Clubhouse #010: In Tea Veritas
Detoxing from Clubhouse for a bit isn't a bad option. It's self care.
Welcome to ClubhouseTea ~ where the tea is steaming and the vibes are intriguing 🍵
Cultural snapshot - it’s our tenth issue!
Clubhouse Town Hall notes will be included in this issue
Clubhouse turns one this Wednesday!
The news targeted response rooms this week on topics - Meghan and Harry, Andrew Cuomo under pressure to resign, Sarah Everard vigil, Teen Vogue EoC Alexi McCammone, Beeple.
Before we officially start our tenth issue, I want to address that this is coming a few days late (apologies on that) and want to address few things on top of that:
- First off, Lauren and I are very grateful that people continue to support ClubhouseTea by reading our weekly chroncling of Clubhouse culture. Although our movement is small, it is remarkable that we continue to see consistent growth in our newsletter, good engagement with our audience, and thus support from people who do agree with our mission that Clubhouse culture is worth covering. On average, we receive hundreds of views per respective piece of cultural overview coverage we’re putting out weekly and we appreciate that.
This is a social experiment for both of us and we have no intention to capitalize on the platform of ClubhouseTea or to create a monetization tier for ChT. We only want our readers to acknowledge, from our coverage, that a new stylistic form of beat reporting on Clubhouse culture and social audio will naturally develop on the platform as well as off-platform via social media platforms and word of mouth.
When it becomes recognized that a specific standard of beat reporting and journalistic practices are implemented specific to social audio platforms like Clubhouse, we will have fulfilled our mission and thus cease to exist as a newsletter concept. We started our operation because people were just not getting the news they needed on Clubhouse outside of the speculative hearsay and soundbites. We do this because we want people to not spend unnecessary time in Clubhouse rooms trying to figure out the exact context. We want consistent information, but expecting it and seeing it delivered are two totally different things; it’s difficult for us to keep track of everything but we try our best.
And in general, we want people to spend less time on Clubhouse for the sake of preserving mental health and sanity; this app can be like crack cocaine.
- Secondly, I want to clarify the reporting practices of ClubhouseTea because it has come to our attention that people just had no idea how we gathered information to disseminate. We currently scrape data and conversations that are happening on a weekly basis between Lauren and myself, but we understand that as the platform continues to exponentially scale, that at some point we will be limited in the scope of our coverage.
We do not report anything said in social rooms or closed rooms (club or individual launched), for the sake of privacy and confidentiality; this is a standard we have gladly upheld.
We take notes on a weekly basis about which Clubhouse rooms in particular are noteworthy and worth attention; it’s not always going to be about tech coverage because the in-app experience is much bigger than the scope of Silicon Valley.
Sometimes, it will be the tea. The exposed. The people who will want to decry “cancel culture” or “wokism” because they feel genuinely surprised when people have views that genuinely challenge theirs. The ones who carry trauma whom come onto this platform to voice their grievances. The ones that need support. Even the ones who just want to blow off some steam. We want to be reporting on things that are uniquely Clubhouse that isn’t happening on other platforms (i.e. the manifestation of information exchange happening in the cannabis space, the crypto NFT space, thought leadership, the spontaneity of a room, the proliferation of misinformation related to audio).
Someday, every experience we’ve ever had on Clubhouse will be encapsulated in a book or an academic research article that will be cited in Congress. Maybe Clubhouse will be caught in a web of scandals that makes the Cambridge Analytica blow-up look tame. Maybe Clubhouse will just explode one day and people will look at its popularity like a flash in a pan.
TBH, we don’t know but we will figure it out.
- Finally, I will acknowledge that the initial Clubhouse writing sprints I’ve been doing to get the newsletter up on a Sunday night is asking a lot of myself. When these newsletter installments get written, typically these issues are deliberated on its topics by that Sunday afternoon after the Clubhouse Town Hall. Afterwards, we spend time transcribing certain excerpts and questions from the town hall meeting and then layer the stories onto the newsletter format. So the expectation I have imposed on myself, while it did pan out initially well, is not realistic and going forward, ClubhouseTea will be releasing its issues every Monday night instead of the typical Sunday night.
