Something you had spent months building—pouring in all your time and energy—vanished in a single day. What hurt even more was that I hadn't even had the chance to enjoy the fruits of that hard work.
Heartbreak, anger, and disappointment—all these emotions collided when my YouTube channel was banned. It happened just two days before my first payout following monetization. I could only watch a figure of over $700 on the screen; by the next day, it was gone without a trace—never having reached my bank account.
The celebratory dinner I had promised my wife after the payout became a promise I could no longer keep.
That was the day YouTube deleted my channel. It took weeks for me to rediscover a world I had long since left behind.
Writing.
Let me introduce myself: my name is Eka Dharma Saputra, though "ekads" is the nickname my friends use for me.
I live in Bali, a small Indonesian island where natural beauty and culture draw tourists from all over the world.
Thanks to tourism, however, the natural landscape has largely transformed into villas and hotels; malls have sprung up everywhere, and traffic jams have become a part of daily life.
All hail tourism!
In my daily life, I work as a civil servant. After work, I spend my time with my family—my wife and two children. My kids—especially my three-and-a-half-year-old son—always want to play with me when I’m home.
Writing is my "ninja way" of expressing myself—a path to self-discovery.
My writing journey has been quite a long one, though often interrupted along the way. I’ve frequently resumed after long hiatuses, only to stop again; consistency remains a challenge in my writing journey.
My introduction to Hive began when I created a Steemit account around 2017.
I managed to produce a few posts there—writing and then vanishing.
Like a ninja.
The last thing I seem to recall from Steemit was news about the birth of Hive. I heard that my Steemit keys could be used to access a Hive account.
Then, I disappeared for years.
Looking back at my first official post on Hive, I remember that it was 
At the time, I was busy experimenting with a new app called Appics; that’s where I met her, and she encouraged me to give Hive a try.
Armed with my Steemit keys, I logged into this account. And so, my journey on Hive began four years ago.
My enthusiasm for writing on Hive lasted only a short while before gradually fading away. I disappeared from the platform.
Two years later, I returned with a burning desire to write on Hive. A few months after that, I vanished again.
I was gone for another two years before reappearing just last month.
I don't know if this is some sort of two-year cycle... Who knows?
What I do know for sure is that this time, I’ve returned with the intention of building a daily writing habit.
When I disappeared two years ago, I was busy chasing a "shiny thing" that seemed more alluring than writing.
AI
I was busy experimenting with AI to generate images and videos—efforts that ultimately just ended up gathering dust on my hard drive.
Then, early last year, I finally decided to launch a YouTube channel leveraging AI. One of the channels, which had initially grown slowly, suddenly exploded in popularity thanks to a single video that went viral at the end of 2025.
@ekads/i-left-writing-to-chase
Thanks to a single viral video, my subscriber count skyrocketed from 200 to 15,000 in just one month. That video even racked up 2 million views.
As a result, my channel was approved for monetization. My dashboard showed my earnings growing day by day.
Then, just two days before the scheduled payout, my channel was suddenly blocked without warning—and ultimately deleted by YouTube.
The content I thought was mine turned out not to be entirely mine. Media owners hold absolute control over the content on their platforms.
After feeling lost for months following demonetization, the urge to write returned.
Back to Hive.
@ekads/what-brought-me-back-to
Upon returning to Hive, I found a warmth absent from other social media platforms—a supportive community and various new developments on both Hive and Ecency.
Most importantly, the content we create belongs entirely to us. Everything is recorded on the blockchain; no one can delete it or strip us of our ownership rights.
Freedom of creativity and expression is highly valued here—provided, of course, that the work is original, genuine, and free from plagiarism. And, naturally, one must also observe community guidelines.
Even something that seems perfect has its flaws. As a social media platform, not everyone uses Hive for socializing. Some people simply post—over and over again—without interacting with other users. They are reluctant not only to comment on others' posts but even to reply to comments left on their own.
I hope you aren't like that.
Despite its pros and cons, I believe Hive is well worth recommending to more people. Just imagine: by engaging on social media, you have the chance to earn both active and passive income in cryptocurrency. You don't have to live in fear of being banned by the platform, and the content you create remains entirely yours.
Unfortunately, however, I haven't yet succeeded in getting others to join Hive.
Years ago I thought Hive was just another platform.
Then I left.
Then life showed me the difference between building on rented land and building on your own.
That's why I'm here again.
This time...
not to chase algorithms,
but to leave footprints.
Cover image created using ChatGPT
2nd image from my phone gallery.
