Welcome to gFam!
We're sure you have lots of questions... we're using new technology to achieve a new mindset about the future of “work”.
Here is the list of questions we tackle in this FAQ:
🤔 What is gFam?
🤔 What problems does gFam attempt to solve?
🤔 What type of content will appear on the gFam site?
🤔 Why would anyone tip a selfie?
🤔 Do people have to tip?
🤔 Do you need a gFam account to tip?
🤔 Do you need a Xumm account to tip?
🤔 Does gFam pay taxes for creators?
🤔 #freethenipple?
🤔 How is gFam different from Instagram, Patreon, OnlyFans, etc?
🤔 How can creators make money on gFam without advertisers?
🤔 Should creators be careful?
🤔 How are creators tipped?
🤔 What are the fees?
🤔 Can gFam steal my tips?
🤔 Why doesn't gFam use normal money or Paypal or something?
🤔 Why is all gFam's documentation on Coil?
🤔 How does gFam make money?
🤔 Is my data being tracked?
🤔 Does gFam use my photos for anything?
🤔 How does the blockchain technology work?
🤔 Are there statistics/metrics available to creators?
🤔 Where do we go if we have issues on gFam?
Obviously lots of these questions have super obvious answers since we're answering questions we're asking ourselves... but still, hope this helps.
What is gFam?
gFam is an app that attempts to fix social media.
It can be found at https://gfam.live
Traditional social media has been completely overrun by corporations, it's no longer about you and I connecting... it's about companies engineering content to sell us products.
gFam takes all the corporations right out of the equation, it connects creators and consumers directly, not middleman (not even us) and provides the opportunity for consumers to tip creators directly and instantly.
What problems does gFam attempt to solve?
gFam hates the fact that creators have to build up massive followings on social media before they can even be considered to get paid. The platforms themselves keep the absolute vast majority of the revenue generated, despite the fact creators bring all the users, and advertisements are becoming more annoying, sneaky and intrusive every day.
gFam is also super worried about automation decimating the workforce of entire regions of the world. Retail has already hugely impacted by online shopping, manufacturing and transportation are being converted at the moment and in the world of pandemics, automation and technology will go a long way to replacing huge sections of the service industry.
gFam attempts to help alleviate these problems by providing an avenue where normal people can potentially generate an income by establishing meaningful interactions and relationships with everyone else in our huge global family.
What type of content will appear on the gFam site?
Initially gFam is really interested in collecting selfies from it's creators. Selfies are personal, fun, easy to create, and provide a window into people's actual lives.
We'd love for people to tell a story about their day, what they're up to and how they're feeling alongside their selfie. We don't want the staged or glamourous, we want real genuine people sharing their lives, their emotions, their struggles and their successes.
A lot of content on traditional social media is staged, some even use entire teams (photographers, stylists, makeup artists, retouchers, etc) which creates completely unrealistic comparisons. How many people feel really great about their own lives after scrolling through Instagram? The problem is, it's not fair... the people throwing up these images don't really look like that or have those lives either... it's all in the name of collecting followers and likes, so it can be monetized.
Selfies are much harder to stage, and while it's not impossible, there doesn't seem really worth the effort.
Why Selfies?
gFam will encourage creators to be honest and genuine and share the highs and lows of their lives. We're happy for creators to use filters, etc, but consistently glamourised posts will not review much support from the gFam team itself (in the form of tips, etc).
Please see the Posting Guidelines for more in-depth information.
Why would anyone tip a selfie?
Well, firstly, no one has to.
Secondly, it's not really about the selfie itself, but it's about the story that it tells, and hopefully, a collection of selfies will tell a fuller, richer story about people's lives.
We're hoping that consumers tip the posts of creators because they feel a honest, genuine connection with the creator, because they like them and they want them to succeed in life.
We're hoping the tips become the positive reinforcement of this platform, a way for consumers to say 'this is good, more of this please' to creators.
We understand that people might not feel that a selfie is worthy of tips because it isn't necessarily a polished and highly produced art form... and that's fine, these sorts of things are highly subjective. We're hoping that selfies have a lot more value to consumers because they can be raw and honest, and far more accessible to all sorts of people all over the world.
A collection of selfies from our global family might just be the most interesting art form there is? Who knows...
Do people have to tip?