Now onto the highlights. No primary happenings, just ancillary happenings and revelations from the town hall!
Cultural Snapshot - Week Ten (A Whole Lot of Ancillary Happenings)
Dominance of the News Cycle this week + News News News Club
This week, we saw that much of the conversation outside of good vibes and cultural happenings was drawn by the dominance of the news cycle. Events that occupied the spotlight were the Meghan and Harry interview with Oprah Winfrey, Andrew Cuomo facing pressure of sexual harassment allegations from seven different women, the Sarah Everard vigil, Beeple’s multi-million sale at Christies, and the GRAMMYs. The News News News Club started by Clubhouse user early-stage VC Andrew Lee, NextSteps founder Katherine Lynn, and Minh Do is expected to be the dominant early morning news segment on Clubhouse as they host it every weekday 6:30am - 8:30am PT. Their morning news segment covers headlines in five minute bite-sized discussions
Beeple $69M Sale at Christies + Metakovan AMA w/ Sriram Krishnan of Good Time
Last Thursday, Mike Winkelmann p/k/a Beeple sold his collage “Everydays: The First 5000 Days” in an astonishing multi-million dollar sale via the auction house Christie’s at a valuation commanding over $69M. The extent of the sale was discussed within the NFT space on Clubhouse as well as the fine art world; the polarity of the topic itself extended to celebration and, at times, reluctance to accept the cultural implication of NFTs in the fine art space. As crypto NFT art continues to grow in interest within mainstream culture, Metapurse founder Metakovan took to Clubhouse to do a AMA with Sriram Krishnan of Good Time in which he discussed the buyer-side perspective of this latest piece from Beeple, art, a life of crypto, and why he even bought the piece at such an astonishing valuation.
The Vigil of Sarah Everard
It is a tragic story in which Sarah Everard was allegedly kidnapped, raped and murdered by a policeman of London’s own Metropolitan Police. On that Saturday night, organizers prompted a “Reclaim These Streets” vigil in her honor and were subsequently forced to disperse by police because the gathering had violated COVID-19 restrictions. However, the aggressive behavior of the police officers handcuffing and pinning some of the women down to the ground has enraged fury amongst many Clubhouse Brits who took onto to Clubhouse to voice their disdain of the footage that had circulated on social media as well as calls of “ACAB”1. Leftist organizing space and anti-capitalist club To The Left took the initiative in starting a room titled “#ReclaimTheseStreets - ACAB” to voice their opposition towards the exhibited police action and shine recognition of how the UK continues to exhibit its reputation as a fully-fledged police state.
Spotlighting: In Vino Veritas
Not every Clubhouse room is all seriousness at the end of the day. In Vino Veritas, most legitimately translated as “In Wine There Is Truth”, is a weekly vibe room hosted every Friday night by Montreal-based Clubhouse user Sam Oshins. As the arbiter of vibes, Oshins is responsible for facilitating the space of getting drunk with vibes and wine; this weekly is also co-hosted by friends like Snaxshot founder Andrea Hernández and Lunchbox’s own community expert Ana Santos. The conversations of the room usually revolve around fun topics and swapping stories on food, city culture, languages, and of course vanity for the sake of vanity.
Per request, we’ve gotten insight from the ringleader himself on how things started out. “To be honest, I started it on a whim,” Oshins mentioned. “The first Clubhouse room I ever joined was Marty and Andrea chatting the shit and it was fantastic. Since then, I’ve honestly just been trying to recreate their vibes.”
He mentions the origins of the In Vino Veritas club: “So one night, I had a bottle of wine and needed to raise my vibes, thus the room began. After that first one though, I realized a room where explicitly the vibes were good, beverages were flowing, and (pitches were not allowed) on a Friday night, nonetheless, was the closest thing to being in a bar [that] I’d felt in a year.”
What he looks forward to: “Just making polite conversation and hearing about people’s weeks. "It was wonderful, so since then I’ve been trying to do that every Friday. It gives me something to look forward to. Also, it’s been wonderful to see people come back every week and then meet new people who stop by.”
