Should we move Lido forum from Discourse to a Web3 Native Forum System - Metaforo.io

Proposals
1

Basic Details:

Project Name: Metaforo - Web3 Native Forum for Web 3 Governance

Team Name: Metaforo

Project Overview

Metaforo Website: https://www.metaforo.io

Discord: Metaforo.io

Twitter: https://twitter.com/realmetaforo

Youtube: Case Study - Shapeshift Migrating to Metaforo from Discourse

Deck: Metaforo.io

Overview

The forum is a critical piece of infrastructure for any DAO. It’s where community members come together to brainstorm ideas, draft proposals, give feedback on each other’s ideas, and generally coordinate to get things done. It’s critically important for DAOs that their forums are decentralized and owned by community members. Many crypto projects and DAOs have their communities on Discourse. However, because Discourse is a web2 tool with centralized data ownership and other limitations, some projects are looking for Web3 forum tooling alternatives.

Metaforo is a Web3 native forum that has many of the same features as a traditional forum system, such as creating topics, commenting, liking, and polling. But it is web3 native. All content is stored on Arweave, and all governance processes are token-gated and token-weighted.

Problems:

Discourse is a web2 tool with centralized data ownership and other limitations, including:

  • Sybil attacks: These occur when multiple fake email addresses are used to abuse the governance process.
  • Lack of on-chain proof of work: This can make it difficult to verify the authenticity of proposals and votes.
  • Lack of motivation for contributors, including low participation rates in voting.
  • No Web 3 access control to discussions and voting: This means that the platform is not as secure or decentralized.
  • No token-weighted voting: Without this, voting power is not distributed fairly among stakeholders.
  • No display of snapshot strategies: This can make it hard for users to understand how proposals are being evaluated and selected.
  • Lack of DAO ownership: This means that the community does not have full control over the platform and its decision-making processes.
  • Centralized data storage.
  • Monthly subscription fee.

Solutions:

Metaforo is Web3 native with decentralized data ownership

  • Wallet connections are used to reinforce identity validation and prevent Sybil attacks on voting.
  • The DAO Admin can issue SBT (Staked Based Token) to members as proof of work, increasing the authenticity of proposals and votes.
  • Wallet integration makes it easy to reward contributors with tokens, NFTs, and POAPs.
  • A mobile app with push notifications is available to encourage higher voting participation rates.
  • Token gated pools are supported, and voting power is calculated using snapshot strategies to ensure fair distribution of voting power.
  • Snapshot strategies are displayed to keep the forum and governance processes in one place and make it easy to understand how proposals are being evaluated and selected.
  • Gnosis safe is supported to ensure that the DAO community has full ownership over the platform.
  • Decentralized data storage on Arweave.
  • Best of all, there is no monthly payment required to use Metaforo - it’s completely free to use!

What to Expect after Migrating to Metaforo from Discourse:

  • All members and content from your previous forum will be transferred to Metaforo.
  • Users can log in to their new Metaforo account using their Discourse account, and then connect their wallets to their email address.
  • Your forum URL will stay the same, and all existing thread URLs will be automatically updated to the new platform.
  • Metaforo offers an NFT and token-based permission system, which allows for specific token or NFT holders to join, view, vote, and more.
  • Multiple voting permission controls are available, including erc20, erc721, erc1155, and snapshot strategies.
  • Gnosis Safe login is supported so the DAO’s treasury can be appointed as the admin of the forum.
  • The best part is that all of these features are available at no cost to you and your team.

Some Crypto Projects that have made metaforo.io their new home recently

ShapeShift: https://forum.shapeshift.com/

BuilderDao: https://forum.builderdao.io/

Contact

Contact Name: Howdy

Contact Email: [email protected]

Discord: Bue | Metaforo#5801

Telegram: Telegram: Contact @Bluefishie

Contact Howdy for an obligation free demo and feel free to create a group on https://metaforo.io/ to get a feel of its feasibility. We are open to any custom feature requests.

Vote

For: Set up a test group on Metaforo.io to see if it’s a good fit for Lido.

Aainst: The current Discourse Community is good as it is, no need to look elsewhere.

2

Although research.lido.fi is the primary communication channel for everything Lido, the DAO doesn’t rely on it for governance. The Lido DAO is being governed in a decentralized manner via Aragon, Snapshot, and Easy Track. Thus, moving the forums to a Web 3 platform doesn’t look like a priority.
On the other hand, Metaforo could still be a good solution in terms of UX, e.g. does it have any specific features aimed at stimulating discussion participation? Community involvement seems to be one of the most obvious problems of the existing forums.

2 Likes
3

I would propose Lido to consider Commonwealth as a new research forum.

I will leave the “sales pitch” to this thread:

Am curious as to any feedback from the public!

1 Like
4

I think a web3-forward message board that also does a good job of integrating the various governance channels Lido has (this forum, snapshot, Aragon) would be great. I’m a bit hesitant about potentially making a move and breaking the current status quo which seems to be working decently well (good engagement from various parties).

I have a few questions (and these apply to any potential solution we may consider)

What is stored on Arweave in general? How are things like DMs treated? How does the app itself work (is it frontend only + “serverless” (data is only on arweave and read from there when needed) or is there a backend as well? Where and who runs the frontend (and backend, if applicable)?

That’s really cool. How does that work exactly and for how long?

Is this required or more like an “and/or” option?

Lido DAO is based off of Aragon. Is that supported?

For how long / what’s the eventual business model?

4 Likes
5

Thank you for the feedback.
In addition to the easy reward/token feature, we have a mobile app that sends real-time push notifications to members to encourage discussion and voting participation. Based on our experience with mobile community app users, they are more likely to react to a push notification on their phone than an email in their inbox.

1 Like
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  1. All main content is stored on Arweave. From discussions to voting results. There are links for you to see the discussions and voting results on Arweave.
    Discussion stored on Arweave
    Pasted_Image_2023_3_1__17_56
    Pasted_Image_2023_3_1__17_562140×1124 239 KB

Voting Results stored on Arweave.
https://arweave.net/tx/UJm2b5gOezHKFIDxrPdX6qkRkheAJY4T6vSBm4RsE7s/data.csv

Our front end is currently hosted on our server as a JavaScript Single Page Application, but it can be served from anywhere. Additionally, we are developing a backend using Node.js, which will allow anyone to run the full service using Docker.

  1. Metaforo supports custom domain setup, which allows you to continue using your custom domain for your forum on Metaforo. The old forum thread links will be redirected to the new forum thread. This means that if you bookmarked an old thread on Discourse, after migration, clicking on the old link will redirect you to the new thread on metaforo.

  2. It’s optional. You can set your forum gatekeeper using the token and NFT threshold. For sub-forums, you can use your members’ discord Title to decide whether the title holder has access to the subforum or not. Or you can choose not to set any token threshold limit for all, just use admin/mod and normal user settings.

  3. Aragon offers robust third-party API support. The method of communication between your community and Aragon depends on your preferences. We are open to discussing how we can assist with your customized feature requests, as we value feature requests from all ecosystems. i.e. if you have a multisign wallet on Aragon, you’d like to appoint that address to be your forum admin, we can support that with no problems.

  4. The service provided by Metaforo is free and will remain so. However, we plan to introduce new paid services in the future, such as bounty trackers and treasury dashboards. Any services that are free today will continue to be free.

2 Likes
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@Izzy and @GrStepanov
Is there a point of contact I can get in touch with to discuss this further on the lido team?

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Heya! I’d guess not atm; if anything — ping me in tg@kadmil