Pull up a chair there quick and sit down and make yourself at home folks. We have reason to celebrate! I knew my five year anniversary since sign up was in January, but I was not sure when exactly, but fear not, the folks at 
Five years is a long time in anyone's book, but to be completely honest I was not invested properly for the entire five years. I lost faith in the old chain before a certain Mr. Justin Sun wreaked havoc and to be honest looking back, I'm glad that I was absent for that period, as I have loads of friends here now and idea of having to pick sides in a kind of blockchain civil war does not ring my bell at all. In fact I am not a fan of confrontation, and much rather an environment where everyone gets along, and that is certainly what I have seen since rekindling my interest in Blockchain and Hive a couple of years ago. So, even though it is my fifth birthday, really I had a strong first year, went missing for around 18 months or more and came back around two years ago. Since coming back I found myself much more invested in what has grown into a much fairer and more equal playing field, where good honest content is rewarded and their are no bid bots to be seen. Looking back they were the beginning of the end for the last platform.
So, amazingly five years have passed since I first happened upon Web 3.0 and the ability for me to make money for posting content. Although over time the economic side is secondary as I have forged some strong friendships with people across the world as well. So , have I learned many lessons since early 2018 about online communities, blockchain and Web 3.0?
This isn't new, yet I am surprised that many people still don't seem to get it. This especially true for those that are new to Hive, but I also see some folks that are more old hat neglecting engagement. They pump all of their efforts into posting, but spend little time reading other peoples content, commenting on other peoples comments, replying meaningfully to those who engage with their posts.
Engagement is the key here on Hive and everything else flows from here and that is especially true for those who are completely new. At the very beginning you are basically invisible and bar a lucky few, those first posts that you pour time and effort into will not be seen by anyone. You may have just spent eight hours researching and writing a post that could contend for the Booker prize, but nobody knows it is there, unless you get lucky and someone with considerable Hive Power spots it by chance and upvotes it which all of a sudden gives it increased visibility. That however is uncommon and it is much more likely that you first few posts will not be seen by many and will probably only earn you less than 1 Hive, my first post for instance earned 0 Hive and 1 comment.
So do try to remember to spend time getting to know others in communities that interest you, for me two examples would be the #music community and the #sportstalksocial community where I spend a good bit of time and have built up friendships.
Do not try to be all things to all people is something that I would say. Instead try to find your niche. Many will flock to the trending page and drop one sentence or worse still one word comments on high paying posts in the hopes of attracting attention, votes, follows etc from influential Hivians. That my friends does not work, if you are going to make comments on these posts, make sure that you have read the post fully and that your comment is adding value or asking a question about the post. The following are going to give you a bad name and steer people away from you and your content:
Great Post.
That was very good.
Follow me and I'll follow you.
That was excellent.
Wow, amazing post.
These types of comments tell me that someone is lazy and most likely has not even read my post and I will always reply out of courtesy, but my reply will reflect the level of effort and often be one or two words. On the other hand when the comment is well thought out and insightful or adds value, I will be happy to spend ten or twenty minutes talking over and back, all the while getting to know the person better. That interaction may well make me click over to their page and have a look for a post that may interest me and I will typically comment and upvote, as I am quite reciprocal like that. Whereas those who post with one or two words, I will not waste me time with.
Not only can we earn Hive and HBD here on Hive, there are also a plethora of Hive Engine tokens that we can earn, stake and purchase. Some that spring to mind include Leo Finance, Proofofbrain, Sportstalksocial, Waiv, Beer, Music, Bilpcoin, Neoxian and because we are all part of the open and decentralised Blockchain you can have a look at my account here or anyone else's for that matter just put their username in place of mine below and copy and paste into your browser.
https://peakd.com/@ablaze/wallet/hive-engine
Rather than repeating myself, I wrote a full post on Hive Engine Tokens a couple of weeks ago, so if you are interested, you can check it out here:
@ablaze/feeling-bullish-about-the-hive-engine-tokens
There is something innate within most of us which makes us want to belong and form bonds with others. It is inherent in us and is part of the society that has been formed over many decades, centuries and millennia.
It does not work on the macro scale however, but rather on the micro scale, because as a people there is a limitation to how many people we can truly care about, this is known as Dunbar's number and I will speak about it in more detail below.
I am not friends with everyone in Ireland, nor am I friends with everyone in Galway, rather I have various groups of friends who I choose to spend my time with, as well as family of course. In the same way I am not following or being followed by everyone here on Hive, rather I have a select number of people who I follow and who choose to follow me. Equally I tend to interact mostly with that same cohort of people, of course I do try to broaden my horizons and engage with new people, so that I can support up and coming accounts.
My Three Tune Tuesday concept is a great vehicle for just that actually and I routinely happen across new Hivians through this initiative and some of my very good friends on here, I met through this activity. This is the power of community and one needs to remember to not try to be a member of them all, but rather find your niche within the ones that really resonate with you and you'll likely find some like minded people to converse with and get to know.
Now, I promised a little more on Dunbar's number, as I found it pretty interesting so here is an excerpt from https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20191001-dunbars-number-why-we-can-only-maintain-150-relationships on the subject.
"The theory of Dunbar’s number holds that we can only really maintain about 150 connections at once. But is the rule true in today’s world of social media?
If you’ve ever been romantically rejected by someone who just wanted to be friends, you may have delivered a version of this line: “I’ve got enough friends already.” Your implication, of course, being that people only have enough emotional bandwidth for a certain number of buddies.
It turns out that’s not just an excuse. There are well-defined limits to the number of friends and acquaintances the average person can retain. But the question about whether these limits are the same in today’s digital world – one in which it’s common to have social media profiles, or online forums, with thousands of followers – is more complicated.
According to British anthropologist Robin Dunbar, the “magic number” is 150. Dunbar became convinced that there was a ratio between brain sizes and group sizes through his studies of non-human primates. This ratio was mapped out using neuroimaging and observation of time spent on grooming, an important social behaviour of primates. Dunbar concluded that the size, relative to the body, of the neocortex – the part of the brain associated with cognition and language – is linked to the size of a cohesive social group. This ratio limits how much complexity a social system can handle.
Dunbar and his colleagues applied this basic principle to humans, examining historical, anthropological and contemporary psychological data about group sizes, including how big groups get before they split off or collapse. They found remarkable consistency around the number 150.
According to Dunbar and many researchers he influenced, this rule of 150 remains true for early hunter-gatherer societies as well as a surprising array of modern groupings: offices, communes, factories, residential campsites, military organisations, 11th Century English villages, even Christmas card lists. Exceed 150, and a network is unlikely to last long or cohere well. (One implication for the era of urbanisation may be that, to avoid alienation or tensions, city residents should find quasi-villages within their cities.)
Now!! Put that in your pipe and smoke it! Oh and If you want to remove me from your Christmas card list now, I completely understand!
Here's to another five years on the Hive Blockchain.
That's all for today. Thanks for reading.
The images used throughout are not my own and were sourced on copyright free website Pixabay.com. The sources are as follows:
