A Harmony Community Sentiment Report- May'22

[sick_of_this]

Greetings everyone!

Today I am presenting to the community a Sentiment Analysis Report I’ve been working on as a passion project. This will be pretty long and wordy. Highly recommend reading through to understand what’s going on but if you just want the sweet and quick-

GDrive PDF Link
Canva Link

Real quick before I dig in, this was the first time I worked on a Natural Language Processing (NLP) Project. The entire process- from learning NLP, figuring out best approach, execution and report creation was done in the past 10 days. I plan on iterating on this next month & refining the process a lot!

PREFACE
The report primarily focuses on 2 things- general sentiment and sentiment towards different types of proposals.

The end goal of this analysis was to validate the sentiments echoed by the community. For example- Can we quantify that the community prefers Tech-focused projects more than Social-Justice projects? Are DAOs still seen in a negative light? As you will see in this report, we definitely can validate this.

The project uses Google AI’s “BERT” model. For those interested- a well-explained read about the model.

DATA COLLECTION
Since one of the main goals is to determine what type of proposals the community prefers, I decided to focus on comments made in the “Funding Proposals” section on the talk.harmony.one forum. This offers the widest variety of posts to analyze & is the primary home of discourse surrounding proposals.

Some key considerations made regarding the data collected:

• The “zkDAO” sub-section under “Funding Proposals” was not considered as it has little to no community discourse
• Harmony Team comments were removed since the focus of this is the community
• Proposal Author comments have been removed (to prevent bias)
• Only English comments have been considered
• Only comments made in the month of May (includes proposals posted before May)
• Deleted posts/comments have not been included

A total of 958 comments from 183 proposals have been considered.

METHODOLOGY

1) Proposal Classification
All 183 proposals were classified into 4 categories-
- Tech- Games, DeFi, Tech products. Ex- OpenSwap, EvoVerses, 1Wallet
- Marketing- Primary focus on marketing Harmony via various means. Ex- ONEweekly
- Social- Primary focus on social impact. Ex- Vegan Africa DAO, Pivot DAO
- Hybrid- Tech + Social or Marketing + Social. Ex- Most Regional DAOs

This classification makes it easy to differentiate the core focus of the project and check how well community sentiment aligns with it.

2) Sentiment Scoring
The BERT model makes it extremely easy to score sentiment. You simply feed a sentence to the model and it returns a score between 1 to 5. The scores are explained below-

1- Very Negative
2- Slightly Negative
3- Neutral
4- Slighly Positive
5- Very Positive

Below are some examples of how different sentences are scored-

Being trained on millions of texts, the model yields very accurate results. There are some limitations though. Comments must be <= 512 characters in length. There are several comments on the forum that go over this range. The workaround here is to truncate the comment to 512 characters. A “head” and “tail” truncation was done to get 256 characters from the start of the comment and 256 from the end. This method is surprisingly extremely accurate. More can be read about this and several other methods in this research paper.

3) Gathering Insights
With all the comments scored on sentiment, the next step is to analyze the results and collect important insights. Before moving onto the results, this is what I focused on here-

• How polarized is the community sentiment?
• Does the community have a preference for certain types of proposals?
• Which proposals have the best score and which have the worst?
• Are DAOs really viewed so negatively?

RESULTS

The screenshots below are from the PDF report above- link here.

1) Sentiment Distribution

• The Mean Sentiment Score comes out to be Neutral at 2.93 (~3)

• Despite the neutral score, most comments (~61%) are actually Very Positive or Very Negative

This is a strong indication of highly polarized opinions on proposals on the forum. This polarization is forum-wide, so it’s not that every proposal has polarized discussions, rather, most proposals will only have mostly positive or mostly negative comments.

2) Proposal Preference Analysis By Proposal Type

The Proposal Types ranked in terms of Sentiment Score are:

The community has a quantifiably distinct preference for Tech Proposals over Social Proposals. Social Proposals have by far the most negative sentiment comments at ~62%

3) The Best and The Worst Proposals

Links to Proposals mentioned above-
Best-
- ONEweekly Video Series Continuation
- OpenSwap’s request to build Harmony’s all-in-$ONE platform
- SonicSwap 2.0 - transition from a simple yield farm to a complex mini-ecosystem within Harmony!

Worst-
- Thirsty Thirsty DAO Pre Launch Grant Proposal
- SWIM x Underknown 120 Million Monthly Users
- Vegan Africa DAO - Project X Grant Proposal

Projects with a proven track record of impactful work score exceptionally well.
Note: Projects with at least 8+ community comments were considered for the above ranking. This is because proposals with very few comments can have their Sentiment Score impacted by even 1 contrarian comment.

4) Pretty Word Clouds

• 225+ comments were taken from the Top 15 and Bottom 15 ranked proposals (>= 8 comments)

• "DAO" is the 9th Most Frequently Used Word in the Bottom 15 proposals but ranks 84th by frequency in the Top 15 proposals, indicating clear community animosity

Why is the Word Cloud shape a butterfly you ask? Idk, it just looked cool haha.

