Day 7 of Building Crowdwide — UI Polishing, My First Advertiser, and Translation Breaking AGAIN 😭

Seven months have passed since the last update on Crowdwide, my social platform. I've been focusing on polishing the user interface, enhancing the Waves system, securing my first external advertiser, welcoming a new moderator, and attempting to resolve a translation feature that continues to malfunction. In this update, I'll share what's new.

Currently, Crowdwide has seven members, 35 posts, four communities, and two advertisers, including myself. Although these figures are modest, the fact that people are beginning to join and engage with the platform is encouraging. Every incremental progress matters, especially when you're constructing something independently with virtually no financial resources.

My first external advertiser has joined Crowdwide. After reviewing their application, a moderator and I approved it. However, the advertiser lacked sufficient Waves to initiate their campaign. I had not adequately considered this scenario beforehand. The advertising process involves submitting details about a website, product, or service, followed by moderator and admin approval.

The advertiser must then allocate a campaign budget of at least 25 Waves. Once the campaign is active, Waves are deducted based on impressions and clicks. This system aims to make promotion accessible to individuals who lack significant advertising budgets.

To address the issue, I decided to grant every current user account a one-time boost of 25 Waves. This move is intended to provide early users with additional flexibility to explore the platform's features. I also realized the importance of considering how users acquire their initial Waves, particularly for features that require Waves for initial engagement.

However, it's crucial to clarify that Waves are an internal platform currency, not real money or cryptocurrency linked to a bank account. This internal system was designed to facilitate Crowdwide's reward and promotion mechanisms without requiring users to make real-money transactions.

Several reward structures are in place to encourage user participation: creating a post yields 1-3 Waves, commenting earns 1-3 Waves, receiving likes and comments award 0.1-1 Wave each, and joining or creating a community grants 1-2 or 2-5 Waves, respectively. Completing a quest can earn users 1-5 Waves. These rewards aim to foster engagement and allow users to navigate the platform's features.

Waves can also be utilized for promotional activities and other supported platform functionalities. I am still refining the reward system to ensure it remains engaging without being overly exploitable. As Crowdwide expands, I will continue to enhance the system.

Additionally, Harun (@koda2026) has agreed to join the moderator team. This assistance is invaluable, as managing a platform alone entails handling various aspects such as features, user interface, bug fixes, moderation, rewards, advertising, and numerous other responsibilities. Harun has also provided valuable insights on categorizing moderation actions based on risk levels.

Lower-risk actions include marking posts as "Good post," proposing edits, and flagging obvious spam for automatic review by an admin. Higher-risk actions, such as warning or suspending users, permanently deleting posts, or modifying community settings, require admin approval. This approach allows moderators to manage routine tasks while maintaining oversight over more critical decisions.