling my Xerox rag. But it was a lot of work. I was lucky also because I had people smarter than me helping to make it look good. I was the sales guy.
Reddit, I have never enjoyed. Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter all of these I would spend more time on writing and all that happened was that I was exhausted by arguing or I would write a long piece and get crickets. For my own blog I tried ads and then I hated them for slowing it down. Ads suck. I know you know this, I know this, we all know this but it needs to be stated. We are providing the content but we are not being compensated for our time on those other platforms. We are mined for fiat. Here ads are done but it is clear and sometimes it is interesting so good for the people who post.
Sharing a post here is very good because automatically your handle is appended on the end as a referral. That's good. You can also when you are out of ideas, take the time to read someone else's work. Zap it if that person took time to write even if you disagree! Or don't. Practice writing. Somethings I've written here a very long post and earned 1 sat. Some things I thought were just interesting earned 800 sats. In the fiat world these are nothing but in Bitcoin these are crazy numbers.
Here is kind of a casino, too. You walk in and fund the house. Sats fly around. Maybe you get rugged in the end. I can say that no one has rugged me worse than I have rugged myself. The team here is really doing something amazing. You have asked a great question. Please ask more questions.
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I’m amazed at the level and depth of your thinking behind your TL;DR (Patience). Haha
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I had forgotten about Geocities. We've come a long way.
I need to get a post up for all the new users explaining why so many of us zap in such large amounts so often. "Cultivation" is a great word to encapsulate it.
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  1. Lose the maxi posture. As long as SN is seen (for a reason) as yet another BTC maxis den, it will not grow significantly. Maximalism is toxic, counter-productive, and overall stupid. Embrace open-mindedness instead.
  2. Advertise. Organic growth is obv not enough. We need to promote SN beyond Bitcoin-only circles. Want to compete with Reddit? Advertise on it, underlining SN's better proposition ("A Reddit with actual rewards in BTC").
  3. Revamp. SN interface is too minimalist and cryptic to attract a large crowd. Work on design and usability to make it more user friendly.
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Maxi

Stacker runs on Bitcoin. Asking for there not to be a maximalist position is like asking Chuckie Cheese to accept tokens from other casino chains. It's like asking a Las Vegas casino to accept tokens from another casino that isn't part of the business. It's like asking Delta to accept sky miles from American Airlines. The main difference is that the sats here can be taken via lightning to other places. Stacker is a platform for using Bitcoin and if it is a good currency then it will be useful if not, then it will die.
Having wasted plenty of time shitcoining I can fairly say that it's all a scam. Bitcoin is by no means a finished product. As much as I get frustrated with some things about it I am still confident that the more I learn about it the more I realize that there is plenty of room for growth. The trick for me is to not sell it for fiat, but also not to get fiat broke so that I need to sell my bitcoin. Instead I want to invest in the whole Bitcoin ecosystem and see it blossom to the point where we don't have the machinations of central banking.

Advertise

Your point on advertising is mute. Stacker does advertise. Here is how it works: Share a post. You will have your handle appended to the post and you will be rewarded by bringing a new person onto the platform or you will encourage attention to another user which increases the funding.