IN SUMMARY

• The community has a clear, quantifiable preference for Tech-related undertakings
  Ex- OpenSwap, SonicSwap, DeArt Gallery

• "Social Impact"-based undertakings are perceived in a distinct, negative light
  Ex- Vegan Africa DAO, SpectrumX DAO

• A proven record of bringing value to the ecosystem is highly respected & supported
  Ex- ONEweekly videos

• DAOs are still seen with a negative association

BONUS INSIGHT
Transparent, open and honest communication goes a long way in swinging community sentiment about proposals. Below is an example of how good communication can turn the tide of sentiment-

Link to proposal- MtopSwap Funding Proposal for $75,000
Shoutout to @HarmonyWon, @Pioneer and the MTOP team for an exemplary display of good communication!

Here is a somewhat opposite case where the accusations and doubts on a post never get addressed-

Link to proposal- Vegan Africa DAO - Project X Grant Proposal

This should be an encouraging insight for Team Leads and Devs who post on this forum. Clearly communicating goals, addressing doubts & being welcoming are well appreciated by the community.

FINAL NOTE:
That pretty much wraps it up folks! I think this got a lot longer than I expected it to. Spent a good 30+ hours getting all the work done + compiling reports on this. It has been a massive learning experience to say the least. I plan on doing this report monthly and have tons of plans to improve and expand its scope!

Let me know your thoughts on this!

P.S- Shoutout to @ILL_DIE_TRYING! His hard work on this bounty was part of what motivated me to try applying my skills to something like this. Shoutout to @Sbae for encouraging me to post this on the forum!

[ben2k_Stakeridoo]

Awesome report I’m glad you are one of the @HarmonyCommunityDAO contributor this metrics helps a lot and a great word cloud

[sick_of_this]

Thanks a lot @ben2k_Stakeridoo ! Your work on the Community DAO is inspirational.

[Point7C]

Great job. It’s a shame that so much crap was, is and will be paid by the team and you’re doing it for free

[Pioneer]

Really great way to see time used on the forum! I’ve seen your posts around I really appreciate you giving us that shoutout, as feedback is key here.

[ILL_DIE_TRYING]

That is amazing work. Very informative! Thanks for the shout out. I’m kind of amazed. I had no clue this could be done.

[Sbae]

@sick_of_this you have done tremendous job, I am sure it cost you a lot of time and effort. The result is quality analysis though and tangible (unlike is the case for dozens of DAO’s).

I have said I would not be posting here anymore and have taken time off from harmony forum after the atrocious way (there’s no way to actually describe how shitty it is) they handled ecosystem grants. This however deserves exception.

@lij @dpagan-harmony @Jacksteroo @frwrdslosh this is what your community is capable of. You should be paying for THIS work rather than almost all DAOs. It’s ironic that the author has done this project for free all the while your shitty DAO’s were capable of producing was dumb parties and fake budget entries.

As far as the report itself, I read it and while the results are not surprising to me, it’s great to have it quantified in professional, measurable way. As every time such data is produced, the critical step is to see if steps will be taken to address the findings. If this was any other business, especially a startup it should be grand slam. Can harmony do something? We will see, I don’t hold my breath.

[Maddog77]

@sick_of_this great analysis and I hope the Harmony Team takes this sentiment seriously.
Thank you for the work and I know you are doing it for free.
If you create a wallet, I would donate you some $ONE as a thank you

[dpagan-harmony]

This is a high quality, data-backed report which I’m sure took lots of time and effort. It’s a perfect supplement and follow-up from the Q1 community sentiment report released by @WellnessOne (Ambassador DAO) some months ago:

Q1 Community Sentiment Report | Link #1
https://www.reddit.com/r/harmony_one/comments/tynbmf/we_hear_you_heres_what_were_doing_about_it/

Q1 Community Sentiment Report | Link #2

Notion – The all-in-one workspace for your notes, tasks, wikis, and databases.

The desire for a tech-focused approach to our milestones and external communication is exactly what Harmony is aiming to provide. Our Q2 off-site report reflects this, along with our priorities and new initiatives:

Q2 Offsite Report

Harmony Q2 2022 Offsite Report

[image] Harmony Q2 2022 Offsite Report Introduction The Harmony team held its four-day Q2 offsite meeting on May 9th 2022. The meeting consisted of ~30 team members including Harmony contributors and full-time fellows. This write-up is meant to highlight action items and initiatives resulting from the offsite event, provide transparency to the community, and ensure our exciting plans are shared with everyone in our ecosystem. Purpose The offsite event was held for a handful of reasons, mos…

The data you’re providing is insightful. Changes and initiatives take time, and we’re always working to improve. We’re excited to launch new initiatives such as 1BTC Yield and Game Shard, as well as prioritized existing initiatives such as cross-shard messaging protocol. DAO infrastructure will continue to be worked on to ensure great improvements are made there as well with a stronger emphasis on infrastructure and quality over quantity.

Thanks again, and I’m looking forward to continuing to see the sentiment of the community shift more positive across the bored as time passes and we work to show the world why Harmony is a leading blockchain.

