A few things about the User Experience
Some negatives and some positives.
Negatives
I left this platform a few years back because the content got really bad, happy to see it's improving. Then I came back around 9 months ago and had some trouble getting set up so I wandered off again because life is short and there are other things to do other than struggle with stuff that's pointless. I'd like to try Hive again to do some blogging, however, as a returning Steemit user from back in the day there are some onboarding issues:
When you look for Hive in google you get these other fuckers. Not good.
https://www.hive.org/socialnetwork/
https://hive.com/
Because not everyone knows you have to type in Hive.io. So how is any random person on the internet going to find your blog on Hive when they aren't going to find Hive?
Not coming up in Google search on first page results is a problem for a site with tens of thousands of written articles and content. Maybe this is Google's decision to delist Hive, however, it's the biggest problem Hive has. Without being able to be searchable no one is going to find you.
When you figure out it is Hive.io you need then the first page (Hive.io) is nice and clean and well-branded. The design is nice, better than Steemit's. So well done whoever did the branding.
But then you get this page https://hive.io/eco
And where do we start with this?
One project is down (3speak) and the rest are a whole bunch of new interfaces that have nothing to do with the Hive branding.
Are they all really necessary? Wouldn't it be better to have Hive Blog as the main thing, like Steemit was. What's the point in all those interfaces?
I just want to do some blog stuff, not have to navigate a ton of different quirky interfaces with different login parameters and layouts. This is the opposite of KISS (Keep it Simple Stupid).
Hive blog has a nice design and a clean layout. Why isn't that enough? Why doesn't everyone focus on one layout so the site can gain some actual traction and impact in the real world?
Imagine being a person new to crypto and excited to start blogging on the blockchain. You'd take one look and just go "Nah, life's too complicated". My point being when does the simplicity of messaging and branding start?
People are out there right now looking for an alternative to Facebook and Twitter and they are used to one interface, not a bunch of weird competing ones. If you come across Cent, or Twetch, or Status or a number of the new decentralized blogging platforms out there, you don't have this problem. New blogging opportunities on Ultra and Theta are coming on board too. None of those platforms have a metric s ton of poorly graphically designed internally-competing micro platforms to confuse and dilute their userbase.
I get this is decentralization and democracy but consumers have choices and if the 2 billion people who could eventually take up your platform choose not to because it's just chaos and a god-awful mess, then what was the point in trying to create a brand only to dilute and destroy it?
Does the Hive community expect it is going to grow to mass public adoption and to scale when Hive's internal platforms are a tangled, convoluted, competing mess?
The Wallet Experience when trying to receive Hive from an Exchange other than Blocktrades sucks.
When I used to use Steemit it was easy to buy Steem on Bittrex and to send it to Steemit. You just sent it to Bittrex's Steemit account with your username and it always turned up.
Nine months ago I bought 13 Hive on Bittrex to try and get started again and sent it following all the correct instructions and it never got to my Hive wallet. I then bought about 3 or 4 Hive on Blocktrades and it turned up.
All Crypto wallets in the whole of the blockchain world have two basic functions. You can always go to a wallet and find "send" and "receive". Why is there no "receive" field on Hive's wallet where you can simply and easily send Hive to your wallet from any third party exchange without needing Blocktrades?
Positives.
I like the Blogging interface in Hive Blog. I love being able to type and add content on one side and see your final result next to it before you publish. It's pretty much the same as it was in Steemit. So no real advancement but at least the best feature about Blogging in Steemit has remained.
It's also nice that a lot of the message comments seem to have cleaned up.
Actually Hive Blog itself is lovely. It works and it's great. It's just a pity that it will never get mass adoption because no one will ever find it on Search and because the Hive community is so determined to dilute and destroy their own strong central brand with all their internal competing platforms with dubious branding.
