A few days ago, prompted by this meme taking a dig at Cameron and his Tottenham loyalties, the football channel took a trip down memory lane.
KMac does an excellent job of summarising what was going on at that point in the cast below.
It might sound strange, but, yes, once upon a time, the entire channel went on strike and moved to Telegram for a few days.
I just went through Telegram trying to find the group chat we made during that period but I can't find it anymore (note to self: document stuff more). But, I distinctly remember that we first tried posting football-related casts on our home feeds instead of on the channel (but that made discovery difficult for everyone involved) before we eventually settled on using a Telegram group.
Crazier times.
And yes, Cameron did pick a Premier League team to support on an Unloney livestream. Unfortunately, I slept through that livestream and by the time I woke up the damage was done, Cameron was a Spurs fan and there was no reversing it. I think about that day a lot. I like to think Cameron is my friend, and friends don't let their friends support Tottenham. I failed him and now I have to live with that for the rest of my life.
I also remember Dan setting very unclear quotas for us to meet if we wanted the channel renamed. One time he said we needed to make it to the list of the ten most active channels on Farcaster or something like that. And we achieved it through some truly herculean effort (for such a small channel then). But, did Dan rename the channel? Of course not. Farcaster's BDFL turned out not to be so benevolent at all. He shifted the goalposts again and on we went. (I'm kidding of course, please don't destroy me Daddy Romero).
Eventually, the channel was renamed, but not by Dan of course. Thankfully Farcaster has two BDFLs, and Varun renamed the channel while Dan was away for a while. We wondered what Dan's reaction would be when he returned but there was no reaction whatsoever, we had won.
What I remember (and love) the most about that period was the sense of belonging to a tight-knit community with shared interests that the channel fostered. When I joined Farcaster it was still very much a large group chat, I wasn't sure where to go or how to belong until I found the Football channel. Web3 is pretty nerdy, Farcaster, in the beginning, was as well, I was pleased to find somewhere where I could discuss Arsenal performances and not EIPs and account abstraction (jk, I love AA).
I also loved all the fun experimentation with different ways to coordinate the channel. For a while, we tried hosting open audio spaces on Aburra (think Twitter spaces for Farcaster). We tried everything including hosting spaces pre-game, at halftime, and post-match. Sanchit and Veekay taking turns to rip into Aaron Ramsdale while I pleaded for leniency for Rambo was our own version of the CBS UCL show with Henry, Richards, Carragher, and Abdo. KMac would join some spaces but in typical fashion didn't speak much preferring to let the conversation wash over him.
And finally, I loved the sense of freedom that being part of an open community gave people to build out initiatives and projects to grow the channel independently. The Aburra spaces were hosted by anyone who wanted to. KMac started building D33m, a sort of real-time chat app for watching games together. We even briefly toyed with the idea of having a /Football Gather where people from the channel could hang out during the work day (h/t to Neynar's Gather of course).
I really love that even though the channel is a lot larger now than it was then, the things that made the channel so unique from the beginning still remain.
It continues to be a tight-knit community with shared interests. It doesn't matter who you are or where you're from, if you love the beautiful game you are welcome on the channel.
We continue to experiment with different ways to coordinate the channel. Some of the changes have been at the protocol level, for example, we have channel moderators now because the protocol added that functionality. But, other experiments have been independent. This season we have 93 FPL players, the most we've ever had, and we implemented a system where players have to buy a pass to join FPL (all proceeds going to the channel). For a while now we've been experimenting with having a channel wallet, first with Party and now with Safe. The two big questions of course are: how does the channel generate revenue, and what does it spend the revenue on? We're not quite sure yet, but it's a work in progress.
Experimentation on the channel has also moved beyond being driven by moderators to take on very individual approaches much to my delight. KMac's ever-evolving FC-Footy frame is one of my favourites in Farcaster's history. Its first iteration as d33m, an app for live watch along and real-time comments while games were on was very cool. Now in conjunction with Gabe, they're trying to make the frame a one-stop shop for all things football-related on Farcaster.
And, speaking of experimentation, individuals are driving innovation in the channel like never before:
0xbob's FPLbets frame just won a Farcaster grant (I enjoy playing it more than playing FPL lol).
Supertaster and co have taken novel token mechanisms like Degen and used them to fund interesting games on the channel on matchday. I now see so many giveaway-for-prediction games on the channel on matchday.
Ash (and I) started TFN, the first publication dedicated to all things football specifically on Farcaster. So far we've written a couple of essays and recorded some podcast episodes as we try to figure out what a football-focused media outlet looks like for Farcaster.
I've always hoped that the /football channel will always remain an awesome cozy corner on Farcaster for lovers of the beautiful game. And I've hoped that we'll find a way to maintain the channel's culture as we grow. So far it seems like we're nailing it! Thank you to everyone who contributes to the growth of the channel in one way or the other. I love you all.
