There's sooo much I have to say about this @jaynie that I might just end up writing a post and pointing back here... but I wholeheartedly agree with most of what you've said here, including the somewhat exasperated tone of it all.

Yes, I read the whole thing. Twice, actually... as I tend to do, with people I care about, and whose words and opinions and lives I care about.

On the other hand, I have been around this gig since the idea of a "web log" was invented. The entire reason I decided to give Steem a chance in early 2017 was that it felt so much like a throwback to the early days of social blogging, which was my favorite web format of all time.

Some might offer up a "yeah, but that's a tiny niche market" rationalization, and they'd be dead wrong... Xanga (my "home" between 2001-08) had 27 million users, most of them active. Most people trying to build Hive today would shit golden bricks if we could get 27 million users.

But I'm getting sidetracked, here... my intention was to comment directly on this:

Blogging does not have to be hard!!!!

No, it doesn't. And it wasn't then, either.

The name of the game was engagement. You created engaging content, people engaged with it through comments, and bloggers engaged back with their readers through responding to comments. Writing a post that would get 200 hits and 50 comments was not unusual, if you were a "popular" writer.

Aside from that... the structural similarities between Xanga and Hive are remarkable:

Back then, we sorted our content on "keywords," now we have tags.
Back then, we belonged to "blog rings," now we have Communities.
Back then, we rewarded worthy content/comments with "e-props," now we have Hive. Only real difference is that e-props could only be used to buy Xanga swag and premium subscriptions.
Back then, we had "Category Managers," now we have community admins and moderators.

But the most important aspect was that content was king, and people did take the time to read and engage.

What we're doing here is not "new." Aside from being blockchain based, everything we're doing here is new wrapping on an old concept.

Aside from the talent we already have, our market is the 25-odd million users who — to this day — remain annoyed that Facebook came in and ruined everything by turning a genuine social community concept into a high school popularity contest.

Of course, there are those on Hive who would argue that "we shouldn't think of Hive as a blogging venue." OK, fair enough... BUT... we might better say that we shouldn't think of it as only a blogging venue.

Sure, this is a place "for developers to build dApps." But honestly? And now I'm borrowing from my years working in usability in the IT industry... without a strong base of end users, the only thing you have is some pretty code nobody but your close friends will ever see or use. And in this case, the bloggers and other content creators are the essential widow dressing that makes people come here. And use your code. And your dApps...

OK, I'd better get off my soapbox now... besides, I'm not sure anybody cares or even reads much of this.

But... YEAH!

xo