Do you trust me 🤔
This week, Twitter user @janemwong disclosed Clubhouse's Trust and Safety Team features. The photos reveal how, like any sophisticated app, the team can moderate what rooms are boosted to hallways. This is is an attempt to avoid spam-related rooms (i.e silent networking rooms).
In the comments, Jane Manchun Wong elaborates on how moderation tools used by the team can remove clutter on Clubhouse and make sure rooms add value to the app. Clubhouse staff is able boost or flag rooms based on their contributions to the broader community. And yes, Clubhouse can shadowban rooms… but it's done out of good intentions for users on the platform.
Overall, Jane’s insight through her Twitter thread gives an interesting insight into the behind-the-scenes at Clubhouse.
Hey babe! We don’t need your Contacts 😘
In the latest iteration of Clubhouse’s Town Hall, Paul Davison finally announced they are no longer mandating users to give permissions to use contacts during the onboarding process. Anyone can send invites regardless if contacts are connected to the app. This is in response to calls by the German Consumer Association for Clubhouse to comply with EU General Data Protection Regulations. However, they still need to translate their privacy policies and disclose their recording practices to fully comply. Nevertheless, this is a step in the right direction for Clubhouse becoming a global brand and supporting international users.
Clubhouse: Compartmentalizing Our Niche Content 🤔
If we’re being honest, not a lot of 🌟 culturally significant 🌟 events happened on Clubhouse this week. There was minimal drama and tangentially a lot of events that were relevant to certain audiences on Clubhouse, but not everyone. As Clubhouse continues to exhibit continual growth, users are being pigeon-holed into their niches. The selection of interests during onboarding further facilitates the creation of different digital publics. In essence, Clubhouse is far from the unified front we remember in late-2020 or even in the early throes of this app in the summertime.
This isn’t unique nor a bad thing. Twitter and Instagram all have different “sides” to their platforms. If anything, this helps users find community and connect. Ultimately, the creation of different digital publics reflects the changing nature of the digital public square as Clubhouse becomes more mainstream.
Some quick bullet points:
Pussy Riot’s own Nadya Tolokonnikova hosted their first NFT launch party on Clubhouse with Burnt Banksy ~
Members of the AAPI community took onto Clubhouse earlier this week in solidarity with the Teen Vogue staff, discussing the letter of condemnation that Teen Vogue staff had sent to Condé Nast management in regards to newly appointed editor-in-chief Alexi McCammond’s stint of anti-Asian remarks in 2011
On Friday night, Alex Pall of The Chainsmokers came onto Sriram Krishnan’s Good Time show to discuss music, people, and investing in businesses while being artists
Bomani X announced on Twitter that he was taking a momentary leave from Clubhouse after being pressed on being non-responsive to Clubhouse drama. He explained that he was on the “verge of thinking that [he] was going to lose [his] grandma [that] weekend.”
Members of the Clubhouse community this week discuss in rooms like “Are your rooms not as active anymore? I know why. Conspiracy” about the perceived changes to the Clubhouse algorithm
Missed the Clubhouse Town Hall last Sunday morning?
Here’s an outline:
It was an exciting town hall this Sunday morning as the Clubhouse staff announced not only its new app icon brandishing the identity of surrealist blues poet Aja Monet, but also introduces their new marketing lead Maya Watson. Stephanie Saffa Simon gives a brief overview of the ongoing events that happened this week, with a focus on women chronocling the events of International Women’s Day and the celebration of powerful women on Clubhouse. Then, Paul Davison reminsced on the humble origins of the Clubhouse platform in which the whole app was a single room where everyone followed everyone.
It’s a grateful retrospective from him and his team as they discuss how they want to authentically connect people all over the world regardless of a user’s location or financial situation. Let’s dive into the overview:
Accelerator Program for Creators
The Clubhouse staff is introducing the Creator Grant program to help the ongoing programming development on the platform. Its creator-first initative intends to recognize the userbase in that anybody can be a creator, start their own room, and bring people together as a result. They recognize that it is a lot of time and energy and belive that they can support the creators (room hosts) and this recognition has led to the accelerator program being rolled out on a public basis.
