Please describe your proposed solution.

Problem: IDEASCALE SUCKS.

Try to sort the challenges by Trending, and you get a random result. Sort by Recommended, you get an empty result, sort by Newest, that works, sometimes.

It's slow, it looks ugly, and for some reason when I give Kudos it gives multiple ones. Just yesterday I was able to hand out 150 Kudos. Why, I don't know. What even are kudos and what is their purpose? Nobody knows. Not even the engineer who wrote the code for Kudos.

I get notifications which I read, that then become unread again. Why Ideascale? How are you so bad at doing developing this platform? Why don't you fix all these seemingly simple problems? I don't know, and at this point, I don't care.

As Project Catalyst, we need to lose Ideascale as soon as possible. This platform is killing all the good ideas we need to scale and replacing them with frustration and anger.

Solution:

1. Conduct workshops with the Catalyst community to understand the problem, list the features we need, and the problems we definitely want solved with Ideascale.
2. Research the various alternatives that are out there.
3. Test out promising alternatives.
4. Create a shortlist to try with the community.
5. Host sessions with the community to introduce tools, run demo funds with each tool in the shortlist with the Catalyst community.
6. Create demo videos where the broader community can take a look at the tools.
7. Promote the different tools as options within the Cardano community.
8. Have a vote on which tool to implement.
9. Integrate the tool on the Catalyst Continuous Testnet
10. Work with IO to get the new tool ready for Fund 11 (hopefully) and if not, Fund 12.

How does your proposed solution address the challenge and what benefits will this bring to the Cardano ecosystem?

Ideascale is where proposal submissions happen. It is the core of the interface for proposers, reviewers, and active community members. Because Ideascale sucks, it acts as a barrier. It adds friction to the magic of collaboration that happens when a stranger reads another's proposal.

Removing Ideascale and replacing it with something that is better will be the single biggest improvement to Catalyst's system. It will unlock that magic.

How do you intend to measure the success of your project?

There's only one success metric that matters: Moving off Ideascale and onto something else.

Additionally we could take a look at things like:

• number of tools considered
• number of tools tested with the community

but really the only real success is moving to a new platform. Anything less is failure.

Please describe your plans to share the outputs and results of your project?

At each stage, I will share updates with the community through my Twitter&Threads accounts.

After the initial research of tools we can use, I will prepare a short document list each of these tools, asking for feedback from the community on which ones they have used, which they think may be useful, again through Twitter.

After collecting feedback I will test the tools myself, and showcase my experience using videos, then again share them with community.

Through that I will select the tools to try with the community, and at that point the entire community will be welcome to demo the tools.

What is your capability to deliver your project with high levels of trust and accountability?

The project requires these skills:

1. researching tools
2. testing said tools
3. organizing and hosting demo sessions of tools
4. communicating with the larger community effectively

I demonstrably have all of these skills:

• as co-founder of littlefish Foundation I am leading the research initatives that research various topics on DAOs and test many DAO tools. See all our research here: https://tools.littlefish.foundation/littlefish-research
• I have organized and ran many online workshops over the past 2 years as part of the littlefish community. See them on our YT channel here: https://www.youtube.com/@littlefishFoundation
• I am the defacto community manager and head of operations who has been an active member of the Catalyst community, participated and hosted many community events

What are the main goals for the project and how will you validate if your approach is feasible?

The main goal of the project is to find a good alternative to Ideascale, then facilitate the move.

I will aim to deliver this goal by Fund 12, given the Continuous Catalyst Testnet requires changes to be locked to 3 months before the Fund begins.

But maybe, just maybe, we can get it done before Fund 11.

Please provide a detailed breakdown of your project’s milestones and each of the main tasks or activities to reach the milestone plus the expected timeline for the delivery.

Milestone 1 - Scope out the problem

• collect existing knowledge that document problems with Ideascale
• contact different communities and individuals including the Catalyst team that may have such info on Miro boards, documents, etc.
• run workshop(s) in After Town Hall to collect community problems and demanded features
• prepare a document that outlines all the research, the must have features and nice to have features
• expected timeline: 1 month

Milestone 2 - Deep dive into alternatives, find and list all possible choices

• Find tools that may be the solution,
• Browse tool content and play solo with the features,
• Do a scan of the must haves and nice to haves for each tool
• Prepare a shortlist of solutions (up to 3 tools) and share them with the community
• expected timeline: 1 month

Milestone 3 - Launch and run demo funds in the shortlist

• Get community participants to participate in demo funds in each of the tools in the shortlist
• Write proposals, review, comment, and interact on each of the tools for 1 month
• Get as many community members to use the tools by promoting in ATH and many Catalyst communities
• Make sure enough engagement on each tool happens for each tool so we have enough data
• expected timeline: 1 month

