October reflections: $higher, prompts, and a new account

TL;DR
We had a record month for participation, boosted by a surprising reward pool.
This month, we're experimenting with prompts – make sure to follow @firstdraftclub.eth.

Welcome to another edition of the First Draft Club newsletter!

It was a great month for the crew. We hit 20 posts each week, including a new all-time high of 22 on the week of October 20th.

Here's a quick chart I made in Google Sheets:

I attribute this success mainly to the higher challenge announced at the beginning of the month. Members who wrote every week in October split the 100,000 $higher prize pool (worth $500 at the time of donation, but grew to over $4500!)

The squad added eight new members at the beginning of the challenge, and of the 20 members who posted on the first week, 17 completed the challenge. That level of consistency produced the highest participation rates since the first week of the open membership era.

Mark Fishman on Warpcast

Congrats to the 17 writers who completed the October /firstdraft challenge! Your split of the 100,000 $higher pool is currently worth $266 :) 👉 Join First Draft Club to take part in the fun, accountability, and future rewards: https://warpcast.com/markfishman/0x72087702 https://www.hypersub.xyz/s/first-draft-club-xx9skaty15hc

Farcaster

The ballooning of the prize pool certainly made for some happy participants – myself included. There were some nice words shared that helped grow the community even further.

However, I've always been cautious about this turning into a "write to earn" project.

In the first iterations of First Draft Club, I deliberately offered no financial upside. I wanted to attract people who were aligned with the ethos of accountability, not people who would try to game the system for rewards.

There are other financial experiments I want to try, though. For example, a "competitive" mode where participants can earn a share of the unclaimed rewards from those who didn't write. I think sponsors or community-oriented options (like rounds.wtf) could also be interesting to explore.

However, there are other aspects of the experience I'd like to prioritize.

Prompts, the next lever

Many of the people who join First Draft Club know what they want to write about. They have a regular newsletter or a backlog of ideas to flesh out.

However, there is a large segment of people who need inspiration.

This month, I'll be sending out weekly writing prompts.
These are entirely optional, but hopefully at minimum can serve as a reminder to write.
Follow @firstdraftclub.eth (and turn on cast notifications) to make sure you see them.

For now, the prompts won't have any particular theme. They'll probably be topical and/or general.

However, I can see prompts turning into something greater. The goal for now is to boost participation from existing members, but in the future I can imagine prompts serving as a "curriculum" of sorts that can be marketed to a new audience. December might be a month for reflection heading into the new year. Another month might have prompts tailored to early-stage founders.

Prompts won't be for everyone (and will always be optional), but I think they have a high upside.

A new account

To post prompts, I've finally taken the step of creating a dedicated First Draft Club social account.

The "bot" will post weekly prompts and recap threads of participants' writing, while I'll use my personal account for announcements and other "founder" posts. If I end up sending prompts or reminders via Direct Casts on Warpcast, those will come from this new account.

Having a distinct account for First Draft Club also opens up a set of opportunities unique to decentralized platforms like Farcaster. For example, if someone follows @firstdraftclub.eth on Farcaster, they will be nudged to subscribe to this publication on Paragraph! (This newsletter is owned by the same address that is connected to the Farcaster account.)

First Draft Club has always had a wallet, but a social account creates further surface area for the wallet to earn funds – for example through $degen tips or Moxie accumulation.

(I also decided to make an account on Twitter. I'll probably start cross-posting prompts, but it's mainly so people have something to tag when they want to post about First Draft Club.)

Thanks to all for a great month!

I'm always open to feedback or new ideas :)