CONTRIBUTIONS.md

List of useful contributions

Summary

The scoring system for our community leaderboard is very dynamic and rewards a wide range of possible contributions to the success of the project.

For guidance purposes, we had initially proposed some suggested point scores for certain types of activity in this document, but upon reflection, we feel that this is not necessarily motivating the most effective or highest quality participation possible.

From now on, we would like to make it very clear that scores are highly dependent on a number of factors, just some of which are explained below:

• Relative utility of contributions - You should always think about the relative value of your activity compared to contributions made by other participants (e.g., if there are already hundreds of active validator nodes, the value to the project of you deciding to run a node is significantly reduced). Or, for example, if thousands of videos are being uploaded per week, one more upload is not worth very much.
• Creativity and uniqueness - Unique and creative contributions will always be rewarded generously, since we are very interested to see what our community members can come up with. On mainnet, it will be essential to have a community comprised of open-minded people who are willing to think creatively about how to solve problems which emerge.
• Technical complexity - In all cases, contributions which require some technical knowledge or coding will be very generously rewarded, since we need these kinds of people to deploy their talents as the platform evolves.
• Effort required - Clearly, running a Storage Provider or serving as a Council Member requires more effort than tweeting about the project or writing a forum post. In a similar way, there is a great variation in quality between different types of contribution (e.g., an active Council Member who enthusiastically discusses proposals vs. one who is elected and never votes). The effort you invest into your contributions will have a significant bearing on the points awarded. Even thoughtful tweets or memes will get many more points than spammy, low-quality ones.
• Good faith - If it is obvious, you are exaggerating or making false claims, you will be heavily penalized and in serious cases disqualified from the program.
• Evidence provided - You may have made some incredible contributions during a scoring period, but if you cannot effectively provide proof of this, you may not get the points you deserve. Jsgenesis reviewers receive hundreds of summaries every round, so make it easy for them to understand why you are great!
• Tangible impact - If it is very obvious that your contributions are making a big difference for users of the platform, you will be rewarded commensurately.
• On-chain - Contributions on-chain will generally be more valuable than those made off-chain. For example, a forum post is much preferred to a tweet. And uploading a tutorial video to the platform is much better than putting it on YouTube.

Please keep in mind that all points are ultimately awarded based on the judgement and discretion of Jsgenesis reviewers.

Below we have listed some exemplar contributions. As we learn more about the evolving ways in which our community want to contribute, we will update this list with further tasks.

Example Tasks

Network Integrity

• running a validator
  • since running a validator node contributes to the security of the platform and allows you to hook yourself up to the heart of our network, we want to recognize and reward this common and relatively straightforward first step towards further engagement in the project.
  • you should also be aware that validators can earn further formal rewards (redeemable for BCH) on our current testnet
  • note that you can only get leaderboard points for a single validator, as these are also rewarded in testnet tokens
• running a node
  • running a node (that is not validating) can have almost the same value as running a validator, is cheaper, easier, and comes with less risk:
    • you do not have to run your node with --pruning="archive" (less storage)
    • you don't need as good hardware, or connection (to other vals), to quickly validate and produce blocks
    • you don't need to stake, thus no risk getting slashed if your node goes down
    • on the downside, you do not produce blocks for the network, and don't earn block rewards
  • see more information here
  • because there is little additional benefit in terms of learning about the project from setting up more than one node, we are likely to offer smaller rewards for further nodes you set up, though these will still qualify for rewards.

