Goodday Hive!
Or should I say HAPPY 4TH BIRTHDAY HIVE! 馃槏
I had no plans on really posting anything in the near future, no spark I guess. Going around the platform I started seeing all the Happy 4th and it had me thinking. Not that I'm a band wagon person per say and have to have one too but 4 years is a lot especially given how many nay-sayers there was at the beginning. Obviously lots have happened leading too and since then.
That tense feeling in my stomach before we went our own way from the original platform that had so many flaws both technical and in mindset. Hive was a clean slate, a clean slate for those who just wanted to flourish in a garden. A clean slate to a better community, more solidarity, less heated discussions and flag wars. Eliminate the hate was one of it's best features.
With Free will, we collectively decided that things ran a lot smoother when we were nice to each other, polite, caring and learning to hear/read each other better instead of coming out all gunza blazin first before asking questions. We all collectively wanted better and did better. 4 years later, look what we have! I'm sure there is still snags and beefs here and there between users but it didn't take long, everyone did their part and still hold true, that's magnificent, I'm proud of our community for doing that. Somehow a mish-mash of culture, beliefs and social circumstances CAN learn to function and get along by being nice to each other, too bad the real world can't seem to catch on to that concept.
As much as I wished I could have been writing this under my ladybug account, I'm still proud to celebrate Hive's 4th birthday under my new account. Holding an OG account has a little extra self-pat on the back tho, probably doesn't mean anything to anyone outside of our community tho. Well to be honest, I don't think it means much to anyone really even here but to myself it makes me smile a little harder at every birthday. Part of that attachment is also why it took me so long to start a new account and get back to it until I realized that everyday I was being stubborn about it, was just longer without a blog, without my beloved online community. Parts of me wish I had done so earlier but it probably happened in it's right time in one way or another.
At the time, 7 cents per token, my surroundings were saying it was doomed to fail, steem was too big of a name for a clone to work. They just didn't get it, the ethics behind the community matters in it's success and the freedom most of us seeked, it was about the idea, the possibilities. Coming from the world of mainstream media where everything is owned by the few that exploit the many and get richer and richer while controlling and censoring content they wish , the witness manipulation/control attempt already displayed a similar pattern to the mainstream counterparts under small ownership defeating the purpose the rest of us had towards social internet freedom of expression and group ownership/control.
When it came to choose to support Hive or Steem ... there was no "and". It had to be one or the other, some were confused about which to choose, the choice was always clear tho. The grassroot internet social values were worth the risk of starting over. Valuing ethics over profits, says a lot about it's developers and users. Worth risking the price of our holdings. 4 years later, here we sit at almost 40 cents. Sure we may be in a bit of a crypto pump but since me return almost a year ago, I can't say it's been under 25 cent and always been above steem token in the markets. We took a risk and we won! Doesn't matter how they are doing tho, I don't pay attention much to what goes on there but we are here to celebrate 4 years and still growing year by year.
Everyday, the community finds new ways to elevate each other, rather then tear down culture found in most other mainstream social platforms, it's been refreshing. Teaching the new-comers good values and stewardship, how to better themselves and the communities around them external to Hive, sharpen their skills, learn to think outside of the box. We all have something to teach each other all the way from across the globe. Creating new opportunities to whom wants to take it no matter where in the world, just need access to the internet and an imagination. The uses and interaction type is ever growing from season to season like a blooming digital garden. My mind can't even imagine what this place might be like in another 4 years. Can we see a solid 10 cent growth in base value every year and hold it solid? Every time the crypto market crashes, we always rest higher then the last low, a good sign of growth overall in a long term sense.
An open minded community that spends it's time elevating others while they are growing into themselves instead of looking for instant perfection or a certain image creates an environment of confidence where one can learn , grow and explore freely at one's own pace. How many people made the effort to learn another language to be able to communicate in English with the main community. Those numbers alone might be impressive. How many more sharpened their native language along the way blogging in 2 languages, that's impressive too...takes a lot of skill. Creating a cultured community committed to continue learning while building for the future.
From growing up French to moving to Englishland within the same country, I can appreciate the usefulness of being efficient in a common language compared to those who came before me hat only knew French. Knowing more than one language is a gift, hard to learn. Hive gives a reason, a place to practice and get better. finding purpose for the words that might keep us up at night. If you are like me it may have made the problem worse on some days. Have you ever had to get up in the middle of the night to write a post because your brain just wont shut up and then drift right off to sleep after it's written? 馃ぃ
Even tho we are at 40 cents right now, what will it be in 5 years, 10 years? A good project seems to take 10 years to get a solid and honest foot in the game and keep it, I think we are probably holding strong as it is, we could grow faster but we grow and honestly ... attract users with personal goals instead of a fast cash crowd that is so quick to cashout and leave when the pump is over and it has reflected in the reduced amount of spam and scams from the good old days. that's the important part. Each one of us that hold on to our tokens and mostly let them stack over the long term, are we all sitting on a future gold mine? Bitcoin took 10 years to get the credibility to become mainstream enough with it's controversial investment potential.
How about the information about the world that surrounds us, the human perspective, the human library? The knowledge it has recorded, perhaps that's the gold mine in itself...Anyone ever think of it that way? That's a lot of data processed over the years typed by many hands. Raw, organic information. How we saw the world, learning together. A global team effort, our own little digital country. We need an official flag! Sometimes life and the landscape changes fast and we get lost in learning the new, it's nice to have memories of the old to reflect on since we tend to not notice until much later how different everything is, how things grow, how we grow.
Ancient cultures like Egypt or Greece took a great deal in information recording to communicate their messages to future generations that we still observe today, their poetry, their memories. Imagine how much more info we would have if they had the internet! We will exist as long as the internet and a community exists. How far into the future can our words and experiences be felt into the future...long after we are gone? something catastrophic would have to happen for the world to just "throw away" the internet, we are way too dependent on it now. I remember all the non believers and skepticism of the greatness of the internet back then, the .com bubble. Look at it now. Same for the crypto world.
After 4 years, I still think I made the right choice with hive over steem, choosing values of internet freedom above all else, look at us 4 year strong, we still exist with a dedicated community, sharing the same love, the same ethical vision from the beginning, one where society can get along for a common goal and progress of everything, it can be done now the world has proof. I'm proud to be here for a milestone like this even if it's not from my OG account. I'm proud that we all stuck together to represent a better overall platform image and friendliness, we have attracted many new long term users over the years and the trend continues... to many more in the future, may we be the refuge to the toxic social media exodus and a garden to grow the mind and imagination of the current and future. Behind the scene or blogger, everyone has a useful talent.
I wish everyone another year of good luck, growth and success. Thanks for all the hard work that goes on behind the scenes that we almost never hear about too, we know ya'll busy doing your thing so we can do ours. This place is great because of your hard work too. A worldwide community owned functional project, too bad the rest of the digital data independence seekers trying to change mainstream media can't seem to find this place, the path of lease resistance, they just don't get it...too bad for them. This place is a priceless GEM, ours.
HAPPY 4TH BIRTHDAY
