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YAY!

That took a long time. But it's done.

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I've just secured the niche "VOLUNTARYISM" over on NARRATIVE. For those that don't know, Narrative is a new blockchain-based social media such much like Steemit. It has yet to launch, but that will be coming soon. They've already got some innovative ideas and protocol in place for giving individual users more power over which content is rewarded, and customizing/creating their own communities.

So what benefits does owning a niche entail? This video gives a brief overview.

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THE PROCESS

1. Suggest a niche
2. If approved, place a bid on the niche
3. Make the NRVE payment to complete the process.

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The above steps, while seemingly simple, actually took me about a week to accomplish, all told, as I had to wait on community approval, trade some BTC for NEO tokens, and then exchange the NEO tokens for NRVE, the currency to be used on Narrative.

Pros and cons, and remaining questions.

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Though the beta version of Narrative is not set to be released until later this year, they already seem to have their "shit together" in many ways, and the organization of the platform and community is impressive. Everything is very transparent so far, and meticulously and cleanly organized. Compared to Steemit, the "infrastructure" that Narrative has in place for community building and quality control seems superior to me at this point. Various niches have owners and moderators assigned to quality/abuse control, and can be voted in or out by other community members. Owners and moderators are incentivized to keep their niches high quality, as the more popular the niche becomes, the more rewards they can receive.

So far the potential downside I am seeing/predicting is a bit too much control from the centralized management of the website/platform itself. It seems like this place is going to be a little less "Wild West" than Steemit, which, to be fair, may be a good thing, but I tend to prefer maximum freedom and as little centralized interference as possible. Why do I have this gut feeling about over regulation? Well, in signing up for the Narrative community (a separate but officially connected website) the user agreement made stipulations for legal reasons that seemed a bit constrictive to me:

• No writing about or advertising ICOs
• No requests for crypto donations
• No unlicensed use of copyrighted material
• Admonitions to basically "be nice" to other community members (who defines what "abuse" is?)

Granted, I understand why all these stipulations exist, especially where the Telegram branch of the community is concerned, but I wonder if these stipulations will also apply to the beta release of the platform itself. Who knows.

All in all, however, the platform and concept look strong, and I am excited to be a part of it!

ONE QUESTION I DO HAVE, FOR ANYONE ON THE PLATFORM, IS HOW TO BECOME A MODERATOR OF A SPECIFIC NICHE. ANY HELP WOULD BE GREATLY APPRECIATED.

For a more in-depth look at Narrative, check out this excellent interview with Narrative Co-Founder Rosemary O'Neill

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If you would like to sign up for Narrative, please use my referral link, and help me make the niche "Voluntaryism" the best it can be!

https://alpha.narrative.org/wait-list?r=2LK9oaNFU3

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Thanks for reading, and see you on Narrative! If you need any help/have any questions about suggesting your own niche and securing NRVE tokens to bid on it, feel free to contact me (Graham Smith) in the Voluntary Japan Discord Server.

Peace!

~KafkA

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Graham Smith is a Voluntaryist activist, creator, and peaceful parent residing in Niigata City, Japan. Graham runs the "Voluntary Japan" online initiative with a presence here on Steem, as well as DLive and Twitter. (Hit me up so I can stop talking about myself in the third person!)