Not at all.
Everything on the gFam site is able to be viewed by everyone, regardless of whether they are a content creator and/or a content consumer.
Using blockchain technology allows tips to be extremely small, so we're hoping that consumers tip in amounts they can easily afford to pretty much just say hello.
We've noticed on other platforms that people are far more generous overall when tiny tip amounts are possible.
Do you need a gFam account to tip?
Unfortunately yes, we tried to set up this platform so that anyone could tip, but at this point we couldn't get that to work.
To tip successfully users will need to create an account on the gFam platform and include their Xumm account.
Do you need a Xumm account to tip?
Yes. Xumm is the system that gFam users so that creators can receive their tips approximately 3 seconds after they've been made. It's incredible technology and in the future a number of currencies will be available for gFam users.
There is also a super interesting Xumm Community site that adds even more functionality like scheduling payments and creating digital IOUs.
Does gFam pay taxes for creators?
No.
gFam isn't paying creators itself. Users are not employees or contractors.
gFam is a platform that connects content creators with content consumers. As such it's the responsibility of anyone who receives tips to comply with the taxation laws of their region.
This is a really interesting dilemma. Obviously we don't have the infrastructure to create a huge female-nipple-banning-algorithm like Instagram or hire thousands of content moderators like Facebook and YouTube.
We don't want gFam to be filled with adult content like Twitter can be and OnlyFans seems to be leaning into.
We believe in equality, so nipples from any gender are okay as long as it doesn't get super NFSW. Obviously there is a very subjective fine line between societal standards of acceptable body positivity and a large portion of the platform being uncomfortable.
At the moment nipples from all genders are fine, but if it gets too intense then no nipples will be allowed.
Please see the Posting Guidelines for more in-depth information.
How is gFam different from Instagram, Patreon, OnlyFans, etc?
A lot of these other platforms are subscription-based, meaning that consumers need to commit to the future creation of content being as high quality as the history of content from a particular creator.
On the gFam application, creators get tipped per post... so consumers really only tipping for posts they enjoy, which could be a whole range of people.
On Instagram, content creators don't make money from the platform, but from featuring the products of 3rd party advertisers, this is often confusing, rarely transparent and often means the creators need to work on building up a massive following for a long time before they can even start negotiations.
On gFam, creators can receive tips from consumers from their very first post. Huge followings aren't necessary at all.
How can creators make money on gFam without advertisers?
gFam is completely fine with brands or companies tipping creators for posts they like or want to support. This seems like a far more ethical and transparent approach, especially since the blockchain technology that gFam uses is on a public ledger (this means all the transactions are available for everyone to see if they want to go searching for it).
We'd love to see companies use their marketing budgets to directly tip creators who support them.
If gFam can prove that advertising companies get more value out of directly tipping creators instead of expensive marketing campaigns then the internet could become a far more pleasant place for us all.
Otherwise though, does the internet need all the middlemen?
Everyone on the internet is used to getting everything for free.... but it's not really for free. You pay with your own data, or you pay by enduring annoying advertisements. This might not bother lots of people, that's fine, but it doesn't have to be that way.
Consumers on gFam can tip the tiniest amounts, which individually might not really make a difference to the life of a creator, but all together might make the world of difference... and without anyone else taking their cut consumers can be sure that the creator gets it all (minus the microscopic fees).
gFam is an experiment in this regard... can creators exist solely on the revenue generated by consumers?
Should creators be careful?
Yes! Absolutely!
The internet is a scary place, so gFam will delete any posts that show addresses or other identifying information.
How are creators tipped?
We use blockchain technology so that the creators receive their tip in their account in about 3 seconds.
What are the fees?
gFam doesn't take any fees... and the fees for the blockchain technology we use are currently microscopic. They're something like 0.00012 or something crazy. The creators on gFam get 99.9999% of the revenue they generate, which is slightly better than the 2% that traditional social media sites share with the people who generate all their content.
Can gFam take my money?
Lots of platforms like YouTube and Fiverr have gotten a ton of bad press because of their demonetization policies... lots of creators have had their incomes pretty much vanish because the platform deemed them to have acted against a policy. Creators being de-platformed usually means that the platform keeps all the money the creators hadn't sent to their bank accounts yet... including all the money that was earned before they crossed whatever policy line.
gFam can't do any of that.
