When I got here in 2016 I was told that my content wouldn't get rewards from the pool.
One funny whale gave me .015htu votes because he knew they would round down, he was a funny guy that isn't here openly anymore.
He reaped the reward pool, and the suckers investors, for millions and dumped, afaik.
I wasn't getting votes from anybody with any stake, and those .02 indicating posts rounded down just as the code said they would.
21 of them in a row, it was quite demoralizing.
Having been told straight out that I could count on not gaining support from the larger stakeholders, and their curation gang's circle jerks, didn't kill the dream of what the hive was promising to me.
An escape from this bankster dystopia?
I'm all in.
I signed up to be an anarchist in 1985, when as a young private in Frankfurt I asked my buddy what that circled A was on the wall there.
He said, 'No government.'
I said, 'No taxes?'
He said, 'Yep.'
I said, 'I'm in.'
Since then I have done the reading.
I have a broad understanding of the earliest writings of the founders of the modern anarchist movement.
I am fully in favor of ending rule by force, as were they.
By force, when necessary.
If your utopia requires armed thugs to persist, it sucks.
Likely you do, too.
My content tends to reflect this reality.
I strive to be the antithesis of corporate speak.
My wallet reflects the reality that controversial content doesn't get near as much rewards as latte art and makeup tutorials.
Not a free speech platform in reality.
If it were, things that are unpopular would do much better here.
It didn't take long for my bubble to be burst that the hive was a free speech zone.
I had to bite my tongue until some time after the fork to hive when I noticed that the well known bad whale was no longer nuking people that spoke what was on their minds about the things that go on here.
Nothing wrong with any of that, but the marketing needs to reflect the reality that only brown nosers, and brown nosing content, are likely to get the big bucks from trending.
That isn't the message I received when I signed up.
I was promised a free speech platform, but the incentives belie that.
In my time here I've seen lots of people get run off of this 'free speech' platform.
Mostly for speaking freely.
The majority of them turned and bit the hand feeding them.
I can understand the larger stakeholders taking exception with that, it's only natural.
But, to claim that free speech is supported here is false advertising.
I think those large stakeholders do a disservice to the rest of us when they flag content on ideological grounds.
Flagging anything other than spam, plagiarism, etc is counter productive to mass adoption, imo.
(I also think we should go back to 'flag' rather than 'downvote'.)
In order to climb the market cap ladder we have to overcome our reputation in the marketplace.
At one point stinc held 80% of the coins.
You can't tell me that many, many small accounts, active and not, are not sock puppets of the earliest adopters here.
Holding that large of a percentage of the stake in one account would be a glaringly large red flag, but holding it in 100k sock puppet accounts controlled by scripts gives them a chance at real wealth if when the coin moons.
Do I know that to be the case?
No.
Is it a distinct possibility?
Absolutely.
Layer one rewards were intended to distribute the coin to as many people as possible in order to garner the network effects.
Are we doing all this to spread the coin to as many people as possible?
Not all of us.
Some of us, sure, but the blockchain doesn't lie.
Brown nosers earn more.
People that conform to the desired norm get more.
Free speakers are lucky to not get flagged into oblivion.
(This improved greatly with the fork to hive.
Prior to the fork I wouldn't have made this post because I knew the inevitable result of freely speaking what was on my mind.)
All that having been said, I can't see my way to not mention that without these very same accounts nuking the low effort posts none of this would be here.
The spam farmers would have sucked up the pool and dumped it.
Without 'the whales' buying the stake that dumping authors dump, the coin would have tanked long ago.
So, bear in mind that the hive has many, many aspects to it.
It is not a one size fits all proposition.
It is a place that you can carve out your niche and build an audience.
It takes persistence.
Friendliness helps.
As does not being a total whackjob.
The bar to earning rewards here is not that high.
Not near as high as it will be when we actually see mass adoption occur on a broader basis.
Just a matter of time, imo.
When that happens, all of us taking this time to become known quantities in the hive will see our payback for putting up with the various bs to be found here.
We will be known where the newbs will have an even tougher time finding folks with enough stake to allow them to give up their real jobs.
So, dear reader, thank your lucky stars that you are here now, those that come later will have an even more difficult time getting traction.
Excepting the brown nosers and corporate speakers, they will do just fine.
That is all, for now, you may resume your otherwise humdrum day.
To contest the characterization of your day as humdrum, make a post of your own explaining why your day is not humdrum and ping me, eh?
We are having a membership drive in these discords, tell your friends.
If you want a voice in the consensus join them, and be one.
Join the Hive Discordiant Room: https://app.element.io/#/room/#hivediscord:matrix.org
This room is open source, and end to end encrypted private chats are available.
HiveDownvoteRewards: https://discord.gg/tVjRSwTG9v
Exercise your duty to mitigate abuse.
Hivewatchers: https://discord.gg/QqyrCCf
Appeal blacklist flags here.
FreezePeach: https://discord.gg/TXPkMRXYuG
Get your flag reviewed for redemption.
Proof of Brain: https://discord.gg/tdXjvbHR4w
You know, what they sold us on to get us here.
The Terminal: https://discord.gg/Npwa8VYR3v
Newb friendly chat.
Hive-Coffee: https://discord.gg/nVj9XQFrun
Well informed newb friendly chat.
Hive Official: https://discord.gg/SUwJ2s2
Central focal point of much of the hive.
Dlux.io: https://discord.gg/mdJRstcFWg
Building the holodeck in 3d VR.
The Pulse: https://discord.gg/3M2gRr5
Alternatives to the groupthinc.
Klye's server: https://discord.gg/KyJyQxzRJ7
When your day just doesn't have enough Klye in it.
These are public rooms managed by private people for the benefit of everybody using this blockchain.
What they do is voluntary, but openly public.
Don't abuse their willingness to work for the collective for what little we give them, eh?
Without them, none of this exists.
When you go through these rooms catching up on 'the community', be sure to look for the detective, and add your detective, too!