Community Communication

• discussing the project on twitter/discord/telegram/reddit
  • sharing information and opinions about our project with others through social channels is a key way in which we can help drive more people to the platform
  • participating in meaningful discourse about Joystream will be rewarded, while remotely spammy activity will be disqualified from receiving points
  • quality beats quantity to a very substantial degree here!
• managing localized groups/communities
  • we are keen to make Joystream open to people from all over the world, and realize that Joystream enthusiasts may not always be native English speakers.
  • the creation of specific language Telegram or other chat groups about Joystream where members in a specific locality can discuss the project is certainly useful, and if done successfully may be rewarded with leaderboard points.
  • where there is already an established group for a given region or language, creating another one is unlikely to earn you any points
• writing blog posts about Joystream
  • we are keen for community members to explain aspects of the platform to new members, and blog posts on Medium or your personal blog etc. are a great way to share information, tutorials or your thoughts about the project.
  • the points received for blog posts will vary enormously: unoriginal translations of our content are likely to earn very few points while original and thoughtful posts written in English may earn a substantial number of points
• making interesting posts on the platform forum
  • the on-chain platform forum aims to be the hub of communication between our community members, so enriching this community space with high-quality posts is strongly encouraged and will receive generous rewards
• webinar/workshop/meetup
  • if you would like to organize some sort of event to discuss the platform, this is strongly encouraged
  • funding may also be available from the Council for these kinds of initiatives
• providing support in our Discord server
  • providing effective help to fellow participants and especially guiding new joiners through Discord is a critically important way in which our community can ensure its continued growth and ensure new participants are not lost in the broad scope of the project
• community proposals
  • if you have a big idea about some project, bounty or other improvement for the community, you can share it with us on GitHub, the platform forum or using the proposals system
  • depending on whether Jsgenesis and the community likes your idea, it is likely to be eligible for leaderboard points (in addition to funding via the platform)

Enriching Testnet

• improving content metadata and reporting issues to content curators
  • it's important that video content displayed on our testnet looks good, and if there are any issues with incorrect metadata, license, playback or associated media these should be reported to the Content Curators
• original content uploads
  • one of the simplest to add value to the network is by adding your own content to our content directory, as a result we will generously reward such contributions.
• uploading tutorial videos
  • tutorial videos are an excellent medium for helping people to get to grips with participating on the platform while also augmenting our growing library of content.
• uploading unique content to the platform
  • content uploaded doesn't all have to be strictly original, and public domain and creative commons-licensed uploads will also be eligible rewards if they are unique or interesting
  • duplicate and low-quality uploads will not qualify for rewards and content which is improperly licensed or breaks our Terms of Service may result in further penalties
• creating channels
  • as part of the above, organizing content uploaded into distinct channels with specific themes or content types will increase rewards

Coding

• developing tools outside the scope of official bounties (such as wallets, faucet, Discord/Telegram Bots, block explorers etc.), optionally through requesting funding through a Council spending proposal represent very valuable contributions to the project and will be rewarded generously with Founding Member points.
• completing coding bounties will also be rewarded (see Testnet Contributions below)

Creative/Design:

• designing media assets including illustrations, gifs, memes and infographics to be used by Jsgenesis and other project participants will be rewarded generously with leaderboard points.

Security

• identifying bugs
  • it is of critical importance that security issues in Joystream are identified and patched
  • participants who draw attention to or write detailed vulnerability reports about issues with our testnet will therefore be rewarded.

Testing

• feedback/suggestions on Joystream products
  • users who provide feedback on Joystream applications and offer suggestions for improvements (either through GitHub issues or on the platform forum) will receive leaderboard points
• detailed testing of Joystream products
  • those who want to conduct formal QA testing are likely to be rewarded to an even greater degree than the above

Testnet Contributions

• Bounties
  • The completion of official bounties can be included in your regular Founding Member summary and these will usually result in points being awarded. The number of leaderboard points will be proportional to the reward value of the bounty.
• KPIs
  • If you can provide evidence that you played a significant role in the Council achieving a specific KPI, you can also include this in your regular summary.
• Roles
  • Ongoing participation in platform roles will also qualify for leaderboard points.

Referrals

• Referring other people to the project who go on to submit leaderboard summaries will also qualify for rewards (they don't have to ultimately become Founding Members, just earn points).
  • At the moment the referral bonus is 20%, meaning you will earn 0.2x the points earned by your referrals.