Today I was having a discussion with a newly formed community on this blockchain, and I was asked a rather simple question:
What do you think are the main threats to our community?
For a second I hesitated, which is not normal for me. I typically say this straight rather quickly, the reason for my hesitation was simple. It is necessary to face the truth for a new community early? I do not know the answer to this question, but I will wing it.
Here at hive and/or splinterlands, every discord server is a community. Some of these discord servers are true community at the hive blockchain. Meaning in PeakD or any other front end, if you click on the community name, that particular one will show up somewhere. However, others are just a discord server, maybe a guild, maybe just group of like minded people for some common cause. Whatever the case maybe, they form in the hundreds around here; some survives as long as I know this blockchain exits, while others disappear in thin air in as little as a couple of months. Yet others, which showed promise in the beginning may be just a mere weak shadow of its distant past. All these variations and their infinite permutations are possible.
So with that introduction; what were my answers? Obviously my title: Retention and Entitlement.
Retention is a major threat to any new community. Everything starts nice and dandy. People are happy. As this is related to a play to earn game Splinterlands or a blogging platform which pays, Hive; there is money involved. If the community get some connection to get promoted it is not hard to get noticed at hive. This is because hive itself is a relatively small community.
After the initial traction, which for some communities is hard, for others were relatively easy. Whatever the case may be, soon the community may get the early recognition and traction. In the blogging platform of hive that usually translates to getting noticed by curation guilds. At Splinterlands, it is usually translates to getting supported by a player with large asset or a guild.
After this initial phase, usually there is growth of that particular community. More new people flocks to it for rewards, exposure, etc. But the trouble is, reward pool being constant, as the size of the community grows, the segment of the reward pool that was supporting the community get stretched and eventually taps out.
This is the time community members starts to complain. It can be amplified by a bear market, which is long and common in crypto. Community members do not earn as much as they used to or expected. So they eventually get 'salty' and give up.
Point is, this phase is inevitable. One way or the other, this phase of 'salt' will come. It is the duty of the leadership to navigate through this phase, and potentially mitigate it with some innovative means. What exactly, is highly variable and the success depends on the quality of the leadership.
Entitlement is a common thing in hive blogging platform. I see this everyday, day-in-and-out, older memebers to new members. Entitlement happens when you start to get rewarded/recognized, for either your good content, or your connections/networking. At hive, majority of the votes are automated, so once you get into auto-vote, especially large auto-votes, it is very easy to earn 30-50 hive in rewards. Then if one or more curation guilds notice you, you can have a situation called vote stacking. This happens when multiple curation guilds or multiple large stakeholder votes the same post. In that case the post can pull 100 hive rewards, and can be in 'trending' posts. More late votes can come after that.
Soon the individual feels he/she can do no wrong. Whatever, she writes, good, bad or ugly; hey maybe even using Chat GPT, everything will be voted! This is called entitlement for rewards. I see this at hive quite frequently and at all scales at virtually all communities.
This is a real danger for the individual concerned and the community which supports the individual.
At hive, rewards can be given, but they are not yours until day 7 at payout. They belong to the common hive reward pool. During the 7 days, potential rewards can be adjusted too via downvotes. People who upvotes, usually do not give explanation for the upvote, people who downvote, doesn't need to give any explanation for their downvotes. They can just adjust the rewards as they see fit.
This usually triggers people personally and instigate dramas. Hive is very well known for all kinds of dramas. However, one thing for certain, as the entitlement increases, and effort decreases; both the individual and the community will suffer, sooner or later. It is a real danger, and it is inevitable, unless caught early and fixed by the leadership.