creatorfirst.joinclubhouse.com
Anyone can apply
The accelerator program is a three-month program
Deadline to apply as March 31st
Option to apply as an existing show on Clubhouse or as a creator
Stipulations Of The Program:
Clubhouse will provide the following:
Equipment: a new iPhone and an Airpod Pro, designated to help make your show amazing
Counseling on: Concept Development, Ideas
Matchmaking with Suitable Brands and Guest Speakers
Help with Promotion (Flyers, Design services, Invites)
Monthly income stipend ($5K/month)
𝗪𝐨𝐫𝐥𝐝 𝐓𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐨𝐟 𝐂𝐥𝐮𝐛𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐬𝐞
Clubhouse Town Hall will be retrofitted to go “on tour”, in which they will be joining from Japan, Russia, Hong Kong, Germany
They will go international, cross culture in the prospects of feeling welcome
Initially, they will broadcast for Italy with an Italian Clubhouse Town Hall
PRODUCT
Focus:
scaling
welcoming more people
localization
Android version
monetization
support
in-room experience
discovery
languages
improvement on creator tools
improvement on discovery
What currently exists as of this latest update:
- sharing a directable link to your profile
- sharing a directable link to your club
- language filtering
- visible nominations for the club
- able to invite people to the club
- nomination badges for clubs
- given ability to invite a person from your contact list on your phone
- Report for trolling button retrofitted for zero tolerance policy specific to trolling; permanent suspension from Clubhouse in the event of trolling
Q&A
𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐭 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐟𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞𝐬
Q: When will be able to schedule recurring events?
A: Currently, there is no feature like this now because of cancellation. In the meantime, it was rceommended to clone an event in that having regular events are very useful.
𝐄𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐂𝐚𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐚𝐫
Q: Can we add events onto Zoom?
A: They plan to add it onto the events list on the user and club profiles, later.
𝐂𝐥𝐮𝐛 𝐥𝐢𝐦𝐢𝐭𝐬
Q: Is there a limit on clubs?
A: The current limit is two (2) clubs/ month for a respective person. There are thousands of clubs and they want to be able to show the most active clubs and hide inactive clubs; it will be possible to filter through them from the server side.
𝐂𝐥𝐮𝐛 𝐬𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡
Q: How can I find my favourite clubs?
A: The search is basic and you should be able to see who you follow first. The club search function will be improved upon based on several factors: name relevance, activity of club, if people like it, follow it.
(eg. stand up comedy, topic, services)
𝐅𝐨𝐫𝐞𝐢𝐠𝐧 𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐮𝐚𝐠𝐞𝐬
Q: Will content be able to be translated on Clubhouse?
A: As of right now, it happens organically (i.e. the French Clubhouse Town Hall recap). They are thinking about matching like-minded rooms with brands and translation can be made available in an overflow room or with a translator. There is no formal matching of creator-to-brand relationships currently.
𝐀𝐧𝐚𝐥𝐲𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐫𝐨𝐨𝐦𝐬
Q: How can I have analytics? And will there be analytics?
A: Analytics will draw on retention rate, number of people in the audience (they have a test group for this; manual for now, but hoping to automate it). They are hoping on scaling it, so that they are able to provide it to all users
𝐌𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐳𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧
Q: When will we see features on the app pertinent to monetization?
A: They are working on them and it is important to them that they are able to properly execute on the nature of being creator-centric.
Q: How can I delete a club?
A: No option for club deletion as of right now because they are afraid of it affecting members negatively if they want to access it or a club’s events only for it to show as deleted.
Q: What happens when I deactivate my account?
A: You have thirty (30) days to reactivate it, but it will be permanently deleted after that.
That should be all. Tune in every Sunday for more coverage!
I’m on this bird app, Twitter, so tweet at me: @choi_clint. You can also find me on clubhouse: @clint. Lauren Huttner, our ClubhouseTea co-head, can be found on Twitter @Lauren_Huttner ~
Please share this with your friends. The hot goss is worth sharing with friends, so let them know that yes, Clubhouse is our beat.
NOTE: Due to spring break, I’ll just be handling the eleventh issue of ClubhouseTea for this upcoming week. Lauren’s taking her spring break vacation and honestly, I don’t blame her for wanting R&R during this pandemic.
ACAB = all cops are bastards