The Dash Nation slack has been “the” place for Dash folks to virtually congregate to share news about Dash and just hang out with each other. There had been an earlier slack used by Dash but it got “toxic” so Tao started this slack with “just be nice” as the guiding rule and for the last year it has worked well.

One of the best things about the DashNation slack is the “nice” community.  You don’t have to worry about trolls or abusive comments.  The rules are simple, clearly posted and enforced.

In August Tao entered a proposal to upgrade the Dash Nation Slack to the “paid” version to allow for several important options like a full history of chats and more tools.

Dash Nation Slack Upgrade  Owner: TaoOfSatoshi
3 Monthly payments of: 34 DASH each
(added on 2017-08-22)  Votes: 1022 Yes / 93 No / 11 Abstain

Hi everyone, I’m Tao Of Satoshi.

You may know me from Cash Alternative TV, my Twitter account Cash Alternative, or around the forums and Reddit. I also own and manage Dash’s premier online source for communication and collaboration, Dash Nation Slack.

It is Dash Nation Slack that brings me here today. We established it in October 2016, and it promptly grew in popularity and usage. People from all over the world frequent it and contribute to Dash through talent, connections, or sometimes pure enthusiasm. It became a “go-to” place to discuss all of Dash’s issues and events in a respectful atmosphere. Rules of the Slack are conducive to respectful dialogue, be it in agreement or disagreement. Projects have been born, inspired by, or discussed in our Slack. It is much more than a chat room, as it builds relationships between people from all over the world due to its “real-time” attributes. In short, it provides the experience that should be associated with Dash.

With a budget of:

22.25 DASH – Fees to make Dash Nation Slack a paid experience for our users (Unlimited message history, unlimited file sharing, unlimited integration, and other perks). This includes a 50% buffer which, if unused, will go towards future extension proposals.

10 DASH – Tao Of Satoshi Slack administration, monitoring and community building efforts

1.67 DASH – 3 payments to recover the 5 DASH proposal fee.

TOTAL: 33.92 DASH per month

Based on the masternode voting this was / is a very popular proposal.  It is today the second highest “net vote” proposal for it’s third and final payment due November 3.

Reading back through the comments there were a few offering “better” alternatives than slack but Tao was focused on the user experience for the Dash community and the familiarity of using slack for the past year.  It is very easy to use and has good desktop and mobile apps.

Slack Upgrade

After the upgrade happened to the paid plan – which was so smooth you had to be told it happened – we started seeing more spam direct messages. Once they started it got out of control and the alternatives were to close the “open door” policy or live with moderators staying a step behind each new fake user. Slack was not able to offer any solutions as Dash Nation was not their target market – corporate users with a common email address.

Tao paid for 6 weeks of the premium plan before it became obvious that this would not continue to be a viable option for the community.  The slack was downgraded back to the free plan and new membership was limited to invite only.

Move to Discord

I have to give Tao credit – like he had said community experience was what guided the tools used. Shortly after the downgrade it was announced that Dash Nation was moving to Discord. It is very similar but more geared to supporting communities like Dash Nation where Slack was focused more on corporate clients.

At this time the movement from Slack to Discord is in process and most active users are moved to their new home with lots more “channels” and new tools being developed.  The current plan is to keep the old “downgraded” slack open for the history but all new activity will be in Discord.  Personally I liked Slack but think Discord will be even better.

Budget Changes

A lesson we will learn here is what happens to a proposal that was funded for one use and then in mid-stream moves to another less costly option. I asked Tao what he plans on doing to account for the change in the costs of this proposal and if he would be open to sharing the amounts he paid to Slack.

JM: “Hi I am going to write a DFN article about your proposal for this weekend. I am very impressed with how you handled the change over – there is one question that I have to ask. My understanding is discord is free – so how will you account for the funding you got for payment to slack (there is even one more treasury payment)? I would assume it would extend your “salary” for maintenance much longer without having to come back for another proposal?”

Oh absolutely. And you are right about the assumption that it will extend my salary without approaching the network for more funds. I paid one full month of Slack, and one half month so far. As far as specifics, I am going to happily provide that information after things get settled a bit here. Give me until the end of next week and I’ll have something up. The Slack to Discord issue means I will have to account sooner than I would have normally had to. BTW, thank you for your kind words about the migration!
You can say that I have not spent the full amount given to me so far, and that I have some extra Dash and extra USD owed to me by Slack when we cancelled.

It seems fair to me to wait for an accounting until the “dust has cleared.” There may be some final negotiations that need to happen with slack to finalize those costs.

Another topic I think it is important to bring up specific to this proposal is “salary.”  In the proposal budget Tao specifically includes 10 Dash per month (approximately $3,000) as an administration fee.  I have no way of judging how much time he spends on building / maintaining the Dash Nation but in Canada where he lives $36,000 a year is well below the average annual wage of $50,000. I also don’t know if he plans on sharing part of that with the admin team.  We can wait on his accounting for those details.

I think it is very fair to be paid a reasonable wage working for Dash. The masternode network are the ones that approve it and determine if it seems fair.

Conclusion

The real conclusion is that there is no one best permanent solution for most things.  You move forward and pick what seems like the best option if it doesn’t work out you try again.  I am glad to see the Dash community and in this case Tao able to move quickly to face up to a problem and find a reasonable solution.