Quality over Quantity — Implementing post and share limits within a Social Media platform to increase quality of content

Just as nutritionists might say ‘You are what you eat’, it could be extrapolated in a broader sense to ‘You are what you consume’. The content you absorb on your social media feed can (consciously or subconsciously) influence your thoughts, beliefs and behaviours.

Unfortunately, the current landscape for established social media platforms is largely directed at driving as much engagement as possible. It does not matter whether the engagement is positive or negative. Algorithm-curated feeds tend to reward the content which gets the most interaction. More engagement leads to increased opportunity to monetise their users.

The issue here is that not all content is created equal. Content that is carefully crafted and insightful can often be swallowed up in your feed by attention-grabbing content with little substance besides a moment of intrigue.

We’ve all been there. You’ve logged on to find something in particular, but short bursts of video on autoplay capture your attention. This content, while momentarily engaging, provides little to no value. The feed is saturated with content of no relevance to you. You’ve spent 20/30 minutes scrolling and can scarcely remember anything you’ve read or seen. You leave feeling a bit disheartened by the time you’ve lost.

Wouldn’t it be great to filter out the noise and see meaningful content on your feed? A feed which incentivises quality over quantity. A feed which encourages timeless content and is distinctly different in nature from the more intimate community groups.

Quality over quantity

The economic model suggests that in order for something to have value, it must have scarcity and/or utility. An example of this phenomenon is most recently observed with NFTs from limited collections amassing huge valuations based on the rarity of their appearance (BoredApe Yacht Club) and many cryptocurrency projects adapting tokenomics to be deflationary over time with the exact intent to increase the value of each token.

This premise of adding scarcity to social interactions has effectively been used by dating apps. Take Thursday, the app that only comes alive for one day a week — Thursday. The time-restricted nature of the app forces users to action and increases conversion of dates. In a similar way, adding scarcity to interaction options such as Hinge’s one per week ‘roses’ can encourage more thoughtful use of the app and give greater meaning to interactions. Even Wordle has risen to prominence in recent months, owing a lot of its success to it’s limit of one puzzle per day.

It could be expected then, that placing some restrictions on the ability to post could lead to an increase in meaningful, quality content. Waivlength understands this and is implementing it as a key feature of the platform.

1 post per day

By restricting users to just one public post per day, it slows down the pace of the network and encourages more thoughtful posting. This will help to maintain the integrity of the news feeds as a space for generalised meaningful content.

This restriction speaks solely to public posts, and does not restrict ability to comment or interact in community messaging servers

1 public share option per day

Public share options will also be limited. This has positive implications as a barrier to the rapid spread of misinformation, but also helps to upgrade the significance of a share. In this environment, shares more readily resemble an endorsement and recognition of excellent content.

Snapshot

This restriction on posting might seem counterintuitive for a social media platform, but an obvious one when trying to maintain a platform which stays consistent to Waivlength’s ethos and vision.

Waivlength will allow users to swipe between two news feeds. The first will be an algorithm-curated public feed, where you can reach new content based on your interests and activity. The platform’s social consensus protocol will be able to recognise the highest quality content and make it more discoverable.

The second will contain a separate feed of the pages you follow. This will include the posts and public shares of the accounts you follow. If you want to curate your newsfeed further, there will be options to apply filters. This will allow a bespoke experience for users to discover and engage with content.

Building Communities

While a limit of one post per day may seem like it could hurt certain bloggers/content creators, one of the most beneficial consequences is that it will help direct real fans to their community messenger servers. This safeguards the newsfeed from clutter, while also allowing creators and influencers to interact in a far more meaningful and interactive way within their community.

Within these servers, post limitations do not apply. Creators can design the server to their individual preference, host messaging groups with their followers, post ephemeral (24 hour) videos/voice chats and build a community around them, rather than solely the private direct messaging that is the current standard.

The most valuable part of social media is in its communities, and Waivlength can bring Web3 technology to strengthen this even further. Through social tokens, communities can have shared ownership, shared decision-making and have a tangible financial value associated with their part of the network.

Forthcoming Updates

Waivlength is a grant recipient from the Algorand Foundation. While developers and advisors continue to work hard over the months ahead on platform build and securing external investment, it is clear that this platform has the potential to make a huge global impact as a competitor to current mainstream social media. Learn more at www.waivlength.io where you can find a more detailed whitepaper and roadmap for the development of the platform, an opprtunity to join the wait list for the platform along with contact details for the team.

There is an incoming series of articles providing more detail on how Waivlength is seeking to revolutionise the social media space. Be sure to follow so you don’t miss out.