How enthusiasm is lost, or Centralization of Social Power in Cosmos Network
By: Vladimir Ponimajushij
Tags: Enthusiasm, Centralization, Decentralization, Video Contest, Cosmos

On September 11, 2021, the results of the Video Contest ~ Discover Cosmos were announced:

I submitted two videos to this competition (the rules stated that no more than two videos from each participant can be submitted)

Here’s the first video:

Here’s the second video:

Of course, I understand that I am not Steven Spielberg, but our video content (we make a video together with my friend Vova — he is a cameraman and video editor) is high quality, compared to other video content about blockchain and decentralization.

If anyone is interested, here are two of our playlists on the ForkLog channel, and on the S3XYBTC channel

The competition began on June 12, and originally was supposed to last until July 31.

We made all the videos on time and sent them to the competition.

Then the rules stated that the video can be in any language, but if it is not made in English, then it must have subtitles in English. Well, we did just that: video in Russian, subtitles in English.

A few days before the end, the organizers of the competition announced that the competition was extended until August 31. We thought: “It’s okay, we’ll wait!”

When the results of the competition were published on September 11, it turned out that none of our videos won any prizes, despite the fact that there were 6 categories in the competition, and in each category there were prizes for 1st and 2nd places, and there were 12 more prizes for “Honorable Mentions”.

It also announced a bonus prize for the highest number of views that our first video received. But despite the fact that it received a bonus prize, this video did not receive any of the six 1st places, not one of the six 2nd places, and did not even get into the “Honorable mentions” list, of which there were as many as 21, and not 12, as indicated at the beginning.

I thought, “Wow! This is a great Ecosystem going up if people make such awesome videos that our videos haven’t won a single prize!”

Of course, I decided to see what kind of cool videos are there that have overtaken us in all respects?

And I advise you to watch them, as it turned out that most of the videos that won prizes are not as cool as ours. Maybe we flatter ourselves? Look please, and tell me, are ours really so bad that they cannot be awarded a prize in the competition, or at least an honorable mention?

First category:

1st place — great video. Almost 900 views! 93 likes! First place by right.

2nd place — regular infographics for 1.5 minutes with a voiceover. Nothing special. Almost 200 views.

Second category:

1st place — well, this is more likely not a video, but a presentation. Static pictures replace each other with a voiceover. Well, it looks okay. Almost 100 views! Not a single like …

2nd place — this is, of course, a video. Made mainly from video clips that can be downloaded from the Internet. But here at least you can see that people were doing something. Almost 200 views!

Third category:

1st place is a good video. Animation in the best traditions of In a Nutshell. Slightly over 200 views. Someone may well find this video better than our two.

2nd place — funny animation. Such a funny animation for children. 73 views, 3 likes!

Fourth category:

1st place is a good video. Animation at a high level. 3100 views, 28 likes! First place by right!

2nd place place is just static pictures, which are replaced by videos from the Internet, with some men in costumes, who point to growing graphs. And another screen capture from the Ecosystems Cosmos page. I can’t believe this video can win a prize … 115 views 49 likes.

Fifth category:

1st place — well, at least a real person says something to the camera! And then shooting a screen with various aggregators on the Cosmos Ecosystem. Well, at least he stays in the frame when he demonstrates the sites. But I just can’t understand why this content is better than what we do. I post such videos on my channel as educational. I would only send such a video to the educational video competition. But this is at least a video! 366 views, 48 ​​likes.

2nd place — healthy computer 3D animation. It can be seen that people tried hard. Considering which videos get the first places, it is not clear why this video did not get the first place? 139 views, 5 likes.

Sixth category:

1st place is a video where a person broadcasts on the phone for 8 minutes, and sometimes print screens appear in front of the broadcasting person. Well, I don’t understand how this video can be better than the ones we sent. It also states that they say it’s funny, but this is the longest video that won a prize … 179 views, 13 likes.

2nd place — not exist for this category for some reason…

In addition, here are 21 videos that received an Honorable Mention:

