I agree that the lack of engagement is an issue and it has been an issue prior to the fork. Most of the votes are auto-votes or manual votes without reading. This is more apparent if you just look at the page view statistics offered by Peakd.com on your articles.

I see 2 main problems and I will like to draw comparison with mainstream social networks. On mainstream social networks, you basically bootstrapped your account with a group of your friends. Naturally, your group of friends will be more likely to engage with your posts. In addition, any random guy can comment on your post (depending on your privacy settings of course), which further increases enhancements. This is enabled through easier sign-up process that platforms like Reddit or Quora have.

While the platform itself it unable to fix the issue of getting your friends onboard, I think interfaces like peakd.com should consider implementing a simpler commenting process to allow people without a Hive account to leave a comment.