Crypto
- Do not use any words from the title of the publication. Only use words from the name of this article. Typically there is a hyphen or pipe between them.
- Using alliterations can be fun but not necessary. Do not always use alliterations.
- Try to pick a set of words that pique the readers curiosity. Words that are punchy and thought-provoking.
- Avoid words that are negative or sad.
- Acronyms are fine to include.
- Be creative and have fun.
- Keep it positive, fun, and interesting.
- Pull in themes or terms from the headlines of the articles included in each issue. Do not use terms from the title of the publication. Only use words or topics from the subject of the specific article.
- Avoid negative themes or topics.
- Fortunes should be short, no longer than 8 to 10 words.
- Feel free to include an emoji if it makes sense.
- Keep it personal and not overly marketing driven or too sensational.
- Focus on it being descriptive and use second person voice.
- Avoid overly sensational words.
- It is okay to use emoji if appropriate.
- Focus less on the quoted text.
- You don’t need to introduce it with statements like “this week” and can focus just on the content.
- Keep it brief and terse, shorter is better.
- There are currently «Premium Count» Supporting Members.
- We have raised «Amount Raised» so far.
- The funds will be sent to the non-profit for the year in «Weeks Remaining» weeks.
- The non-profit this year is «Non-profit Name».
- There are currently «Premium Count» Supporting Members.
- We have raised «Amount Raised» so far.
- The funds will be sent to the non-profit for the year in «Weeks Remaining» weeks.
- The non-profit this year is «Non-profit Name».
- As someone that issues POAPs a lot I would love to subscribe to the RSS feeds for each of my events and see via the feed when a new token is claimed.
- It would be powerful to use automation on claims along by connecting the RSS feed for an event to IFTTT or any of the hundreds of services to take an action when an RSS feed is updated.
- There are several friends that are active in the POAP ecosystem and I can aggregate a feed of all their claims in the POAP Home app, but I would rather subscribe to an RSS feed of each of their addresses and get updates that way.
- Celebrating life’s special times with POAPs: weddings, anniversaries, birthdays and birth days, graduations, family trips, and all the other moments that make life precious.
- You can see the early inventory trend drops quick which is a reflection of preorders that folk sent in.
- True North was the first scent to sell out and sold just as fast as Winter Wonderland until they were all gone.
- Just Crackle was popular with people buying many candles as gifts.
- Old Fashioned had more than other scents but still sold out quickly.
- Apple of My Eye underperformed and was the least popular scent until the end when there wasn’t as many options.
- Winter Wonderland seems to sell faster when it is on display and people can see there are so many of them. On Saturday we kept 5 of each candle on the table and added more as they were sold. The rate of sales were slower. On Sunday there were 30+ of them on the table. Do people buy more when they see there are so many?
- We sold out! Inventory went negative? Indeed we ran out of candles and I sent an email to let folks know if they were still planning to come. We did have a few people show up after we were out and I realized I had a couple dozen candles downstairs I had poured for myself. I brought them up and we kept raising more money for our causes!
What a great POAP for SPS Tech Connect 2025!
How I Use AI in the Weekly Thing
I’ve been working with AI for a while now, and as I feel with all new technologies, the best way to learn them is to play with them. I’ve started to bring AI into my workflow for the Weekly Thing and thought it would be good to share specifically where and how I’m using it.
Before I get into the specifics, I want to make one thing clear: AI does not create the content of the Weekly Thing. I don’t use it to summarize articles or generate any of the comments I make on them. It is critically important to me that I use my voice and that what I share is my voice. I am using AI as an assistant rather than a creator. If I had someone else helping me assemble the Weekly Thing as an assistant, where would that be helpful? Where would that assistant do a better job than me? Or where might it be desirable to have “another voice” in the mix?
Right now I’m doing all this with a ChatGPT subscription using the 4o models. It is great that the ChatGPT app supports Shortcuts so I can do all of this in a largely or completely automated way. I could easily swap Claude in if I wish as it also supports Shortcuts automation.