https://youtu.be/x6SzuXBlyvw — static pictures replace each other. Voice on the background. 44 views, 3 likes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pT1edw8Hb-o — 3D animation, which we seem to have already seen in one of the prize videos. But considering what the 1st and 2nd places were given for, this video could also be given 1st or 2nd. 164 views, 10 likes. https://youtu.be/oqb34wVASEs — almost static pictures that are replaced by video from the computer screen. Over 15,000 views. 732 likes. https://youtu.be/J59smH1mBLU — screen capture. Almost 1400 views, 87 likes. https://youtu.be/5LswydWDB4o — video made in the video maker with a hand writing on the screen. It’s just a standard to the point that there is a designer of such videos. 144 views. You can’t see the number of likes… https://youtu.be/fyfBX9hzKTY — well, this is a real video! In terms of quality, of course, you can’t compare with ours, but it’s also a shame for this participant. Could have given him 1st or 2nd place, while what videos were given 1st and 2nd places… 147 views, 22 likes. https://youtu.be/5WtKu6bSN2Q — 3D animation of almost static pictures taken from the Internet. But the 1st and 2nd places were occupied by lower quality videos. 946 views, 40 likes. https://youtu.be/-FL3JOKnspk — almost static pictures that are replaced by pictures from the Internet. Somewhere I have already seen this… 1100 views. 30 likes. https://youtu.be/DefqT79XOPM — full copy of the previous video, from the same author. That is, the same video received two awards in “Honorable Mention“. 632 views, 32 likes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bculQ4lJfM — well, here at least a living person appears and is replaced by static pictures. Over 3000 views. You can’t see the number of likes… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UTX1bC3FfY — good video from the person who took 1st place in the first category. It’s strange why this video was not given the 2nd place, despite the fact that which videos were given the 2nd places… 531 views, 66 likes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7cuji2qUv4 — we’ve already seen these changing pictures. 59 views, 1 like. h ttps: //www.youtube.com/watch? v = ip4Wo7A7mvI — static pictures + screen capture. Already nauseous from such videos… 3600 views, 320 likes. I’m sure it’s screwed up. It couldn’t get so many likes… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HM97gd33sY&t=3s — there is at least a real person who broadcasts pretty cool on camera. But this is a static shot. At the end of the screen shot. Strange, that he was not given 1st or 2nd place, as it is clearly better than 1st place in the last category! just over 1000 views, 87 likes. https://youtu.be/gR1_0b1S_sk — the video is the same in Russian as mine. With English subtitles. But these are again semi-static pictures and ordinary animation. 2800 views, 222 likes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-XXII7BmAg — screen capture with voiceover. Not even a person was shown… 1700 views, 110 likes. https://twitter.com/Tweetscape2/status/1429095720309727237?s=19 — a video from a feature film about Hitler’s bunker with subtitles about ATOM. This is in the category of memes, and not the video should be sent. 241 views, 19 likes. https://youtu.be/7nyu-NSm9eE — From the 1st place video creator in the Fifth Category. Almost the same. Could have given the first two places, in such cases))) 463 views, 43 likes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUuKAM41ihY — there is at least a real person who broadcasts pretty cool on camera. But the frame is static. 1,051 views 141 likes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSGmY9M-LRo — static pictures, videos from the Internet, sick of this… 36 views, 1 like. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CsLhMwQKblk — animation that we have seen a hundred times already, with 9200 views and 1000 likes, which I will never believe. Such a video cannot have so many likes…

In general, if you watch all these videos, as I did, then you don’t have to be an experienced film critic, so at least not to be surprised why my two videos did not get at least in the “Honorable Mentions”?

Of course, I became interested, and to all my questions I received approximately the following answers:

- You must be able to admit defeat!

- I’ll watch the first video — it’s better than yours!

- Your videos are not in English, but it should have been in English!

- You just want to earn more than you’ve already earned!

Well, let’s start by admitting our defeat as a community. Since the people who should distribute the prizes use funds from the community pool as prizes. And the point of this video competition is to support enthusiasts who will bring value to the Cosmos project with their videos. That is, funds from the community pool (not small funds) should support people who make good Cosmos promotions. Like marketing from the community. And these funds were spent extremely irrationally.

Anyone who understands a little in the video can easily understand that most of the videos that ranked 1st and 2nd are inferior to our two videos in quality. That is, the people who awarded the places, or were bribed ( I will give you a prize — you give me half of the award) or incompetent (at least the same video received honorary mentions awards , which suggests that they watched the video worse than I did).

If they can be bribed, then we need to remove them from all future judges so that they do not waste their community pool on garbage.

If they are not competent — why then do they award prizes?

And we, as a community, are not in a position to influence this in any way. When I raised this issue, I was banned from the ATOM Cosonauts group , which is dedicated to discussing this competition. And in the main Cosmos group, I have been banned for a long time for no reason, which you can read about in this article.

The fact that some videos are better than mine — so be it. There are videos that are perfectly comparable to mine. But to be objective, most videos are either standard or below standard. Why didn’t my videos get at least an “Honorable Mention” ???

And the second point is that we do not see the entire list of videos that were submitted to the competition! It is possible that somewhere else there are cool videos that we do not see, which are much better in quality, but they were not given a prize. At least I see this on the example of my videos, which means it can be with other videos.

The fact that my videos are not in English, firstly, did not prevent me from giving my video a prize for the highest number of views, and secondly, in “Honorable Mentions” there is a video in Russian numbered 15.

About what I supposedly want to earn:

First, I have enough funds. One of my videos won the Mina Community Challenge for the best video about the Mina Protocol project. And the win was 20,000 $MINA . I will receive them only in a year, but this is already enough for me to live on the rewards.

Secondly, I will send 80 $ATOM for the largest number of views back to the community pool. I don’t need this 80 $ATOM.

And I will delete the video about Cosmos, because if they are so bad that they didn’t even receive the “Honorable Mention”, then they should not be on the Internet.

I’ll delete them in a week, so you still have the opportunity to see them for the last time…

For 2 years I have benefited from the Cosmos Network project. Here is a list of my contributions to the Cosmos Network:

I did all this out of sheer enthusiasm. Because I love the Cosmos Network, and because I love doing things. I didn’t get anything for this, except that Tendermint sent me $ 20 ATOM one day — noticed my enthusiasm! This $ 20 ATOM I will also return to Tendermint. Or in the community pool Cosmos. I don’t need your handouts)

I no longer have any desire to do something for the Cosmos Network project. A bunch of people are just buying and selling $ATOM, and they are of no use at all. And these people still dare to write to me that I am doing something for the sake of a reward …

The best reward for an enthusiast is recognition of his contribution to the common cause. I don’t see this from Cosmos Network, but I hear reproaches.

You can’t be cute. If you don’t need my enthusiasm, I’ll find where to put my efforts) The ecosystem is full of projects for which you can drown, and for which I am already drowning. By the way, here is a list of everything that I do not for an award, but for pure enthusiasm:

https://github.com/Antropocosmist/My-Contributions/blob/main/cosmos.md

I get funds from DeFi and from rewards for staking. There is something to live on, I can still help others!

Thanks for reading. My enthusiasm in Cosmos Network is over. But my Enthusiasm is generally unshakable! So look forward to more videos from me soon!