What would you like to see in a DAO profile?

Diamond DAO
#1

Background

Diamond DAO is building a knowledge graph to power Chainverse, a tool for helping people find Web3 communities worth backing, starting with investors.

We envision exposing the knowledge graph to users through three components: user profiles, community (DAO) profiles, and feeds.

User profiles will allow users to share interests, experiences, and curated feeds on topics they care about.

Feeds will help users navigate information overload by surfacing developments relevant to them and their network.

DAO profiles will feature information relevant to helping users understand and navigate DAOs. We envision three types of information here: information we can scrape, information we can query, and information we will crowdsource from users.

Diamond DAO’s focus for our first season (Season 0) will be building the most comprehensive DAO discovery platform. This DAOrectory, if you will, will be a critical step towards our ultimate goal; creating a platform that empowers our community to build Web3’s missing meaning layer.

How you can help

We need community members to help dream up the ideal DAO profile.

Some questions that might prime ideas:

  • What is the first thing you notice about a DAO?
  • If you’re active in DAOs, how did you find out about them? What made you decide to dive into their Discords?
  • Are their “red flags” that would turn you off from a DAO?
  • How would you recommend a DAO to your friend?
  • What takes you the most time to figure out about DAOs?
  • What makes you decide to invest in a DAO?
  • What tools do you use to find DAOs now? What do you like about them? What don’t you like about them?

Once again – these questions are just inspiration. Please share your thoughts however works best for you.

Please reply by next Wednesday, January 19, to ensure your feedback can be incorporated into planning for our next sprint.

We will host a brainstorming session at 10:30 AM PST Wednesday, January 19. If you can’t make it, please make sure to leave your thoughts here, in the forum. We will record & take notes as well.

Look forwarding to hearing everyone’s ideas :slight_smile:

#3

RESPONSE FROM ANDY (MORNING STRATEGY)

THOUGHTS FROM ANDY (Morning Strategy)

My thoughts

  • What is the first thing you notice about a DAO?
    • Clarity of purpose
      • the DAO’s forward facing content (website) and stated mission - I’m looking to make sense of the ecosystem, so I want to know what the DAO intends to do - mission, goals, etc.
        • once I find this content, it’s usually the quality I notice first - does it look professional…or clean? It doesn’t have to look like a fancy webpage or anything, but it needs to be clean and direct
        • are they making themselves clear, do they know what they want to achieve
    • Category/type of DAO:
      • I’m also not interested in crypto, so if I see that the DAO is an NFT factory or similar, I move on.
  • If you’re active in DAOs, how did you find out about them? What made you decide to dive into their Discords?
    • Mission/Values
      • I jumped on a few discords based solely on my answer above - the clarity of their vision and that vision’s alignment with my own.
    • Personal Connection / Trusted Web Content
      • I’m only active in Diamond Dao’s Discord
        • found the DAO through @Christian Lemp after a twitter conversation on an unrelated topic (complexity). Then I started reading some of Christian’s other online content, noticed a bunch of web3/DAO talk, and reached out to ask about resources to understand web3/DAO’s. He was like, “this is Diamond, come check it out.”
  • Are their “red flags” that would turn you off from a DAO?
    • Discord flags
      • Very little activity (few channels, few posts)
      • too much random/distracting activity across channels - unrelated to DAO and spread outside of the “general” or “watercooler” type channel
      • personalities that appear to clash with mine
    • Nothing has been done, or nothing to do
      • similar to very little activity in discord, but more about the broader work the DAO is doing
      • I’m interested to know what the DAO has achieved and what they need help with (bounty board)
    • DAO is full - more people than available jobs to be done
      • I like smaller groups, so if I get the sense that there’s a lot of people hovering around looking to get involved, I’m likely to move on.
    • Consolidation of power / centralization
      • if there are signs that a few people are making all the decisions, then I’m not really interested (unless there are only a few active members)
    • Non-inclusive Approach
      • some DAO’s (Raid Guild) use this really confrontational language throughout their materials - raiding (like pillaging?) for example. It feels like a game for a specific kind of person, and I think about the people who aren’t going to feel comfortable engaging in this sort of, masculine - war-centred dialogue.
    • Purely driven by finances
      • as stated at the top, I’m interested in strong mission/goals, not just some people trying to take advantage of crypto popularity to make some cash (though like a lot of people, I would love to jump on a free- or cheap-cash train.)
    • Just playin
      • If I’m going to invest my time/energy/money, I want to do it in a focused way with people who are committed to the DAO’s mission. I get turned away when I see people who aren’t driven to push their mission forward.
  • How would you recommend a DAO to your friend?
    • I would start with the general feeling of my experience (exciting to be a part of Diamond DAO)
    • then mission or purpose and what’s been accomplished to date
    • then to current strategy/phase of the DAO (eg, iteration, implementation)
    • then to the opportunities to get involved - jobs to be done,
    • In general, I’m talking about the DAO like any other org - as an opportunity to build and grow yourself in parallel with a community of like-minded people.
  • What takes you the most time to figure out about DAOs?
    • where they are
      • where are their forward-facing materials - website, mission, plans, manifestos
      • where do they meet (discord)
      • where do they do their work (Clarity)
    • how effective they’re likely to be
      • after finding information, I want to know what the DAO’s potential is
        • how big are they thinking
        • is it new ground or old
        • are they positioned or at least thinking about their own path/roadmap in a structured sense
        • do the people involved know have the skills to bring the mission to fruition
  • What makes you decide to invest in a DAO?
    • exactly above - mission and people - is the DAO doing something I think has value and potential, and can I work with the people
  • What tools do you use to find DAOs now? What do you like about them? What don’t you like about them?
    • web search (super flexible bit also scattered and lacking any trust indicators)
    • word of mouth (slow - I don’t know that many people in the space, so I don’t hear about many other DAOs)
#4

What is the first thing you notice about a DAO?