With that in mind, here is where I’m using LLM capabilities now. You’ll note that in many of these cases I’m asking my “assistant” to generate options and then I’m doing the final selection and modifications. I think this is a good model.
Subject
The subject follows a simple structure of “Weekly Thing «Number» / «Word», «Word», «Word»”. These three words are selected from the titles of the links in each issue. I try to select triples that are interesting and engaging. The challenge is avoiding words from the website’s name, which appear inconsistently in article titles.
Here is the prompt I’m using for this:
You are a great editor and are helping me create the subject line for issue «Issue Number» of the Weekly Thing. The subject line follows a template with the number of this issue followed by three comma-separated words that are picked from the titles of the links contained in this issue. For example, “Weekly Thing 234 / Blogging, Bitcoin, Bison”.
Guidelines for picking great words include:
Please identify five options for subject lines. Each option should include three words from these titles. The three words are separated by commas. Return the list of options as JSON.
List of titles for this week are:
«List of titles»
The prompt requests valid JSON output. I extract the JSON and use the “Get Dictionary from Input” method to create a structured data object. This allows me to put the LLM completely behind the scenes.
Fortune
The fortune first showed up in Weekly Thing 53 and has been the last thing in the emails for a while. I got the inspiration for this from the fortune command in Unix. The text files that serve as the “database” for fortune are easy enough to find, and building a Shortcut around them was simple. I randomly select fortunes until I find one I like.
But with an LLM, I thought — why not make the fortune relevant to each issue’s content?
Here is the prompt that I’m using for this.
You are helping me create a fitting fortune for issue «Issue Number» of the Weekly Thing. The fortune is similar to what you may get inside of a fortune cookie. The best fortunes are light-hearted, humorous, and thought provoking for the reader. The fortune is one of the last items included in each issue of the Weekly Thing.
Guidelines for creating great fortunes:
Please identify five options for fortunes. Return the list of fortunes as a JSON object.
List of titles for this week are:
«List of Link Titles»
This also returns a list of options. They are impressively good and it does a great job pulling in themes from the links in each issue.
Byline
The “byline” is the first sentence in the email. Over time, its role has evolved. Initially, it was a reminder of why you’re receiving the email. Then I used a template to mechanically describe what was in the email. I’ve always desired this to be an “intro” to the links in the issue but it is difficult to do that. It is also a rare place in the email where I want it to be a “different voice”. Ideally this is more of a second person voice describing what is included.
To generate a meaningful byline, I provide more than just article titles — I also include my commentary. I focus only on featured links, skipping the “briefly” section.
Here is the prompt I’m using:
Please generate a single sentence description using the list of articles below. This description will be used as the first line of an email to introduce these items along with other things. Please provide 3 options.
Do not include any explanations, numbering, or formatting. Just provide each option on a line by itself like this:
option
option
optionHere is the list of article titles with commentary.
«List of Featured Links Only with Commentary»
This one still requires a bit more editing from me before I’m ready to use it, and I think that will always be the case. So rather than returning JSON I just get it to put the options in text and then I present it in the Shortcut for editing and refinement to finalize it.
Supporting Members
The newest section where I’m using AI, and a new section to the email itself is in the Supporting Members segment. This is a new thing where we raise funds for digital non-profits as a community. This is the section where I rely on AI the most, without requesting multiple versions. I’m okay, and actually kind of prefer, this to be in a different voice than mine.
To generate this section, I pull data from Buttondown and Stripe and do some quick calendar math to provide the LLM with context. This is then embedded into to two different prompts that generate the two “versions” of this section.
Here is the prompt to become a member:
You are a pleasant membership expert. Please write a call to action to encourage a reader of the Weekly Thing to become a Supporting Member. Some data to use for the call to action:
Remember to highlight that all of the money raised goes to the non-profit. Keep it fresh and fun. Limit to one paragraph. Do not include the pricing and subscription options. Do not add any links. That will be handled elsewhere.