Revamp

Stacker is changing all the time. If you have a code suggestion please submit it. If your suggestions earn more sats you will become an oracle of wisdom. I would like to show a courtesy to you by zapping your above response but maybe I should not. I have mixed feelings. I think I will pass and if my post response sucks others will ignore mine, too.
Merry Christmas. Keep Stacking.
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Your comment is so absurd I don't even know where to start...
Your analogy with casino chips is priceless since, precisely, casino chips (something that has zero value outside of a very limited perimeter) are the exact opposite of what Bitcoin is supposed to be.
Just because SN uses BTC as a currency does NOT imply (at all) it's supposed to be a cult. Bitcoin is intended to be a universal currency, regardless of borders, politics, religions and all. Pretending that a website should adhere to a specific vision or pseudo philosophy, just because it uses BTC, totally contradicts that.
I maintain that it's a big mistake to keep this stance, as it can only prevent SN from reaching mainstream.
Bitcoiners do not form a community. The more Bitcoin is seen as a community (and even more as a community of toxic die-hard maxis), the more it means it's failing.
Bitcoin will be an actual success when your grand'ma will use apps and services that reward her in BTC, and she will find it normal. That's why SN has a huge potential, showing the way of Bitcoin becoming a natural currency of choice for online services. This has nothing to do with the cult-oriented mindset shown by the 1% of Bitcoiners who can't admit reality.
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I think you missed something...
The main difference is that the sats here can be taken via lightning to other places. Stacker is a platform for using Bitcoin and if it is a good currency then it will be useful if not, then it will die.
My analogy was just that. It's a casino if you have to exchange the reward for something else. It's not a casino if the rewards are self evident and useful.
Shitcoins are not useful because they are exit strategies for Fiat. Bitcoin is an exit strategy from Fiat.
If you want to build another platform using another currency then do it. If it is good it will be successful. If it sucks it will just empty the pockets of those who worked to exchange Fiat for shiat. It's a casino.
Bitcoin is not the first electronic money. The telegraph of 1830s sent FIAT. Big deal.
Bitcoin isn't finished but it's good enough to work here as a system for reward. If you want to take it and put it on chain and then exchange it for brave token. Be my guest.
You will waste time and energy due to the rent seeking FIAT CURRENCY world.
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Delta should really accept miles from AA...
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Some businesses have business models that accept coupons or sales of competitors. This is less expensive than advertising because the customer has gone directly to the vendor.
Airlines work on very tight margins and the flight miles are actually fees paid to them by credit card vendors via purchase fees that vendors pay credit card companies. This is how FOLD is able to give a percentage of sats for debit card purchases. This Fiat funding allows the Airline companies to front run inflation but only with loyalty of customers.
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I believe I have interesting insights to share on this matter. I used to post religiously on Reddit every day, specifically r/cryptocurrency in an attempt to find its in-house crypto called moons. Subsequently I got banned on this subreddit, so I moved on to r/ethtrader which also distributes its crypto called Donuts. But after i discovered the unique selling propositions of Stacker News, i have almost stopped posting on r/ethtrader.
I think what encourages me to spend more time here is:
  1. how polite Stackers are. Some people routinely begin their comments with a “Thank you for sharing”, which just warms this writer’s heart. It makes me feel respected and acknowledged. I also find that even when people have something critical to say to me, they are rather civil. Which makes me respect their opinions more because surely they have better things to do than risk incurring the displeasure of a random Internet stranger. But they still bother to type all these words to explain their perspective.
  2. how knowledgeable Stackers are. I think the thing that never ceases to impress me is the esoteric knowledge displayed so casually by Stackers. I have people quoting politicians, philosophers, poets like nobody’s business. Other places on the Internet behave like a boring echo chamber - you just come across posts that you find so familiar that you can almost write them yourself. This is certainly not so for Stacker News. And another amazing thing, people type incredibly looooooooong responses here. You can’t say that they are doing it in the name of shitposting - for there’s the risk of receiving petty sats. But Stackers go the extra mile by sharing their personal stories and professional take on matters. It humbles and inspires me.
So I feel that if we Stackers make a concerted effort to publicise these unique selling propositions of Stacker News, the people will come. Gradually, then suddenly. But the thing is, do we want to expand too fast too furious? SN feels like a hole-in-the-wall cafe that yields me more joy because I feel like an exclusive patron lol
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Shitcoiner: oh wow the people here are so nice
The people here: fuck off shitcoiner
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Haha, no one asked me to F off, not even when I posted something about Monero. Though someone did ask what possessed me to think that it would be well-received here haha. Anyway I stopped posting about SHITCOINS!
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This is a really good depiction of how I feel about Stacker News, too. My concern about promoting growth is that the rest of the internet is worse than Stacker News on the points you listed and we don't want to turn it into another toxic echo chamber. I hope people will be somewhat selective in who they promote Stacker News to.
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Ya I agree. Organic growth may be the best option after all. There is no need to pursue speed all the time
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Especially while we're still establishing the culture that we want to perpetuate, the focus should be on inviting people who will definitely be additive.
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Quality over quantity, definitely
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More stackers with knowledges beside Bitcoin articles will make stackerNews №1
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Wake me up when the first user joins SN because he's into fishing and enjoys the fishing territory on SN and didn't care about Bitcoin being used here
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I love this way of thinking. I stopped using Reddit when the killed the Apollo app (RIP) and now I’m a Stacker News enthusiast. Been much better this way :-)
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Stacker News has to be one of the things that gets people into Bitcoin. Not the thing that draws users from existing Bitcoin communities.
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Make it so profitable for Territory owners that they can't help but sing high praises about it. Content creators will flood from Reddit, Twitter, Quora.
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Keep building. They will come
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You pose a great question. I definitely think that the zapping is a super power here - makes the site a lot of fun to contribute to.
Genuine question though - how does SN cope with people zapping their own content massively with their own separate account? As that’s straight away what all the altcoiners / self promoters etc will do?
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🍊💊
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