SourceCred impressions, AMA

[s_ben]

Hi, this is Seth from the SourceCred community. It’s been amazing to watch the hive come alive these last few days, with SourceCred distributing real amounts of HNY according to Cred scores (50 HNY currently being distributed is worth ~$69k xDAI at the time of writing ). It’s also been interesting to see how people interact with SourceCred via emojis on Discord, s on the forum, and code contributions on GitHub. And to watch the first person try and game the algorithm (NotJoe ).

SourceCred is also very new, and sometimes difficult for people to wrap their head around. @Eth_Man has linked to some good resources in their support thread, but I wanted to give people a chance to ask any questions they may have about SourceCred. Ask Me Anything (AMA), and I’ll do my best to answer (or find someone who can). Would also love to hear any feedback you may have on SourceCred. Good, bad, ugly, we’re curious how your experience is going so far!

[zco]

@s_ben

Hi, this is Seth from the SourceCred community. It’s been amazing to watch the hive come alive these last few days, with SourceCred distributing real amounts of HNY according to Cred scores (50 HNY currently being distributed is worth ~$69k xDAI at the time of writing ). It’s also been interesting to see how people interact with SourceCred via emojis on Discord, s on the forum, and code contributions on GitHub. And to watch the first person try and game the algorithm (NotJoe ).

How do I get a Cred score?

[s_ben]

@zco

How do I get a Cred score?

Every person who makes a contribution that is tracked by SourceCred (e.g. your post that I’m replying to), is automatically assigned a Cred score. Currently, SourceCred is tracking Discord, Discourse and 1Hive GitHub repos.

[zco]

That sounds awesome! You can get Cred for posting in the SourceCred Discord… or the 1Hive Discord? Or the 1Hive Discourse?

How do I set it up?

EDIT: Figured it out. You have to go to the #onboarding channel on the 1Hive Discord.

[s_ben]

@zco

That sounds awesome! You can get Cred for posting in the SourceCred Discord… or the 1Hive Discord? Or the 1Hive Discourse?

Yes, yes, and yes! Currently, on Discord, Cred is “minted” (created) when someone reacts to a message your post with an emoji ( ). On Discourse, Cred is minted from likes ( s). Newly minted Cred then flows through the Cred graph to other nodes (users and contributions) that you have interacted with.

You can get Cred for posting in SourceCred as well. 1Hive has customized the weights on their SourceCred instance, so Cred may flow a little differently here.

[zco]

That’s sounds in-Cred-ible!

[cryptoclip]

I was going to post that but you bee-t me to it

[Harry]

How is the division of total Cred awards available between Discourse, Discord and Github? Said differently: should I learn how to code instead of sticking to writing memes ?

[Harry]

Oh and while we are at Dad Jokes level: Where can I apply for my Cred-it Card?
(Hive-ive to all Dad Jokers!)

[Pierrick]

@s_ben

currently being distributed

Thanks for the explanation!

Quick question about Discord: Why is Cred only minted when someone reacts to a message you post with emojis?

Seems to be pretty difficult to quantify only the quality of a message, so I guess it is why only post with emojis reactions get Cred minted, but you can help someone and then they only respond with “Thanks” and you don’t get any Cred for it, when obviously your response was valuable.

[s_ben]

Ba-dum-bzzzzz

Here all night folks

[therfnoob]

hi @s_ben, is there a page where we can check how much CRED we have earned?

I mean something like: https://makerdao.sourcecred.io/#/accounts

thanks!

[solarmkd]

Great question you beat me to it.

My question would be are you getting rewarded only after you do the onboarding or the script checks even in the past for cred ? In short how the algorithm works and does it count all time or only after you are onboarded.

[cryptoclip]

@Pierrick

Seems to be pretty difficult to quantify only the quality of a message, so I guess it is why only post with emojis reactions get Cred minted, but you can help someone and then they only respond with “Thanks” and you don’t get any Cred for it, when obviously your response was valuable.

Have been wondering this as well e.g. if someone says thanks but no emoji then no cred generated? it is quite often the case.

[s_ben]

@Pierrick

Quick question about Discord: Why is Cred only minted when someone reacts to a message you post with emojis?