Here is the prompt for existing members:
You are a grateful newsletter author. Please write a THANK YOU for being a Supporting Member. Some data to use for the note:
Remember to highlight that all of the money raised goes to the non-profit. Keep it fresh and fun. Limit to one paragraph and thank them for being part of it.
This is a new addition, but early tests look promising. This is also interesting because the LLM knows what Creative Commons is and can infer some additional context for the messaging. It is different with each run which will keep the messaging fresh.
Overall Editing
The most recent AI addition to my workflow is final editing. Here I take the draft generated through my automation and I send it for review. I do a brief review of each email but honestly I never review it that much. Most of the time, what I send is my first draft — straight from the keyboard. As a result, typos get through or simple grammar issues that I wish were caught. I’ve considered Grammarly before, but it’s too thorough and over-edits my work. I want a very specific kind of review.
Here is the prompt I’m using. Note the specifics on what I don’t want it to do.
Below is a draft of the «Subject». Please review it to find any typos or notable grammar mistakes. Do not follow any of the hyperlinks or suggest meaningful content modifications. Ignore text in the blockquotes.
«Body Markdown»
This works okay but it unfortunately is at the very end of my workflow. The challenge is that fixing errors requires updating two places: the email draft and the original blog post or Pinboard entry. That isn’t ideal but it is better than nothing and hopefully will reduce the number of silly errors that get all the way through.
I ran this on my draft of Weekly Thing 312 as a test and it found 16 edits. 🤦♂️
I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to make a POAP to commemorate my first time ice fishing!
See list of POAPs.
Bitcoin Books and BTC Price
I saw this list of Bitcoin books with the price of BTC at time of release on Nostr, reshared from stacker.news. I turned it into proper text as a table and putting it here for reference.
| Date | BTC-USD | Book |
|---|---|---|
| 03/01/14 | $258 | Bitcoin: Beginner’s Guide |
| 06/14/14 | $604 | The Book of Satoshi |
| 07/01/14 | $640 | Mastering Bitcoin |
| 05/19/15 | $241 | Digital Gold |
| 01/01/16 | $432 | The Internet of Money |
| 03/23/18 | $4,046 | The Bitcoin Standard |
| 03/26/19 | $4,028 | Programming Bitcoin |
| 06/17/19 | $31,712 | Inventing Bitcoin |
| 07/07/19 | $11,231 | Bitcoin & Black America |
| 08/01/19 | $10,791 | The Little Bitcoin Book |
| 09/03/19 | $10,620 | Why Buy Bitcoin |
| 01/01/20 | $7,194 | The Price of Tomorrow |
| 01/06/20 | $7,725 | 21 Lessons |
| 11/23/20 | $18,690 | Thank God for Bitcoin |
| 01/18/21 | $36,934 | Layered Money |
| 01/31/21 | $34,140 | Cryptoeconomics |
| 03/14/21 | $55,805 | The Blocksize War |
| 06/21/21 | $31,712 | The 7th Property |
| 07/22/21 | $32,384 | L(earn) Bitcoin |
| 08/16/21 | $48,281 | The Bullish Case for Bitcoin |
| 12/25/21 | $50,774 | Bitcoin and the American Dream |
| 03/02/22 | $39,463 | Bitcoin is Venice |
| 03/09/22 | $38,904 | Check Your Financial Privilege |
| 06/13/22 | $28,374 | Bitcoin Evangelism |
| 03/24/23 | $27,621 | Softwar |
| 03/29/23 | $28,113 | The Bitcoin Handbook |
| 04/13/23 | $40,206 | A Progressive’s Case for Bitcoin |
| 05/02/23 | $28,654 | Proof of Money |
| 08/14/23 | $28,754 | Cryptosovereignty |
| 08/14/23 | $28,754 | Fiat Ruins Everything |
| 08/20/23 | $26,450 | Broken Money |
| 12/01/23 | $37,810 | Gradually, then Suddenly |
| 12/05/23 | $43,270 | The Hidden Cost of Money |
| 01/01/24 | $42,221 | The Fiat Standard |
| 01/03/24 | $43,556 | The Genesis Book |
| 04/04/24 | $69,001 | The Conservative Case for Bitcoin |
| 06/14/24 | $66,700 | Resistance Money |
| 07/19/24 | $68,088 | National Security in the Digital.. |
| 11/10/24 | $88,637 | The Bushido of Bitcoin |
| 02/03/25 | $101,405 | The Big Print |
Tyler and I have been having fun with Collector Crypt. I decided to join their Card Club and grabbed an NFT in the market place.
