Who said anything about a ransom? 
I am simply asking to speak to a decision maker at the W3F to resolve the issue.
1 Like
4 Likes
This is particularly relevant because few people have likely seen a hidden alternative YouTube channel called āThe Kus India.ā It featured the exact same videos as the original channel, but with AI-generated faces and voices translated into Hindi. The result was both comical and unsettling. All the Friday News Pumps and other videos featuring Jay, Crane, and others were translated into Hindi. The YouTube channel had very few subscribersāaveraging only about 22 views per videoāand the Youtube comments were flooded with the most blatant AI-generated, bot-like, and shill comments I have ever seen.
This India-focused account appears to coincide with The Kus allegedly using OpenGov treasury funds to purchase low-quality views on YouTube and low-quality Google adspend on irrelevant markets or audiences which at best constitutes wasted spend in generating unqualified traffic/leads, at worst, constitutes āgaming the systemā. We did not vote for you to advertise traffic to low quality indian and vietnamese markets.
Not at all. Bill is either lying here or (as it turned out) is being lied to by the messengers he delegated to take care of this "negotiationā
Here was my response:
3 Likes
some videos had purchased views
As an outsider, it feels like Jay is simply asking communication regarding this topic, which seems fair if things happened like that.
It feels like W3F wanted to take over, terminate things (which does imply peoplās jobs) because they felt it was useless (valid, they have their higher dot stake), and now want those same agents they terminated to have acted on polkadots best interest post-termination.
Itās either for the best, and the professional thing really, to either move forward with the new model accepting the consequences of their decision, or that certain reparations are considered, such as re-establishing some communications for middle ground. Anything on the middle seems, not serious.
Mostly Iām worried about the lack of communication, specially given the direction of āopening upā. Anyways, everyday is harder to read whatās going on here, but thatās most of the space tbh.
Hopeful for things to turn well for W3F and polkadot eco.
4 Likes
I understand your point, but itās unclear why all the content was made private when it was paid for by the treasury.
That content should be public, as it was funded by the treasury and should therefore be accessible to the entire community..
7 Likes
This topic is temporarily closed for at least 4 hours due to a large number of community flags.
This topic is temporarily closed for at least 4 hours due to a large number of community flags.
As youāll see from the top post of this thread, Kus was contracted via OpenGov refs to engage in ad buying through official Google & X ad programs to extend the reach of the content. This was not done in secret but was an explicit directive from DOT voters at the time over multiple refs.
1 Like
This has been explained numerous times in this thread:
1 Like
The Kus members playing the childish game after a rage quit for being cut out of funding, is that really a surprise to anyone?
If Jay has been honest on one thing since the beginning, itās rare enough to notice, itās that he would never do anything without money.
The behavior of āthe bossā since years says the rest, the infantil reaction shouldnāt be a surprise to anyone. Heās just trying to extract a bit more money as he always did.
The thing is, Jay always āsoldā to holders/voters via treasury proposals that Kus was the media of Polkadot, for Polkadot, owned by Polkadot.
Therefor, it is only logical that the community claims access to all this content massively funded by treasury. Not for the content, nobody will ever watch more than 2/3 videos. A few pieces only are valuable over time, the rest is at best mediocre. But for the principle, because Kus is breaking a social contract that they, themselves entirely proposed and sold to the community.
One piece of advise: just play the honest game, accept the Polkadot treasury or W3F money stops feeding you forever even though that was your plan.
For sure itās hard to digest, your social capital is the only thing you have thatās valuable to keep earning money, and you will just keep ruining it by playing this bad faith puerile game.
Itās been a āniceā time, now letās all settle this and move on for the sake of Polkadot and focus on serious things.
9 Likes
Agreed they should be made available again. I can also understand the Kus considering risks have changed and wanting a discussion.
It amounts to:
- Kus saying W3F negotiated termination.
- W3F members saying they didnāt
- Kus saying itās now a centralized actor handling governance
- W3F saying the owners are still a DAO.
For 1 & 2 we canāt know. Iām guessing itās a result of distance and each normal biases, but thatās just a guess.
For 3 & 4 itās open to interpretation. Personally, Iāve stopped voting as I understand W3F will handle things from now on with their majority weight (which Iām not against, I like governance, but itās quite expensive at initial stages).
If there is a centralized organization handling things, Iād assume they also inherit the responsibilities.
But I do agree the content should eventually be made public in either case. And I hope the Kus understands this should be the case.
In my opinion, this is a sign of disrespect toward all Polkadot holders and users. Many of us continue creating and sharing content for free or without any support. However, those who do receive funding take advantage of the situation and do whatever they want the moment their funding is cut off. I feel very sorry about what is happening; without a doubt, this exposes many things.
Although I didnāt like all of Jayās content, some of his interviews like those with Gavin, Rob, or Shawn were fantastic. I didnāt watch the rest because they didnāt interest me much. However, considering all the money he has received from 2022 until now, the fact that he now wants to lock everything behind a paywall is a sign of disrespect toward the community.
This is not about the W3F; it is about the community that believed in him and always supported him. While the W3Fās decision to stop funding The Kusamarian is fine, there is no need to close the channel. It was a public good funded by the treasury, and closing it over a āmoney tantrumā is disrespectful to the ecosystem.
This makes it clear that they are only in it for the money. If The Kusamarian comes back, it will never be the same, because he shot himself in the foot and revealed his true colors. I admired the work you did, but with this action, you have deeply disappointed me.
17 Likes
Jay, we all get that you want to slam the door when leaving and youāre free to do that. But what youāre doing here is a professional suicide.
No one cares really what any āmessengersā from W3F have said or not, that is between you and said messengers and we canāt judge who is telling the truth.
But creation of those videos was paid by the treasury and you should feel accountability to the community who supported and funded the work. One simple note here on the forum alerting that the storage fees are not prolonged and therefore the videos will be deleted to a certain date would solve all this completely unnecessary drama. It has absolutely nothing to do with W3F and everything to do with your responsibility to the ecosystem that you have long claimed to be a fan of.
15 Likes
Just to be clear Iām not upset funding was stopped or in a rage. I am managing personal risk, risk to former team members, and working on building an incredible future!
And fyi the entire meeting with the āmessengersā was recorded for my personal reference. I did watch it again when countering the claim false that āW3F did not shut down The Kusā right here:
This is a true depiction of events.
1 Like
what risk? i donāt get it.. theyāre just videos.
6 Likes
So the risk didnāt matter as long as the funding was coming? You argued that you worked on top of the funding and that it was on lower end - means that the risk is very low as well?
Did you ever made it clear to the community that the videos will only exist as long as the funding continues?
3 Likes