If you look at my posting history here and the former place before it, you can see there are several large gaps.
These gaps correlate with when my mental health takes a hit, either through life or work stress, or both.
Well, the last couple of years I had both. I won't go into details but it involved bereavements, closing a business, moving country, finding a house, finding another job, losing that job, and more.
I had to focus on what would cover our monthly bills, but I still believe in the Hive project so I am going to give it another try.
Stable Coin
One of the things that has amazed me is how stable Hive is.
While it is not growing, it is not losing either. This is good!
Yeah, it would be nice to get back to when I bought in (seems each time I bought Hive with fiat I bought in at the wrong time), it is also nice to know that if you figure out a routine and your own system, the rewards would be pretty predictable.
Great for Developers
Another aspect I think is being slept on by other communities is how great Hive is for developers.
Now, don't get me wrong, there are a tiny number of indie projects that get actual support, most are just a time sink for the people behind them, but in terms of API and libraries it is top-notch.
Personally, I run my Python code on a virtual server that costs me between $5 and $25/mo depending on the usage I get, but you could easily do what you need to with some serious power for free using a free Oracle server plan.
Conversation
There is still some great content and conversations to be found, which is what makes me feel like giving it another go.
In the outside world of blogging, comments got replaced by social media, so the only comments you expect now are from spam bots, but people here reply. I love that.
Of course some parts of the community went quiet. I guess they will come back when the financial rewards are greater, and I can't argue with that.
Drama
Drama seems to have subsided a little, perhaps also due to the greed factor being reduced, lowering incentives and FOMO?
I still see some. But it is not as in your face as it was.
AI
Some of the content is clearly unedited "AI" (LLM). This is a concern.
As someone on Threads said, I don't know who:
Why should I read your article if you couldn't be bothered to write it?
I believe 100% that AI tools can be helpful, but I do NOT think they should replace the human as a way to hoover money out of the community.
Am I a hypocrite for using generated images?
I would argue a soft "no" because I was never going to pay someone for a custom image on a Hive post that will earn me $0.30 or an expensive stock photograph, and believe it or not I am an artist myself so I could have put pen to paper but ...
Think of it like this, I use Grammarly and spell check to help me fix errors, I use transcription tools rather than sit and type as I listen back to recordings, but I don't want R2 D2 to write on my behalf because I feel like the whole point is expressing YOURSELF.
It's an interesting discussion, I would love to know where you draw the lines (pardon the pun).
Conclusion
I have often felt like Hive could compete with Reddit, just with financial rewards instead of internet points. That is still my belief.
It just takes people to contribute, so perhaps I should be the change?
What do you think?
What keeps YOU here?