---

In response to @Sbae - I agree that @sick_of_this created a great report. The Harmony community is, without question, one of the most passionate in the crypto space. I’m personally glad to have come from the community and helped build its roots since late 2020. That said, please direct your passion to a more positive and constructive place. We’re learning constantly, as all other chains are alongside us.

I hope you can join me in moving past the old and towards the current and future.

[Daaviis]

@sick_of_this very good work, everything well detailed and a job with a lot of dedication behind it, I congratulate you and I hope that Harmony counts on you to continue doing this, month after month in an official and subsidized way.

[juanonewuan]

Great report , very useful !

[papi]

This is really good work. Thank you for creating it and, rest assured, we are listening.

[ILL_DIE_TRYING]

@dpagan-harmony

Our Q2 off-site report reflects this, along with our priorities and new initiatives:

Yes Harmony has talked the talk… WHEN will they start walking the walk? WHEN will we start seeing tangible, reportable results?

It has been a few days now since my Reddit post and I haven’t seen anything meaningful about my situation as of yet. Crickets, yet again.

But I will tell you what. I will only wait so long and I will be back on Reddit doing a follow up and that will absolutely blow up the Reddit community into a frenzy, I am sure. It is already apparent Reddit is watching my situation very closely. There is absolutely no excuse for how I have been treated with my project. And there is absolutely no excuse for why I haven’t been paid yet.

Since my Reddit post, I have found out Harmony has never had anything in place to manage the forums or provide structured support for the grants (Mind blowing. Too busy partying at the conferences? I seen the hypetv video of you guys all dressed up like little rock stars partying it up. Shameful. You should have all been embarrassed). So now I am being forced to sit and wait for how long (a few more months?) when I entered into an agreement on a 90 day timeframe. I don’t think it is fair or honest, to be frank. What will make me extremely angry is if Harmony makes me wait and I lose out big on a market change before I get paid. I will be FURIOUS if your lack of action on my bounty costs me thousands of dollars. This is also holding up my planned progress to increase my presence on the Harmony block chain (if I even bother at this point) as I am planning on using a portion of my payment to start my own validator node. As far as being paid… In my case, I believe Harmony should set aside my ONE at the current market value, staked, to pay me when they decide they are finally open for business on the grants and bounties.

I want to know a timeline… HOW LONG do I have to wait for Harmony to organize, evaluate my bounty and pay me? You should be able to provide me with AN EXACT DATE.

From my experience dealing with the Harmony Team, I will guarantee you that I get NO REAL RESPONSE to this. At best I will get lip service explaining how they have to organize, hold meetings about holding meetings to discuss when it is time to hold a meeting.

I’m doing my best to not literally explode on Harmony but my fuse is growing shorter by the day. If you didn’t want to follow through and pay me, you should have never approved my bounty. I don’t want to get ugly over this but I will if that is what it takes to get paid. I’m not going to curl up and let you guys walk all over me.

[GeorgeofEmmaInterest]

@sick_of_this I can guarantee that Harmony is 100% not listening. I’ve been to every Tuesday DAO meeting including the new 1DAO Meetings since April.

Everyone is silent. No one wants to bite the hand that feeds them. They’re all asking for funding.

Sam said, “Just post your proposal up again and see if there’s positive community sentiment”. He literally said that last week.

Please, Harmony Community, if you are reading this know that I can attest 100% that the Harmony Core Team is NOT listening. Morale for the DAOs are currently extremely low. Barely anyone talks in the 1DAO meetings unless they’re called upon. And when they are, they are given really questionable “political” answers that are not even answers but complete and total evasion to any answer.

[papi]

I have zero involvement with any DAO, but I know the team that is in charge and they are listening and doing something about it. @Sam @lij can speak more to it

[GeorgeofEmmaInterest]

I like Harmony. Please. Let’s all just get along.

[papi]

I’m just now seeing this and I don’t know the context.

Who was in charge of your bounty?

What’s the link to bounty forum post?

I can push hard internally so we do right by you.

[ILL_DIE_TRYING]

This is the same answer I get every time a new Harmony official sees one of my posts and nothing has happened yet. And I have been trying to communicate with Harmony over my bounty for 2 months now. The OP on this post knows my situation very well.

Refer to here:
https://www.reddit.com/r/harmony_one/comments/v37t55/i_just_dont_get_it_how_do_you_plan_on_keeping/

And Here:

PHP Class, API requests for scripting languages, and Harmony Node API Explorer

Hi Everyone! I hope I did this right. Project Name PHPH1 (PHP Harmony ONE) Proposal Create a PHP class and a few scripts that will return calls to the Node API. It could be used by other scripting languages to dynamically retrieve data for API calls without having to write all the code for the various JSON requests. Once complete, I plan to use it to create a lightweight and simple responsive web based block explorer that views properly on phones and tablets. I have already written a rough f…

[papi]

Ok, thanks. I’ll push hard right now. I apologize for your bad experience. It’s not you, it’s us. I’ll make sure this gets fixed asap

[ILL_DIE_TRYING]

Good luck! I appreciate the apparent concern but I won’t be holding my breath. It wouldn’t be good for the headache I already have from this situation.