The stated purpose, design vibes, and if they have any content posted (Mirror, blog, whitepaper, etc)

If you’re active in DAOs, how did you find out about them? What made you decide to dive into their Discords?

I was interested in process design / org dynamics from my work background in operations research, and community building from my various leadership activities over the years.

Around 2017 consultants started proposing blockchain use cases to many large companies, where I first got exposed. From there I learned about DAOs on my own time, but didn’t immediately go down the rabbit hole.

In 2020 I started researching Ethereum smart contracts and how to use methods from complex systems to understand emergent org dynamics. From there I found Creator Cabins, who helped me onboard to web3 with wallet, tokens, etc. From there I met @amphiboly.eth and we’ve been on the journey ever since.

The main reason I join a DAO’s Discord now is to keep up to date with major developments (Cabin, Mirror, etc), or ask questions about the platform/protocol (DAOhaus, Ceramic, Prime DAO, etc).

Are their “red flags” that would turn you off from a DAO?
Lots of hype with little work to show for it. Too cliquey of behavior from community. Scheme vibes.

How would you recommend a DAO to your friend?
There are only a few DAOs I recommend to friends; if they’re new and want to learn about web3 I invite them to Diamond DAO as a starting point. Otherwise the DAOs I recommend are those that my trusted network has had a good experience in - Developer DAO, Cabin, Meta Gamma Delta, etc.

What takes you the most time to figure out about DAOs?
What the f*&( is really going on. What work is being planned? Is there a specific goal in mind, or is more focused on community building around a common interest?

What makes you decide to invest in a DAO?
If I’m really excited about the community and want to remain connected, or if I have strong conviction in the product/purpose the DAO is working toward. In either case, I need to have some personal connection to someone involved before contributing.

What tools do you use to find DAOs now? What do you like about them? What don’t you like about them?
My main tool to find new DAOs is Twitter. I like it because I have a trusted network making recommendations about cool new projects to check out.

#5

RESPONSE FROM FERNANDO

What is the first thing you notice about a DAO?

I try finding a good Docs page explaining what the DAO is trying to achieve and how. If there is a Discord, I will jump right in and look for some “resources” or “useful links” section.

If you’re active in DAOs, how did you find out about them? What made you decide to dive into their Discords?

Most of the DAOs I participate in some form today I discovered through:

  • Twitter
  • Podcasts
  • Other DAOs discord or partnerships

Most of the DAOs I participate currently are on DeFi. So I would always check or get to know what the DAO is trying to build, learn more about their product and then jump into Discord to check the community. If I find the Discord organized and containing relevant discussions or good signal/noise ratios, I will stick with it.

Are there “red flags” that would turn you off from a DAO?

  • Announcements asking for sketchy things from community (like post attacking other protocols or post aggressive content).
  • Too much “token hodl” conversation.
  • Aggressive admins/mods
  • Lack of productive conversation (around the DAO “product”/s or objectives)

How would you recommend a DAO to your friend?

First, I would try to assess what are the interests of this friend and then see if I happen to know DAOs in these spaces that I would consider a good fit. If I didn’t know any, I would check the DAOs or people in the space that I already follow and see if there is any DAO in that specific matter that they mention or already participate. Then I would check these “recommendations” and then select the ones I think are the best.

What takes you the most time to figure out about DAOs?

What are the DAOs current objectives and how they are acting towards it. Also, who are the main contributors to what? Are there reliable people to ask questions about specific things about the DAO?

What makes you decide to invest in a DAO?

For me is the combination of 3 things:

  • If I believe or find the DAO product/objective is interesting
  • The community is well organized and inclusive
  • There is a clear way for me to check how I can help or be part in a meaningful way of this DAO

Diamond DAO for me was:

  • I found Chainverse and the problem that the DAO is trying to solve very interesting and useful
  • DAO members were very warm and inclusive since I joined the Discord
  • There was a very clear documentation and processes on how to contribute and be part of DiamondDAO.

What tools do you use to find DAOs now? What do you like about them? What don’t you like about them?

My main tools are Twitter and podcasts. The good part of these tools is that they work on other people recommendations, and as the time passes and I get better in curating these “feeds” I can get good signal/noise recommendations. The big (and very annoying) problem with this approach is that I miss on nascent interesting DAOs that did not get into mainstream yet, or for some reason are out of my curated feed.

I also think that, when you are new to DAOs and web3 nascent DAOs are the best learning opportunity you can have, once you can have the chance to grow and get to know the DAO before it gets too big (and sometimes overwhelming).