As you say, it’s difficult to quantify the quality of a message. If you mint on activity alone, the system is vulnerable to spam attacks (e.g. post a bunch of low-effort messages and farm Cred). If you mint on responses alone, it’s vulnerable to collusions attacks (which we’ve already seen our first of (someone liking all their memes with a Sibyl account)). In our experience so far, minting on responses improves score quality because there is some level of review. If you have effective community moderation to address collusion or other issues, that appears to be the sweet spot. If there are issues with this approach, you can always tweak the weights to mint more on activity, reward certain actions more than others, or deploy other gaming mitigation strategies.

@Pierrick

Seems to be pretty difficult to quantify only the quality of a message, so I guess it is why only post with emojis reactions get Cred minted, but you can help someone and then they only respond with “Thanks” and you don’t get any Cred for it, when obviously your response was valuable.

So, this comes down largely to community norms, or “Cred-equite”. Since SourceCred is new, and many people may not even know their emojis mint Cred, they may just say Thanks and not flow Cred. I’ve seen this happen a number of times on the 1Hive discord. Once community members become aware of how the system works, their behavior is likely to adapt. In SourceCred, it’s been very interesting to watch norms around emoji reactions form. Full disclosure: I’m a ‘reactor’ (I tend to react more than most in the SourceCred community). I expect each community will see unique patterns and norms emerge that reflect and enforce their culture.

[s_ben]

@solarmkd

My question would be are you getting rewarded only after you do the onboarding or the script checks even in the past for cred ? In short how the algorithm works and does it count all time or only after you are onboarded.

The algorithm will automatically assign a Cred score to every contribution and contributor in the Cred graph. No onboarding required. Onboarding is required only if you’re opting in to receiving HNY.

Cred is also retroactive. If a contribution is later found valuable and referenced by many other contributions and contributors, its Cred score will go up.

[s_ben]

@Harry

How is the division of total Cred awards available between Discourse, Discord and Github? Said differently: should I learn how to code instead of sticking to writing memes ?

Currently, each platform roughly has a weight vs other platforms. Then within each platform, there are weights specific to that platform. E.g. in the Discourse plugin, you can change how much Cred is flowed for a reference to another person (e.g. @Harry), how much a like is worth, etc. Already, 1Hive decided a few days ago that it was flowing too much Cred on Discord and not enough to GitHub, so it increased the weights on GitHub. It seems fairly balanced for now, so you’re not being forced to learned to code, yet

This design is a bit crude in some respects. For instance, it doesn’t do a good job of capturing labor that doesn’t end up in one of the supported platforms (emotional labor, project management, outreach, etc.). It also doesn’t do a great job capturing contributions that span platforms. This is why we are working on (among other things) a “Creditor” plugin, which allows you to create more expressive “super nodes” that consist of more granular contributions.

[s_ben]

@therfnoob

hi @s_ben, is there a page where we can check how much CRED we have earned?

We hope to soon. The issue I believe is caused by GitHub API rate limiting. There are so many repos in the 1Hive GitHub that the instance runs into errors when it tries to generate a static site like the one Maker uses (which only loads data from their forum). A fix is in the works for that. In the meantime, you can just pull the site and run it locally on your machine if that’s an option.

[Eth_Man]

@s_ben

We hope to soon. The issue I believe is caused by GitHub API rate limiting. There are so many repos in the 1Hive GitHub that the instance runs into errors when it tries to generate a static site like the one Maker uses (which only loads data from their forum). A fix is in the works for that. In the meantime, you can just pull the site and run it locally on your machine if that’s an option.

I can confirm talking to @befitsandpiper about this - it is in the works if that rate limiting issue can be fixed.

I also want to say that even if signed up or not there are nodes assigned to users and CRED flows normally even if you didn’t sign up. Once you sign up the code assigned to your node will connect to your user nickname and then you start getting the grain your account is generating as well. WIthout signing up (and I am not sure about this) I think you lose your grain but your CRED still grows.

Pollen/grain Honey Payouts are once a week and currently being done manually by @befitsandpiper

[befitsandpiper]

yep, you accrue cred even if you do not sign up. You do not start getting grain(honey) until you sign up. You do not lose your grain though. SourceCred will play “catch up” over future distributions after you sign up until you are paid for all of your contributions.