I haven't stopped by for a while so was interested in your "non-Hive" experiment. I agree with you about a different strategy for recruitement. As a matter of fact, most of my posts are via only my WordPress site using @steempress. I only mention hive in the footnote. For "hive-specific" posts like for #hivePUD" I don't post there, but rather using PeakD. It's of no real interest to my other readers.

I do think that these initiatives are great for getting noobs to think differently about the blockchain and for establishing themselves. They're also great and tangible vehicles for explaining things.