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The Basics On What You Need To Know About Minds

Scott CunninghamAug 6, 2018, 5:20:38 AM

As always with all the new users coming on I occasionally write guides and or tips etc. to help people get situated on Minds. So today I'm going to more or less verbatim share from the Minds FAQ the most important things I think new users should be aware of. It is extensive and comprehensive which is awesome, but most people want to get going right away. So I'm going to take compress it down as much as possible to make it easier to get started in under 5 minutes.

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I'm assuming you know what Minds is, but let's quickly cover the basics

Minds is a free, open source, crowdfunded, highly innovative and encrypted social networking platform. On Minds, people are rewarded with digital currency for their activities and can exchange that currency for ad space or use it to trade with others on the site.

Now, skipping over the basics of logging in etc. let's cover voting

Voting

A vote is the same as a like or dislike except unique post votes contribute to the network score and aware people with tokens.

Voting also serves as the way to curate good content and show community interest in something.

Something people are unaware of is that voting abuse can be punished. So for example, mass downvoting someone can be treated as harassment. Currently I don't believe downvotes affect your financials and how much you earn.

Images and Videos

All major types are supported. You can upload your content and access it all on your biography.

Metadata

Be sure for your videos, blogs, and posts to set your licensing, category, rating, and meta information. This is to help index, filter, and keep your content professional and aligned with the platform. This will probably help you with promotion as well while being well aligned with content guidelines.

Blogs

Like most blog platforms you can write blogs and have access to all the same general blog tools and setup. You can access blogging via your profile or the blog menu item and then clicking write a new blog.

While writing you'll see you have access to just publishing and or saving drafts and working on a blog over time.

Monetization

You can begin receiving tokens when you verify your phone number to your account. There's a few ways to monetize and earn.

1. Earning via our interaction and use of Minds
2. Premium content (charging users monthly for access to premium content)
3. Donations
4. Reward Tiers (create rewards that you promise to deliver based on tokens donated)
5. Offers (accepting paid remind boosts requests from other users)

6. Third party monetization or influencer agreements.

Boosts

A boost is a promotion that you can use to advertise yourself or your content as well as other if you wanted. Specifically it's to help gains views on your profile or content.

The three kinds of boosts are:

1. Newsfeed
2. Sidebar
3. Offers
4. Channel

You can boost your posts through your post or through the boost menu section. One thing very interesting to note and be aware that I missed it for myself was that boosting on the newsfeed and sidebar can be confusing.

I typically boost all my posts directly on the post and for most posts you can only do newsfeed promotions. With images, blogs, and videos you can have sidebar promotions, but for example with a text post or link you can only do newsfeed promotion. This is something to be aware of to make the most of your boosting and promotion so you don't neglect sidebar promotions.

I get more into it in my other blog I wrote: Boosting On Minds

Messenger

The messenger is pretty straightforward like any messenger that you can find on the bottom right. The main difference is that you need a separate password to encrypt your messenger in case your account was compromised.

Posting

Posting functions very similarly to Facebook and Twitter with a generous character limit, link previews and all the general quirks you see in a traditional social posting.

You can reshare (remind) posts, upvote, downvote, comment, and donate. Posts can be made premium as well. You may also pin your posts to the top of your profile. I believe the max is 3 pinned posts.

Groups

Groups function similar to Faecbook with a few notable changes. Firstly they are a bit more simple which is natural given Facebook has built on theirs for a long time. One interesting difference is groups have their newsfeed as well as a group conversation section for everything to chat in. This creates an interesting atmosphere where you can post and talk in real time. I see a lot of potential with that setup.

Security and Privacy

Quickly, you can enable two factor authentication for security access purposes to your account.

In terms of security and privacy, you need to add your phone number to earn tokens on the platform. You are allowed to run anonymously and not earn as well if you should so choose.

You can block users as Minds will not police the platform for you aside from extreme legal circumstances. There is a conversation around blocking people and how we might benefit from being a little more hesitant as I've seen people openly declare if you downvote them ever they will block you.

Now it's different when someone mass downvotes you because they don't like you and have no explanation. That is different from not liking something or being harassed and then blocking someone.

What blocking does is filters their content from showing up and prevents them from commenting on your content. You will still see them in groups and if someone else reminds their posts etc.

Thoughts?

Let me know what you think, if this helped you, and if there is anything I missed. I skipped over a lot and you can check out the FAQ and whitepaper yourself to get a better idea for yourself.

Minds FAQ: https://www.minds.com/faq

Help And Support Group: https://www.minds.com/groups/profile/100000000000000681/feed

Minds Whitepaper: https://cdn-assets.minds.com/front/dist/assets/documents/Whitepaper-v0.3.pdf

Early Updates Beta Version: https://www.minds.com/canary