Venusaur Holo
I had never heard of a Gacha before but I was intrigued when Collector Crypt sent an announcement about the Elite Pokémon Gacha Machine. I forwarded it to Tyler to investigate.
The gist is you pay a fixed amount and get a random card with a minimum value. Collector Crypt does this all on the Solana blockchain. We decided to give it a whirl and pulled a Venusaur Holo (1996) with a near-mint 8 PSA rating.
Tyler digs Collector Crypt because they have good Pokémon cards. I dig it for that and that it is a great use of NFT’s and smart contracts. The transaction for this Gacha machine is a complicated one with seventeen different steps.
We will likely “burn” the NFT and have Collector Crypt ship us the nearly 30 year old card.
Support the Web via Open RSS
I recently discovered Open RSS via an article on Lifehacker highlighting how the service can provide feeds for some services that don’t do it themselves. I clicked through and was delighted to read more about Open RSS.
Open RSS is a non-profit advocating for the use of RSS. I read their about page in detail and it strongly resonated with me. Open protocols like RSS are an enabler to the open web and a way to create connection without all of the downsides of consolidated media platforms driven by a desire for data and engagement.
Open RSS also provides capability to discover and bridge RSS feeds for different sites (this is what the article was about). I’ve already suggested connecting POAPs to RSS. 🤓
I’m a care deeply about the kind of work this organization is doing. It is super small and grass roots. I’ve already had a few emails with Mark, one of the founders. This is a great opportunity to donate to a cause that is focused on the open Web. I think I just found the next organization that Weekly Thing Supporting Memberships can support!
POAP + RSS = Awesome?
I’m a big fan of POAP, and I’m a big fan of RSS. Sadly, these two things don’t know about each other, yet! This blog post is my take on a great start for RSS and POAP. Maybe there is a chance that the amazing folks at Open RSS could bridge this gap in the meantime!
First, why should POAP add RSS? I think there are dozens of use cases, but some examples…
There are two items that RSS feeds would be useful for: Events and Collectors. There is a POAP API that would make both of these pretty simple to get, and avoid any screen scraping. An API key would be needed but I think that would be easy to get. These use cases are all read only as well.
Events
Anybody can create an event the RSS feed would be specific to that event. Events have a simple ID, and there is a Token Event API method for /event/{id}/poaps that would get exactly what is desired. The URL’s for an event are https://poap.gallery/drops/{eventid}, my 53rd Birthday POAP is at https://poap.gallery/drops/183305 is an example.
In this case, the eventid is easily found and using the API could get the data to populate the RSS feed.
Addresses
Getting an RSS feed for new tokens that people claim is centered around a wallet address. Here we are looking for an address or ENS name. An example of this is my collection at https://collectors.poap.xyz/scan/0x111accebf9d70d9c06de2d38f9392522e82ecf29. This can also be accessed via the ENS name at https://collectors.poap.xyz/scan/poap.thingelstad.eth.
The Token Scan API method /actions/scan/{address} returns the list of tokens for that address and could build the RSS feed.
I’ve been sharing my 53rd Birthday POAP with friends and family all day today. I thought it would be fun to share a few with readers of my blog.
