SCF #10 — Community Discussion begins!
As the Stellar Ecosystem grows, so does the Stellar Community Fund. In the past two weeks, the selection panel reviewed over 150 submissions — a new record — by developers, startups and full-fledged companies building on Stellar, of which 42 are selected to move forward. Take a look: communityfund.stellar.org/current.
For the next two weeks, any and all have the chance to weigh in on those projects. The Community Discussion phase not only gives contestants a chance to advocate for their projects, it also gives the Stellar community a chance to interact directly with developers and entrepreneurs from all over the world, and to help them hone their pitches and refine their products so they impact the world in the best possible ways.
How to participate in discussion
Start by reading through entries on communityfund.stellar.org/current. Join a project’s dedicated channel in the SCF Discord (under SCF #10) to ask questions and provide feedback. The more you engage, the stronger the entries become, and the bigger the impact SCF has on the Stellar ecosystem and the world at large.
A few tips:
- Be constructive. Ask substantive questions that give contestants a chance to clarify or explain their project. When possible, suggest a change rather than merely pointing out a flaw.
- Think about what the project is asking for. Does it deserve the requested budget? If you were an investor, would you provide the desired level of funding? If not, why not?
- Play to your strengths. You don’t need to give feedback on every aspect of a submission. If you’re good at reviewing code, go straight to the GitHub repo. If you’re a product person, check out the “Products and Services” section. If business plans are your thing, look at the revenue model, competitive analysis, or marketing and sales proposal. Many submitters are new to Stellar and could use your specific insight and experience to scale their projects.
- Be kind and supportive, even to your competitors. We’re working together to build a community, and a welcoming environment increases participation and drives development.
For selected projects
This is your opportunity to engage with, learn from, and get to know the Stellar community. Over the next two weeks, you have a rare opportunity to collect feedback, and to use it to improve your submission. You can also interact with potential voters to help them understand your project, and to tailor your submission to highlight its value.
A few tips:
- Check your dedicated project channel on the SCF Discord, and take the time to read and respond to feedback! Use other channels accordingly:
☕│general: for general chat, no project postings
❓│support: questions about the Stellar Community Fund
🎉│self-promotion: promote your project for the current round (in this case SCF #10)
⚡│project-announcements: post announcements of your project (can be all (previously) selected projects)
- Ask questions when you can, accept feedback gracefully, and listen to what the community has to say. Remember: it’s the community that will decide whether to award you your budget request. Check out these guidelines for effectively asking and responding to feedback.
- While you’re at it, give your submission another read. Is there anything you can improve? Be very clear about what you’re building, fill out your submission in as much detail as possible, share any info you have about your current users, and make sure all your links work.
You can request modifications for your entry until June 19th, which is when Community Discussion ends and the Voting Phase starts. Make sure you use this time to optimize your entry based on feedback!
For projects who didn’t make the selection
The increase in submissions required more stringent selection criteria to ensure the best projects rise to the top and gain valuable feedback and expert advice from the Stellar community at large.
If you didn’t make the cut, chances are your application didn’t quite fit these criteria . But don’t give up! Take a closer look at the info below, use it to improve your submission, and you can apply again later this year.
As part of an objective review, the panel selected candidates by asking the following questions:
Does the submission…
- Adhere by the participant eligibility guidelines?
- Provide sufficient information with enough clarity to allow for review?
- Incorporate use cases beneficial to the Stellar Ecosystem based on submission eligibility guidelines?
- Request a reasonable budget according to budget guidelines?
- (Plan to) use Stellar in its core features?
- Explain how Stellar is and will be integrated?
- Truthfully describe the product or service without overstatement or false claims?
For resubmitting projects:
- Has the entry sufficiently improved since the previous submission, as described in the resubmission guidelines?
Use cases that are primarily focused on promoting a custom token or relying on Stellar for arbitrary data storage generally don’t make the cut. Submissions that incorporate NFTs into a project or platform qualify, but those that primarily consist of minting NFTs or NFT Collections are not eligible.Also, projects need to be directly built on and make use of the Stellar network in their core operations.
Upcoming changes
To grow the SCF at scale, we will introduce multiple opportunities to get selected as a candidate before live SCF rounds begin. Applicants will fill out a shorter application, and a selection panel consisting of verified members will review incoming submissions periodically. This means that applicants will spend less time submitting, know answers sooner, and have more chances to improve their submission before SCF rounds.
Selected candidates will earn a place on the SCF website and on the Stellar.org “Built on Stellar” page, will continue to have a dedicated channel in the SCF Discord, and will enjoy potential opportunities including brand presence in the Stellar ecosystem and community, 1:1 meetings with SDF teams, and future growth through partnerships, investments, and accelerators and incubators.
Based on community feedback, we’re also working towards other strategic changes to improve the SCF, including more transparent communication and guidelines to prepare for submission. Stay tuned!
SCF #10 — Community Discussion begins! was originally published in Stellar Community on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.