The Squeaky Wheel Gets the Grease

Hey Zylers!

After the last article, there were so many words of support — and for that, thank you so much. When you work on something big day after day, sometimes a single kind phrase is enough to recharge you completely. For me, it works about the same way adrenaline works on Jason Statham in Crank.

Last time, I ended with a thought: the internet contains both good and bad. Psychologists have found that people are about ten times more likely to share negative feedback than positive. Apparently, we’ve collectively decided that “good” should always be the default. If you do something well — should anyone even thank you for it? But if you do something poorly, then it’s time to pound on your phone or keyboard until the veins pop out on your forehead.

Over the past ten years, we’ve had both highs and lows. And there have always been both positive and not-so-positive reviews. When everything is going well, it’s hard for anything to really shake you. But when you’re facing serious problems, negative comments can feel like being hit over the head with an oar while you’re drowning.

At the same time, there will always be people who support you no matter what happens. In the end, we overcome challenges and celebrate successes together.

There was one case that completely changed my approach to work. Around the fourth year of intrade.bar, many brokers in the CIS market started collapsing and leaving the field. Clients were looking for new platforms and came to us. Our broker is very different from others, and much of the negativity from new clients came simply from not wanting to accept something new.

There were just as many — or even more — people supporting us. But for some reason, I didn’t really perceive that support. This went on for about two months. I was so exhausted by the constant, baseless negativity that I was seriously ready to quit everything.

In one social network, I had been communicating with one of our clients for a long time. We never spoke like a “company representative” and a “customer.” We spoke like good acquaintances. One day, I told him I was thinking about leaving because I was morally drained. He suggested that I publicly take every accusation and push my counterarguments to the point of absurdity. That way, I would achieve two things:

• Show once again how ridiculous and unfounded the claims were
• Remind myself that we were actually doing everything right

So I did it. I wrote down several accusations and responded to them. For example:

“Yes, intrade.bar manipulates quotes. We created a quote verification section on our website that mirrors data from the international liquidity provider FXCM. These quotes are also identical to the widget from the largest analytical service, TradingView. But… when Vladimir from Moscow opens a $3 trade, we immediately call FXCM and urgently ask them to move the market against him!”

I hope you understand how absurd those claims sounded.

Because of that case, many negatively minded clients — who simply hadn’t understood the product at first — stayed with us for years. Some of them now actively defend our projects themselves. One person with a positive mindset managed to “heal” thousands with negativity.

And it’s incredibly powerful to see how a large group of people who truly care about CosmoFox is forming right now.

A few days ago, I watched a situation unfold where a user claimed he hadn’t received his reward for activity and called our entire project a scam. But another community member didn’t hesitate — he dug up the transaction details in the chat and showed the blockchain proof. How cool is that? 100%. The story ended with our community manager, Max, showing that the dissatisfied user had simply entered the wrong address.

You’ve probably noticed how angry the world has become. There’s a lot of bitterness around us. And when you’re inside all of this, it’s sometimes hard to keep your own perspective and not get pulled into the general negativity toward everything.

Thank you for always supporting us. You are a rare species on planet Earth. It’s a huge honor for us to build projects for people like you.

You’re the best.