Zet White : Alive again

Seeds and Gardens

Zet White said Dec 2, 2007, 3:20 PM:
 

(Greetings… I have been a spectator for a while, and I think I now may contribute a bit. This issue is incredibly interesting and in a sense unique, worthy of a deep sociological investigation by itself. There are many scholars out there trying to understand social interaction online, and the “seeds”, and Zaadz/Gaia idea altogether, may get quite a publicity if it comes to the attention of such scholars. Do you realize that you are attempting to sophisticatedly overturn one of the fundaments of online communication? Anonymity was the first to go, since the introduction of profiles and the like, but “social status”? Many forums have “points” system counting posts, fewer have ranks given by admins or based on activity, but “seeds” goes even further: a democratically decided “suit” that one gets to wear online. The “points” system is flawed, and forums where such system determines admin consideration become flood/flame bases, dominated by a few loud voices. This is different. But you know all this, so let me get to the point.)

 Some of the things I wanted to point out:

First, you haven’t presented “seeds” properly. A rough chat-like “cool” description, as far as I can see, needs to be changed first. It’s confusing and misleading. Imagine giving a presentation of a new product at a big auction to a crowd of people – would your speech be just as unsure? You need to shout out how determined you are that it will work, how ready you are to work with us to improve it in any way, how eager you are to make Zaadz the best thing ever! But what do we get when we click on “what’s this”? A very rough description with nothing certain but lots of “wow-s”. We are not kids. Make a clear description of how it works and what it’s meant to do, so we DON’T have to search trough admins’ blogs and comments and read thousands of words just to get some things clear. Make a clear link to a page that explains exactly what is going on.

 

Second, “seeds” is a great idea that may inspire people in ways you may not right now imagine. From the very beginning it felt like Zaadz was made to have this “seeds” system. In a few years’ time, when things may get really messy in the world, and environment will escalate in its importance, it is the “seeds” that many may turn to for things like hope, advice, inspiration. Do have this in mind. As to the idea that Michael had about “seeds to stock” or alternatively “seeds to donation”, it is worth serious consideration. A counter of how much “seeds” are used on the whole of Zaadz, for all to see on the first page, and charitable “spending” of those seeds, “seeds sown by good hearts, grown into good deeds” – isn’t this a wonderful opportunity? And Zaadz members get the final decision on where the help really goes (poll or whatever means). Only the “positive” seeds would count, thus discouraging the unnecessary “flagging”.

 

Third. Don’t say things like “reputation” and “trust”, as you have seen, they put people off, different people for different reasons. Use imagery, very appropriate in this case. When seeds are spent, they are planted, for beautiful flowers and useful trees to grow, for beautiful ideas and useful deeds! And zaadsters don’t get “reputation” or “trust”, they get GARDENS out of the seeds! This is the imagery you need, gardens! Make the little circle in the profile fill with greenness, make it into a hyperlink to a page where you see minimum statistics, but pictures! The more planted seeds the zaadster has, the bigger and more beautiful the garden! A garden isn’t about trust, or reputation, or rank. It’s much less likely to put people off that they have a “little garden”, unlike that girl who has a whole “national park”. They are BOTH beautiful and useful. I return to my first point above here: present the whole idea anew, again. Don’t hurry, think this through. Make Zaadz feel like home, not a capitalist marketplace for popularity.

 

Forth. And I hope zaadsters will see the importance of this – Zaadz needs to grow economically, and however weird this sounds, this should be in our interest. Don’t we realise that MONEY is one of the main problems and power imbalances today? How much good can be done in this world if the good people had the money to act? Charities are very limited in their monetary power, but consumers’ choice is king. Zaadz and the commercial team behind Gaiam is bringing to us the market for environmental stuff, healthy stuff, the market that especially nowadays desperately needs to grow! If we want to change the world, we must force the commercial powers of this world to change, because they are mostly responsible for the mess this world is facing! If any huge corporation producing anything from food, toys, to fuel and packaging sees, through us on zaadz and our support for better product, that better product has buyers, they will switch! They will pollute less, kill fewer animals, employ more creative staff… They will change, and this will change the world! This is what Zaadz is about, isn’t it? So let’s do this, together. It already started working. This is what conscious capitalism is about. And “seeds” can really help here.

 

Fifth. Things can get hot here on Zaadz. There was a lot of talk about “shadows”, but what about intentional damage? Yes some of us can occasionally get upset and shout, and that is fine, easily resolved through dialogue, proven numerous times here already. But what about intentional evil? Did Zaadz and zaadsters really think they can just decide to change the world and have a go-ahead with it without any problems? As Zaadz grows it will have exploiters as well as enemies, and those are difficult to trace. The more people come here the more difficult it will be for mods and admins. There must be some flagging system. May I suggest it be renamed “I Am Concerned…”? Just that, no specific implication of negativity, just concern. Where seeds can mean “I love this Garden, may it grow more!”, a concern would mean “I think I saw weeds in this garden…”, or something like that. Let’s discuss this further together…

 

Sixth. …But not vote. There is a silent majority and mostly unquestionable respect and support for the admins. Discussions are fruitful, but votes are a weak scrutiny tool in this case. In politics a democracy dilemma exists: should a vote of a drunkard down the road count as much as a professor’s vote? With “seeds” this is easily solved: those more “respected” (sic) have a bit more say. But for goodness sake avoid such language! It is very logical that one with bigger garden can collect more seeds from his/her plants and thus have a greater contribution to others’ gardens. How simple such imagery makes things appear, don’t you think?

 

Seventh. For some reason many seem to assume that, even with a “reputation” (sic) system in place, we will follow it blindly like sheep. On most forums the “points” one has is just a number next to a name, that’s all. Will zaadsters ignore a new member’s comment jut because of low “reputation”!? Or will administration just delete someone’s email if they see he/she is unpopular, without reading it and considering its contents? Of course not. And if we don’t use “reputation” but “gardens” or something like that, then it actually matters even less! Personally I would be extra inclined to support people with smaller gardens and would intentionally visit people with a lot of negative feedback, just to try to help in some way. And I feel like I am not alone on this one. Comments?

 

Eighth, finally, the counter for the total amount of seeds spent/planted should affect the maximum seeds bank of individual zaadsters to some extent. And we need to know exactly some of the details like what is our max limit of seeds, and how big our garden has grown, etc. Overall, personally I support the idea, but with a different presentation to the one currently in place. Good job guys.

Namaste.