Wow. Your ending words are poetic. I bet someone could turn it into a haiku.

Is there still a bot that rewards haikus?

A few years ago, I felt very solemn about the loss of friends on this platform.

First, the impatient ones arrived here looking for a quick buck, and left disappointed, after learning their instagram, Facebook, and YouTube they were so dissatisfied with were still earning much more than this platform. I made friends with many of them, and the buzzing energy they brought, and professional work ethic they exuded was very infectious to us all. Then they were gone, as soon as their profits shrank.

So many ragequit after being blacklisted for petty things. I'd go and vouch for their character, then realize why they quit. The process the redeem themselves was a ridiculous humiliation and manipulation of power with no obvious solution.

Nowadays I just think about why I am still here. I lurk, mostly.

The pennies trickle in. It adds up slowly. Hive has flatlined. For me it feels dead when there is a lack of volatility. A lack of new voices causing a stir.

People are still here though, and they are starting to be more confident in speaking their true selves, instead of serving a make-believe algorithm that never existed. Hive has a weird way, both its users and its currency, of recycling itself. It grows just as fast as it devours its own. Like the chaos of life, it is what it is. It destroys what it grows.

Despite this, we can still find precious moments and memories through the windows of our the posts of people we find and follow. New life is constantly reincarnated with every refreshed feed.