I've been using mostly ecency as a front end for almost 2 years now and that's because of one main reason: ecency points. For those that don't know: you gather the point thingies and if you get enough of them you can request a sizeable upvote from the ecency main account. Of course the request has to be approved and in recent weeks most of mine have been denied, but the gist of it is that you can get a free upvote ( currently worth up to $3.3 ) from time to time which is very nice when you are a stingy pleb.
Recently there have been some updates to the UI that have left me a bit conflicted. The button where you could previously access ecency points ( red arrow) has been replaced with a space dildo ... I mean rocket that leads you to another window.
Which tells you to install the ecency app and scan the QR code with said app. And what is the reward for all this running around ? you get the opportunity to buy some delegation with real money.... I don't know where to start with this little monetary shenanigans. On one hand I respect the hussle and the fact they are doing their best to bring money into the Hive ecosystem. But on the other hand buying delegation with real money seems like the worst possible way to go about things because besides enjoying the perks of having more resource credits for a certain amount of time you end up with only a tiny amount of Hive when the delegation is up ( from curation rewards ) which is not how investing in crypto should work in my opinion.
And this change comes just before Hive is about to receive a major overhaul in the form of the upcoming fork which will allow anybody to delegate resource credits. Meaning everybody and their dog could simply request a RC delegation from some nice Hivian ( which there are plenty ) if they are having problems running out of them and not being able to comment, post, etc. I'm sure most people will be happy to delegate their unused RCs to newbies that need them without charging much if anything for them, at least in the foreseeable future until activity on the blockchain makes them more valuable.
The good thing is that points are still there, only you have to click somewhere else to find them, and you can still use them to get upvotes or promote your crappy... I mean very well written content. But my gut is telling me that might change in the future, just like every good thing ends at some point, so enjoy those "free" upvotes while you can.
Maybe I'm a bit biased with this change because I hate spending money on apps and stuff. The few times I spent real money on crypto, I always ended up regretting it. That's why earning crypto is much more enjoyable for me, and if it all goes to shit like in the banksters wet dreams, I can at least sleep well at night knowing that I didn't loose any "actual" money.