It’s my birthday tomorrow! Noting my rings and version number the day before. 😊
I’ll be sharing my 53rd Birthday POAP. Want one? Just ask.
POAP Event Trends
It has become a tradition for me to create a POAP for my birthday. I’ve been doing it since my 50th Birthday and now have 51st, 52nd, and now my 53rd. Since POAP uses a simple sequential number for events I can easily see how many POAP events have been created for those years.
| Year (Approx) | Events |
|---|---|
| 2022 | 74,298 |
| 2023 | 71,285 |
| 2024 | 16,826 |
That is a big drop in 2024, however it is still 46 events a day. I love what POAP is doing and they are slowly getting their whole offering easier to use and more streamlined. My guess is that they are not actively pushing to create more events right now while they improve the product. I’m rooting for them to be massively successful. I think POAP could be one of the products that shows the path for blockchain adoption.
I couldn’t pass up an opportunity to make a POAP — created Weekly Thing Christmas Blogs to send to the five people that got a year of micro.blog under their Christmas tree this year! 🎄🎁
Tyler and I decided to redeem the Pokemon 2014 #69 M Charizard EX card that we bought via Collector Crypt. Collector Crypt stores the graded card securely and you hold the NFT as proof of ownership. We burned the NFT and withdrew the card. It arrived today and is great!
The 2024 Year in POAP is out and I was proud to again (see 2023) have one of my POAPs highlighted — our Thingelstad Ireland 2024 was the family trip mention.
There are so many cool things happening in the POAP world and this annual roundup is a great recap. I 💛 POAP!
Nice treasure when I opened my chests from last week’s missions on Famous Fox Federation. By far my favorite NFT project still thriving.
Bitcoin crossed $100,000 USD for the first time ever on December 4, 2024!
Alby is deprecating their shared Bitcoin Lightning wallet service. I don’t want to host my own node or use their cloud hub so I transferred the satoshis I had there via lightning to my Strike wallet. Still amazes me how fast and simple Lightning is. ⚡️
Things 4 Good 2024 Fall Fundraiser Insights
We had a great time hosting our 4th annual Things 4 Good Fall Fundraiser. We raised $7,010 in donations for our four non-profits. I also like to take a look at the data from the sale to learn more for next year.
We made 252 candles in preparation for the sale. We had 72 Winter Wonderland, 36 Old Fashioned, and 24 of the other six scents. We really had no idea what to do for inventory since this was the first year we sold to the public at the Mt. Olivet Holiday Boutique.
We had 78 candle purchases which is a huge 42% jump from last year. On average people purchased 3 candles, down from 4 last year. However averages don’t tell the story. Most people got one candle, and there are a smaller number of people that get a large number — usually as gifts for the holidays. We had 5 transactions for more than 8 candles, accounting for a whopping 76 candles, 30% of our inventory.
This year we had eight different scents, the exact same as last year. We renamed Plain Jane to Just Crackle, and it was similarly popular for folks wanting an unscented candle. We did fine tune the scents though and increased the scent load on some of them. Here is a look at rolling inventory as sales were happening.
Some observations:
We offer folks a number of ways to donate and again Venmo was by far the most popular method, 3.5 times more popular than cash. More people knew what Zelle was this year. I continue to be surprised at how few people have Apple Pay setup. Three checks! I did not offer a method to pay via crypto this year. We’ve only ever had one candle sale in all the years we’ve done it using Bitcoin Lightning.
We are already keeping notes for things we want to do to make next year’s Things 4 Good Fall Fundraiser even better. Send us an email if you have any suggestions!
Also see 2024 Fall Fundraiser Results.
I burned four of the runes I collected along with 75,000 FOXY to mint my Summoned Fox #9569! Famous Fox Federation is still a super fun NFT project.
The Things 4 Good 2024 Candle Fundraiser POAP is ready to share with folks at this weekends event! It is a good example of how I’m not a designer. 😬
