This has now been submitted. Obviously parts of Phase 0 are already delivered to provide this platform for engagement and discussion of proposals.
Project Name: Zenon Community Forum
Description: Deploy a community forum for Zenon Network where people can post questions, ideas or thoughts. Initially, the forum will focus on general discussion, technical support, how-to’s, development, marketing and Accelerator-Z proposals. A key early goal is to make the forum a location where A-Z proposals can be raised and discussed as a way for Pillar owners to be able to find out more information about proposals prior to voting. Longer term we envision integration with Syrius and decentralization from both a hosting and administrative standpoint. Longer term the community will administer and moderate the forum and decide on its direction through voting and feedback and be funded via a self-sufficiency strategy.
URL: https://forum2.zenon.org/
Phases
We propose 3 phases during the initial 12 months of the forum to establish its presence, grow in stature, and become self-sufficient.
Phase 0
High level overview of main tasks:
- Build a working forum based on open source software (discourse.org)
- Configure categories, groups, and remaining forum structure
- Create and document backup and disaster recovery plan
- Identify at least 2 dedicated administrators and at least 2 dedicated moderators
- A focus on identifying key community members and Pillar owners and gaining their involvement in the forum
- Provide regular public updates (at least every 2 weeks) outlining progress
- Focus on providing a transparent medium for users to explain and ‘sell’ their Accelerator-Z proposals to the community
- Providing a mechanism for Pillar owners to ask questions of A-Z proposal owners prior to voting
- Initial content creation and member recruitment (via telegram)
Success/completion of Phase 0 will be measured by:
- The forum being built, configured and available to users
- Backup and DR plan being documented and reviewed by admins
- Development of A-Z categories and appropriate permissions
- Identification of moderators and administrators
Phase 1
High level overview of main tasks:
- Development of FAQs, help guides and ZNN related content
- A focus on growth of the member base
- Identification of additional moderators
- Commencement and advertising of sponsored articles to be written
- Fostering a strong community feel, providing a sense of ownership of content and control to the user base
- Start circulating and canvassing the community for ideas to make the forum self-sustainable
Success/completion of Phase 1 will be measured by:
- Growth of user base to a minimum of 100 users
- Sponsored articles/FAQs written and published on the forum (we deviated from originally stating 25 short articles and instead have gone for 1 in-depth FAQ - we felt this brought much more value to the community)
Phase 2
High level overview of main tasks:
- Split of hosting services across differing vendors and regions
- Self-sufficiency model development and first draft
- The goal is after Phase 2 the forum will become self sustaining, either through community funding or self sustaining initiatives.
Success/completion of Phase 2 will be measured by:
- Community review of decentralization efforts/proposal
- Draft self-sufficiency plan finalised and circulated within the community for comment and review (main goal to provide a solid foundation to ensure appropriate hosting funding for the foreseeable future)
Team: The day to day team comprises of @0x3639 and @romeo, with assistance from community members such as @cryptocheshire and @OGZenon. We have the skillsets required to build, configure and grow the forum during the initial phases and to hopefully establish the forum as a key communication and engagement medium going forward.
Funding
Total Requested Funding = 5,000 ZNN and 50,000 QSR
Project Duration = 12 months
Our funding model is split into 3 tiers, each with differing levels or criticality to the project:
Tier 1: Cover hosting costs and keep the forum running
Tier 2: Reimburse effort in establishing and maintaining the platform
Tier 3: Growth initiatives
Tier 1 funding is essential to the platforms existence and success of the project. Tier 2 is next in line as a means to ensure appropriate administration and moderation are factored into the short-term lifespan of the project - as well as reimburse the proposal submitters who have invested significant time, effort and money into establishing the forum. Tier 3 provides a paid basis for achieving growth, whether it be organically or targeted - and provides a desired level of flexibility to pivot where needed to grow the community.
Any spare funding will be filtered back up to Tier 1 - to provide a longer safety net of hosting whilst we design and develop a self-sustainable model for long term funding.
Project and Payment Milestones:
Phase 0
Funding Request: 30% (1500 ZNN and 15,000 QSR)
Duration: 3 months
The initial funding will cover setup costs and hosting for 3 months (April 1, 2022 to July 1, 2022). The monthly hosting costs of the forum are approximately $100/mo* currently and are growing to an expected $300/mo by phase end. Remaining ZNN and QSR for this phase will be distributed between administrators for time and effort as well as additional service provisioning as needed. Time will be estimated and recovered at the equivalent of $100 USD/Hour. All payments will be disclosed publicly. During this phase, @0x3639 has agreed to redistribute any time payments he receives back to the forum to pay for additional projects.
Phase 1
Funding Request = 50% (2500 ZNN and 25,000 QSR)
Duration 6 months
The second round of funding will cover hosting costs for months 4-9. Identified moderators and administrators will be compensated (per month with ZNN and QSR at a rate to be determined based on current ZNN value at the time) at the commencement of Phase 1 and will be expected to write articles to generate traffic and actively recruit new members as well as ensuring smooth operation of the forum. Funds will be allocated to forum improvements (APIs, code and graphics) and then the remaining funding is for 25 community written (forum style) articles with ~50znn (1250 total) and 500qsr (12500 total) reward allocated depending on content, size and complexity. With the potential for change in ZNN value going forward we will revise the article payment figures as needed to achieve a fair amount. If need arises, some of the sponsored article funding may be shifted to advertising or strategies to help grow membership. It is key to realise that any growth and engagement in the forum is likely directly proportional to the prevalence and awareness of Zenon. Any funds left over from Phase 1 will be consolidated into Tier 1 funding for contingency of hosting costs post phase 2.
Phase 2
Funding Request = 20% (1000 ZNN and 10,000 QSR)
Duration 3 months
The third round of funding will cover hosting costs for months 10-12 and cover the costs of shifting services to different service providers and regions. It is anticipated that higher spec VMs will be required at this stage if forum growth is successful. Forum moderators, community managers and/or administrators will continue to be reimbursed for the time. It will also be used to pay for the development of the self-sufficiency draft document and any required infrastructure to support it.
Estimated hosting costs for the first year are summarized in the below graph:
Other Information
We went back and forth on asking for the max allocation - but eventually came to the opinion that the forum stands to be a key tool in the growth of Zenon and its community. Other than payment to the creators during Phase 0 the vast majority of the funds will go towards hosting, growth initiatives, developing helpful and engaging content, fostering community involvement and decentralization efforts (to meet the ethos of the NoM). The growth of the forum is key to increased awareness and acceptance of Zenon and the Network of Momentum. We’ve driven to have the forum built prior to the commencement of A-Z to ensure there is a useful place to discuss proposals and to engage with Pillar owners.
Currently the forum resides as a sub-domain the the zenon.org foundation. It is important to note that the forum is independent of zenon.org but synergies exist between the two and the growth of one is directly beneficial to the other - and in turn the growth of ZNN. As such, we will continue to reside as forum.zenon.org for the proposal period with a view to adjust in the future as needed. The forum will remain a community asset going forward, and maximum effort will be placed into transitioning to community ownership as soon as possible (with romeo and 0x3639 stepping down into a community role when appropriate).
No previous submission has been made for this proposal. Thank you for your consideration.
