We are already getting evidence that this campaign will be successful simply from the number of people who are coming out of the woodwork right now to talk about it
Yes, it's controversial. And that is
exactly what Karmacoin needs right now. We need people talking about Karmacoin, writing about us, smiling and frowning and everything in between. It's hard to swallow but we need people getting upset at us right now, cheering us on, talking about us, because that is what makes the news.
Yes, some people will get upset. Some people will leave Karmacoin. That is to be expected. But our Reddit community is less than 300 people. When the Karmacoin community started getting active on Feb 9th Reddcoin hit 100 subscribers that day. Now they are over 10,000 strong and we haven't even hit 300 yet. (They hit 300 a couple of days after that.)
If 100 people leave Karmacoin because they think it's turning into MoveOn.org, but 10,000 more people join because we are kicking ass.. it's a sacrifice that we should think about making. That's 10,000 more people who will be learning about Karmacoin and telling their friends about what we were doing. That's 100,000+ more people going to the website to find out how crazy we are and then seeing what we are doing, and that it's not so crazy after all. Businesses, people, governments, etc., finding out about how they can use Karmacoin to reward "doing good". The truth is, we don't know. We can only guess.
But let's lay out the reality for a moment, and see what is the most rational course of action.
- The poll that was conducted 2 days ago got a total of 2 responses. 50% for either option, with no alternate suggestions. (Just to put that into context, 11 people responded to the post regarding the Karmacoin debit card and 6 of those voted the same day it was posted)*
- We've been talking about a press release to serve as "rocket fuel" for 9 days
- Amount raised for Putin fund, first 3 hours: 7,376,720. About $9.50
- Amount raised for Miley Cyrus fund, first 5 hours: 810,000. About $1.00
- Fund for PR: 3,472,000. About $4.50
- Logo contest donations: 50,020. About $0.065
- Donations for dev bounties: 112,400,595 (89% from a single donor). About $146
Further, the campaign for the Girl Scouts raised 25 million over the course of 2 days. That's worth about $32 right now.
It was a tough decision and not everyone will agree. In fact, lots of people won't agree with the choice. They'll say bad karma is coming, and wonder what's happened to our core principles. All of that is to be expected because we are doing what we need to do.
Sure, we could put together a nice fundraising campaign for [insert cause here]. I would love to give to such a cause.
But it is not what Karmacoin needs right now. You are welcome to start a campaign and post it to the subreddit. In fact, I'll even post it to the Karmafund website. But ask yourself these two questions:
- Do you honestly believe that our community, as small as it is now, will donate more than $50 worth of Karmacoin to it?
- Do you believe that such a campaign is worth putting out a press release for? You'll notice in our first press release I didn't mention how much we raised for the Girl Scouts. Is having a fund that raises the total of $20 really newsworthy?
Let's take an example of how we don't need a more noble cause right now but need
more momentum, which will bring more people to our community. Pretty much everyone loves the new logo. Yet, we have not donated more than a few cents for it. (I gladly paid the $300 for it, because I believe in Karmacoin) If we had a larger community we would have been able to put money towards our own logo. This is one example of how having a small community can harm us (maybe even kill us, as lots of altcoins are dying right now).
What we need now is a LARGER community so we can do lots of wonderful things. There is a storm coming from our campaign. It is time to batten down the hatches and stock up, because it's going to be a long couple of weeks. But let's weather out the storm and see what new growth the heavy rains bring us.
We need momentum right now, not a noble cause. And unfortunately, the most cost and time-effective way to do that now is controversy. Controversy raises the profile of Karmacoin, regardless of what the controversy entails. We can't wait for the next Olympics. Unless, of course, you don't mind Karmacoin going down to 4 litoshi. How much will your donation be worth then?
I've said enough.. I'll get back to work on Karmacoin
*http://karmashare.me/index.php?do=/poll/
