Curation is probably one of the most powerful features we have on Hive to attract new users and increase users retention. It may also be the most powerful one, to be honest.

The ability to earn thanks to your interactions with the communities/projects/people you like is something (almost) unique and in an era where a huge slice of the population uses social media platforms AND often looks for alternative source of income, well, Hive seems almost to good to be true - if only people were able to notice it 😅

However, besides not using DHF funds at their best to properly market Hive outside Hive itself - it's something that blows my mind off seeing projects being funded for tens, or even hundreds, of thousands of dollars for years without delivering almost nothing and without clear explanations on how they used/use those funds... -, we also - or at least I - often see people misusing their voting power. Which is something that seems odd to say, because it's their voting power and everyone should be able to use it as they like... if not that how we curate affetcs everyone else, and that's why I think there should be not rules, but guidelines on how to properly curate. And people should be encouraged to follow these guidelines.

And I agree on what you said about what shouldn't be done with your voting power: it's a tool to reward others, encourage activity, boost engagement, not a way to maximise your rewards no matter what.

Yet, I believe that the main issue lies beyond some projects using their voting power to attract new users.

I'm not saying this is good, just that, imho, this is a symptom, not the cause.

The cause should be sought in how everyone acts when they see really bad curating patterns: what does everyone do when there are users self-voting themselves with relevant stake? Or when there are posts with huge payouts and zero interaction (exluding that of those looking to be voted back)? Or when the reward pool is misused, abused and thrown away like Hive was a faucet to be exploited as long as it works?

And if the answer, for 95% of users is, "nothing", well, it shouldn't come as a surprise that some projects might start to use their voting power in a more selfish manner, or more people might vote-trade or selfvote, and so on.

If bad practices aren't discouraged and look profitable - at least short term - what prevents people to do what others are doing? And are they to blame? Or should the fault be sought in a system that more often than not doesn't do nothing to show people that being selfish doesn't pay on Hive?

This got out of my hand 😅 sorry for the long reply!

EDIT: this isn't an attack to anyone, just to be clear. I'm among those 95% users who don't do nothing and simply look elsewhere. I just believe that if we had some clear guidelines and a working system to reward those following them, that would be a way to make the chain a healtier place and more people would be working towards that shared common goal.