Back in 2017 when I created an account on Steem and became active on the platform, it felt like an easy choice to keep doing what I had been doing for 25 years on various Internet platforms prior to that. I first started using Usenet news and IRC in 1992. After that, I used to blog without giving a thought to monetizing my blogs. It was mainly about just talking about interesting stuff with friends I knew from the walking world and later from online.
I did all that happily for free. At no point did it cross my mind to be bitter let alone rage quit because I wasn't getting what I thought I should've. Even though most people on Hive are capable of monetizing their blogging and commenting to a degree, for many it does not seem worth the trouble of leaving their comfort zone on familiar platforms where there are people they already know.
This is where engagement comes into the picture. I'm really happy to see how the Tribes are finally developing a stronger identity and are beginning to see their token appreciate in the wake of LEO. When Hive users are sorted into communities of like minded individuals engagement begins to have a pull on its own to keep people coming back. On Steem and later on Hive, engagement always seemed secondary or even forced as it was necessary to gamify it and for large stakeholders to go out of their way to reward for it.
It takes a critical mass for engagement to form a positive feedback loop. It is much more likely to happen in communities formed around shared interests. The best changes of it happening are on LeoFinance because the topics discussed are crypto and the economy in general. The push to improve the domain authority of leofinance.io is a critical part of it. The more likely our posts are to appear in Google search results, the more likely it is to pull in more people.
The decision to flatten the curation curve was a really good decision because it makes making and curating great comments and thus engagement much more financially rewarding. I think the flat curve should be seriously considered for HIVE rewards as well.