Milestone 4 - Choose a platform with the community

• Collect feedback from the participants on the features we identified earlier for each tool
• Hold sessions after town hall to present the results to the community
• Share the sessions with the rest of the community through Youtube
• Promote and hold an on-chain vote to select a tool with the community
• expected timeline: 1 month

Milestone 5- Integrate it into Catalyst Continuous Testnet, work with IO to get it live

• Work with IO team to develop an integration for the new tool, deploy it on Catalyst Continous Testnet
• Develop tests, push forward to make the change happen in production, until the next possible fund
• expected timeline: 1 month

Please describe the deliverables, outputs and intended outcomes of each milestone.

Milestone 1 - Scope out the problem

• Output: A document outlining the problem, the pain points with Ideascale, the must have features, the nice to have features, and any other considerations to be made while selecting a new platform.
• Outcome: A clear specification of the problem and the need specified by community input.

Milestone 2 - Deep dive into alternatives, find and list all possible choices

• Output: A feature comparison of alternatives, and a shortlist of up to three tools that may be the tool we select as a community.
• Outcomes:
• All tools that may serve our purpose that are out there are found and listed.
• The community may now pitch in ideas on which tools will do the job.
• We have 3 tools which may be the future of Catalyst.

Milestone 3 - Launch and run demo funds in the shortlist

• Output: Up to three tools tested with the Catalyst community.
• Outcomes:
• We have in depth understanding of the tools in question.
• We can analyze deeply each tool, how they can be used, what are drawbacks and the positives.
• The people in the Catalyst community who care most about Catalyst get to help by participating in selecting the next one.

Milestone 4 - Choose a platform with the community

• Output: An on-chain vote to choose a new platform is made.
• Outcomes:
• We now know which tool we want to move to as a community.
• The people in the Catalyst community who care most about Catalyst get to put in their input to selecting the next platform we run on.

Milestone 5- Integrate it into Catalyst Continuous Testnet, work with IO to get it live

• Output: The tool is integrated into Catalyst Continiuous Testnet, and moving towards production.
• Outcomes:
• We have a viable alternative to Ideascale in the proposal submission phase.
• Hopefully, we are not frustrated by the terrible platform anymore.

Please provide a detailed budget breakdown of the proposed work and resources.

All work in the proposal is rated at 25 USD/hr.

Milestone 1 - Scope out the problem - 100 hrs - 2500 USD

Milestone 2 - Deep dive into alternatives, find and list all possible choices - 150 hrs - 3750 USD

Milestone 3 - Launch and run demo funds in the shortlist - 500 hrs - 12500 USD

Milestone 4 - Choose a platform with the community - 200 hrs - 5000 USD

Milestone 5- Integrate it into Catalyst Continuous Testnet, work with IO to get it live - 250 hrs - 6250 USD

Budget to purchase accounts in tools to test - 5000 USD

Total = 35,000 USD

Total in ADA (at 0.32 ADAUSD) = 109,375 ADA

Who is in the project team and what are their roles?

Chakhan - co-founder littlefish Foundation. In Project Catalyst since Fund 7. Professional Ideascale hater. I think about the guy who had a "I love Ideascale" tshirt in Summit 2022 everyday. I love that guy.

I plan on conducting all of the work myself. I will host the workshops, see littlefish's Youtube channel to view the 10s of workshops I've hosted in the past year. I will research the tools, see littlefish's research on Cardano tools for my expertise, I will also develop the integration to Catalyst continuous testnet. As a 3+ year dev I have the experience.

How does the cost of the project represent value for money for the Cardano ecosystem?

The Value for Cardano

Ideascale is the shackles that hold down Project Catalyst, that suffocates community members, that prevents them from engaging in meaningful interactions. With a free Project Catalyst working its magic to bring true collaboration to Cardano, the ecosystem will prosper.

Pricing

All work outlined is rated at 25 USD/hr. This is a fair amount given that the work involves a diverse set of skills to properly deliver: technical background to evaluate the tool featuresets, in depth knowledge of software platforms, research, workshop design and facilitation, communication with the community, setting up the tools, setting up the vote holding it and developing the integration into the Catalyst testnet.

One item in the budget is 5000 USD for the tools to test out. Turns out tools like this are mad expensive. This page I found says Ideascale is 12,999 USD per 2 years.

I'm hoping to get free demos for 1 month but if not, I will need a budget to try some of these tools. This budget will be used for that and any remaining will be returned to the Catalyst treasury at the end of the proposal.