π POST: Status traps and "universal basic status" in social networks.
Modeling social networks with economic tools lets us see how social networks struggle with high status inequality and pose challenges for newcomers.
This was a fun one to write.
π:a16zcrypto.com
Modeling social networks with economic tools lets us see how social networks struggle with high status inequality and pose challenges for newcomers.
This was a fun one to write.
π:a16zcrypto.com
This came out of several white boarding sessions with founders and builders on common patterns that make networks fail or succeed.
One common failure pattern: most social networks confer status and high status "inequality" (measured by Gini coefficient) and low mobility is bad.
One common failure pattern: most social networks confer status and high status "inequality" (measured by Gini coefficient) and low mobility is bad.
It especially poses a problem for newcomers who
a) model the wrong behavior
b) find the "game" too hard to play or
c) protests from entrenched users who resist change/make it harder for newcomers to grow.
a) model the wrong behavior
b) find the "game" too hard to play or
c) protests from entrenched users who resist change/make it harder for newcomers to grow.
I walk through a few common (and uncommon) ways to tackle this.
- "Universal basic status" (various ways to confer temporary status on newcomers to help with mobility)
- decaying status
- resetting the overall "meta".
- "Universal basic status" (various ways to confer temporary status on newcomers to help with mobility)
- decaying status
- resetting the overall "meta".
This was a lot of fun to write and in sharing this with friends, we all got to debate a lot of historical social network product changes and patterns through this lens.
I mention a few but there are several more examples in each category of problem and solution.
I mention a few but there are several more examples in each category of problem and solution.
Lots of people to thank.
First, @eugenewei for his magnum opus piece that inspired this a couple of years ago.
@dwr, @antoniogm , @skominers , @balajis for input and conversations that shaped this.
@add_hawk for his fantastic Twitter paper.
First, @eugenewei for his magnum opus piece that inspired this a couple of years ago.
@dwr, @antoniogm , @skominers , @balajis for input and conversations that shaped this.
@add_hawk for his fantastic Twitter paper.
Enjoy! -> a16zcrypto.com
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