When I first found out about Steem, which has since forked into Hive a few months ago, it was already a social media platform almost two years old. I have now been an active user of this blockchain for more than two years, and although nothing fundamental has changed, there are still some improvements that Hive has, compared to the old platform that hosted me two years ago, just like a few things that haven't changed, and probably never will.
I remember that at that time Steemit was somehow a dedicated blogging platform. Posts like "a picture and a bit of text" were generally discouraged, and the narrative was that you should put a bit of work, time and effort, to make your posts quality ones. It doesn't matter who created those quality standards and how active they still are. However, for the most part Hive has kept these trends alive and shitpost are quite rare, this situation being about to change in my opinion in the coming years. The stigma of quality represented by long and bushy posts is still standing, not for too long though. It requires time to read thousand words articles and twitter as well as Facebook are famous for their accessible, easy to comprehend and share type of content.
I remember that both then and now, there were plenty of uses guides on how to "do it right", and what you need to become a successful one, to start making money and grow your account. Personally, after I created my blockchain account I spent a few days consuming such material, and schooling myself in what was to become a daily habit of monetizing my personal content, and to be part of this new type of blockchain based social media.
I so much hate this type of user guides right now, and you know why? They're basically meaningless... Because you simply don't need someone to show you how to post cookies and selfies in here. Even a ten year old can do that. Those who became such guiders still managed to make a name for themselves here, and those user guides probably helped them become more famous than those to whom they were addressed to.
New users nowadays seem to be already schooled, and it's way easier to get monetized and renowned than it was before. We have communities, quite many, and the vast majority of content creators, and here I refer mostly to new users, already have a few favorites in which they pour their content. One of them is Gems, the community that in my opinion offers the strongest support to both new and old users. And for that we should be grateful to 
Going back a bit to the history of this blockchain, and what a quality posting meant two years ago, and how this concept has changed almost radically, I could say that we are finally on the path where the energy that a post reflects, the message sent and the intention to transform this platform into a mainstream one, which does not necessarily have to be exclusively blogging, are clearly on the right track. The simple types of posts, the new and anonymous users, but also the blogging ones that made this famous blockchain and its veetrans, do not seem to reflect very big discrepancies in payouts posts.
Hence I can say that if posting has changed, curating has changed as well. I remember it took me almost six months until I managed to get my first $ 10 payout. Nowadays you can achieve this with an introductory post, moreover that introductory post can even become trending. A three hundred words introduction won't make you a trend for sure, unless you're some dev "reintroducing yourself" after two or three years but, the idea is that you can make it quite decent with not much schooling.
Weighing heavy for that is the fact that there are no longer bid bots services working, and that’s probably the most important change that has occurred ever since the launch of the blockchain, turning curating profitable for both the users pool and the curators, and not just an exclusive group that afforded that. If I were to summarize in a few words the "recipe for guaranteed mediocre success" on Hive I would say: choose your community carefully, invest a minimum dosage of effort, and originality in your posts, do that on a daily basis, and you'll definitely get your free cup of coffee.
Chances are that by applying this simple recipe, and I would say efficient as well, you will not necessarily become the "favorite client of some whales" who will constantly upvote you without blinking, no matter what you post but, I can honestly say that "mining Hive" nowadays it is much easier and more accessible to the general public than it was a few years ago. That is why I consider that the type of user guides that really made a difference for a new user, two years ago for example, today are totally irrelevant.
I've said it countless times, and I say it over and over again, although I enjoy my badge as a blogger, and I enjoy reading story posts, long and captivating ones, Hive to become truly mainstream, and even rival other social media platforms, needs a much greater diversity of users, and of course content. That's why the quality standards of the past, in my opinion, should be reviewed by the professional curators of this blockchain, and the "good ol user guides for success" pretty much don't make sense any longer.
Contradict me if I'm wrong.
Images courtesy of unsplash and free to use
Thanks for attention,
Adrian