The technology uses for tips and payments is called Xumm. The payments never touch gFam and so there is no way for gFam to keep any of the tips at all.
gFam does deserve the right to delete any posts that don't fit within the Posting Guidelines but the moderation team will do their best to educate creators on what does and doesn't fit on the site. Any tips that were generated for posts that do get deleted will already be in the creator's account.
Why doesn't gFam use normal money or Paypal or something?
Normal money is super slow and annoying.
If you buy something with a credit card, it usually takes something like 3 or 4 business days for the business to get their money... if the buyer and seller are in different countries, then that's a whole big mess as well.
In our hyper globalized computerized world, why are business days even a thing? We have the technology to pay people and businesses instantly but no one is using it.
Banks freak out about really tiny payments, and so that's why companies like YouTube collect all the ad revenue over a month and then provide monthly payments to it's creators. Platforms like Fiverr take fees from both the buyer and the sellers, and it can be difficult to cash out of these sites.
Sending money internationally is a massive headache, the exchange rates are constantly changing and the fees can be absolutely enormous. gFam would also have to build relationships with literally every single bank that it's creators use to pay the tips into each account. It's all complex because it's obviously important to have super secure payment processes, but it's also unnecessary in this day and age of blockchain technology.
Why is all gFam's documentation on Coil?
Coil.com uses incredible technology that streams micropayments to content creators. Everyone who reads this documentation who also has a Coil Subscriber account will stream payments to the gFam team based on the time spent on the content.
It's a super clever idea and we don't understand why every company doesn't use Coil.
If you're intrigued about becoming a Coil subscriber, head over to their Signup page.
If you're interested to find out all the things that a Coil subscription gets you access to, check out this guy.
How does gFam make money?
The world of #webmonetization is super exciting, and worthy of much more exploration. Advertisements are getting more and more intrusive, or sneaky or just straight up annoying. Our data is being sold all over the place, and there are paywalls everywhere.
gFam will instead earn via the Coil Subscription model. It's completely voluntary, and you get access to quite a lot as part of your Coil Subscription. gFam will receive micropayments (instantly) for the amount of time that Coil Subscribers spend on the site.
gFam will also create regular posts on Coil to highlight the top creators. Those posts on Coil may be eligible for the Coil Boost Program, and if so, that currency will be funneled to the creators of the gFam platform as tips for posts that are awesome examples of our little global family.
Is my data being tracked?
Creators and consumers don't have a lot of data on the site just e-mail address and Xumm address. Everyone's passwords are immediately encrypted so no one can ever see them. There's absolutely no location tracking or anything sketchy like that.
We have turned Google Analytics on, but that's really the only thing.
The tips people make on gFam are part of the public blockchain called the XRPL, but there are a kajillion transactions a day so I wouldn't be too stressed about that.
Does gFam use my photos for anything?
Your photos are your content that you own.
gFam may add your photos into Coil blog post or other promotional materials to advertise gFam and drive traffic to the site, but that's it.
How does the blockchain technology work?
You know how sometimes you want to send money to a friend and it's a whole thing?
Your bank doesn't just send money from your account to your friend's account... there is a whole system of trust, relationships and companies in the middle. This article explains the complexity in a fairly straight forward way.
Digital currency is tricky, because it's so easy to copy and paste digital files. To ensure that a digital file is unique, and not a copy, you get a bunch of connected computers (nodes) to agree that it's the unique real version.
When you send a tip from your Xumm wallet to another person's Xumm wallet, it gets added into a group of transactions (a block) and the nodes all around the world agree that on the order and validity of those transactions. This happens every 3(ish) seconds. Once the nodes agree, the transaction is final, meaning that it's settled and irreversible.
The individuals and companies who run the nodes are called validators, and they are volunteers who really want the network to run smoothly. This page has more information.
Are there statistics/metrics available to creators?
Unfortunately not quite yet, although we are working hard to build these in. We understand that creators want as much information as possible about their content, and we look forward to being able to supply dashboards and metrics... but they haven't been built yet.
Where do we go if we have issues on gFam?
Here are the following channels for support:
Email : info@gfam.live
Discord : https://discord.gg/2ANHna4
Header photo : Photo by Zsuzsanna Kadar from FreeImages
