I'm gonna have to ponder this @jaynie and go write a post about it.

I know I am just plain tired, but what is tiring me has more to do with this thing they call "Covid Fatigue" than with Hive. Being self-employed in the middle of this debacle means working longer hours for less income... because our customers/clients are all feeling the squeeze and simply are too nervous to buy things like they did before. I don't have time for "diversions" like Hive, like I did before.

One thing worth considering, though, is that Hive's entire lifespan has happened in the shadow of Covid-19.

The other offhand observation I have — and this is looking back over almost 25 years of being part of the social web — is the communities thrive when they are constantly under development and innovation. That's why Hive was such a big deal for its first couple of months... ACTION AND ACTIVITY!

But that's not an issue limited to St++m or Hive or anyone in particular. I'll offer a simple example:

Even though eBay has become HUGE (my account there dates to May 1998) and "successful" it has also become boring; it feels flat and lifeless; it lacks the energy and sense of community that actually created its success! Where once it was this amazing online "flea market" for collectors, crafters and individual contributors, now it's 99% just another giant automated, standardized, generic ecommerce platform. Ironically, even my eBay clientel — built over 23 years — is shrinking because many of those people don't really care anymore; they buy only out of loyalty to me, not because they think eBay is cool. See the parallel?

I have become reminded of all this by the recent success of the LeoFinance community. It's not succeeding because it's materially better or different from Hive, it's succeeding because it has leadership; a transparent and regularly updated roadmap; constant *new development;" it's own (built from scratch) front end interface; as a result of which it has an energetic and dedicated (and growing!) community who feel engaged in the very process of creating the community's future.

Yet, the Hive second layer has dozens of communities that are just drifting sideways to nowhere, again because they just feel stale and unmaintained. Quite a few of them have JUST as viable niches and could have just as much of a following and success. But they remain just "Hive clones" with the same lack of direction that seems to be on Hive, itself.

"If you build it, they will come!" is not enough. Nor is "if you build it well, others will come and continue building!" Why should they?

As an interesting aside and final "food for thought," YOUR energy and drive Jaynie... reminds me an awful lot of @khaleelkazi's (the brain behind LeoFinance) so I invite you to consider the possibility that all this energy and enthusiasm you (and the extended PHC team) have might be better directed at a Second Layer "PowerHouse Creatives" community with its own native token, road map and rules, rather than at the base layer Hive.

xo