Grants for voting neurons

Governance NNS Governance
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14

Hi Lara,

Thanks for this announcement. I’m excited to see how this pans out, but I also echo the concerns already raised on this topic. I’m interested to see who is prepared to step up to the challenge of reviewing IC-OS and Protocol Canister Management proposals under this new level of funding (an hourly rate that is less than one that I would find motivating, given time and freedom sacrifices that are incurred - others may have a different threshold). That being said, it’s great that DFINITY is willing to put funds towards governance decentralisation.

There are a few points that I think would be useful to clarify for anyone interested in applying for these grants. The announcement mentions:

Candidates can apply in this forum thread if they consider themselves as experts for a particular proposal topic

but it also mentions:

This intermediate short-term solution has the following advantages… become experts for a proposal topic

These two statements seem to be in conflict. Is DFINITY asking for teams only that already consider themselves experts at reviewing a specific type of proposal, or also teams that are hoping to become experts through the process of being funded to take part in reviews?

Aside from IC-OS and the other proposal topics, I’m interested to see the introduction of a grant for reviewing Subnet management proposals. Subnet management (and IC OS version deployment) is something that I find particularly interesting (evidenced in various comments I’ve left on IC-OS release threads in recent months):

e.g.

That being said - I wouldn’t call myself an expert, at least not yet (also, I’m aware that IC OS Version Deployments are no longer strictly considered part of the System management topic, they were separated out into their own topic a while back).

There are 7 different types of Subnet management proposals that have been executed this year, and numerous other types of Subnet management proposal that have been executed historically. I’ve pulled proposal history from the API and gathered some stats. The average length of time that the majority of these proposals were open for in 2024 is roughly 2.5 days (there are also exceptional circumstances where they’re only open for a few minutes e.g. subnet recovery). There are also occasions where the frequency of these proposals spikes significantly (e.g. 38 subnet config updates in March vs 1 in May - granted, these were simple changes, but it still indicates the potential for significant variability in workload). Given this, would you be able to clarify the following:

  • What timeframe is a reviewer of Subnet management proposals expected/required to cast a vote within? (note that these proposals can appear without warning on any day of the week)
  • Given that the level of work required to review these proposals can vary, are there any provisions for upping the funding during busy periods? (and what if a reviewer cannot keep up with a period of exceptionally high demand?)
  • In the event that a proposal may seem to require rejection, what channel should a reviewer use to voice their concerns. Will there be a dedicated forum topic, as there is for IC-OS releases?
  • What happens after the 6 months are up (would a reviewer reapply, or is the idea that other candidates would be given priority?)

Thanks in advance :pray:

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