We often have many questions when starting out on Ecency/Hive and therefore I have gathered many recent questions asked by Ecency users in the discord and present the answers in as much detail here as an easy to reference help guide.
There is quite a mix of questions asked ranging from using Ecency to growing your account, transfering Hive and encounters with the Hivewatchers! I didn't want to duck any of the difficult questions. I hope you find it helpful.
Q. 1. How can I buy Ecency points?
A. You buy Ecency points using the App. Follow these steps once the App is installed:
First click on the wallet, then GET POINTS.
Next, select the points that you want to buy. There is also the free points option each day where you can win points with the spinner game. Once you select the points you wish to buy, you can use Google Pay and pay for the points.
Q. 2. On what basis are Ecency points awarded?
A. Points are awarded based on your activity and engagement using Ecency.
To access the Ecency Points, first you goto the wallet, select Ecency points and then you can see the different points you can earn for the different activities and also there is the history of your points earnings.
Ways to earn points (from step 3 left to right) include:
Points for post 15 points
Points for comment 5 points
Points for upvote 3 points
Points for reblog 1 point
Points for heartbeat 0,25 point
Points for login 10 points
Usage bonus 10 points
Delegation reward 10 points
Referral reward 20 points
There are also many community competitions to enter where you can win Ecency points as prizes. These are usually listed in the Ecency Discord.
Q. 3. How do I put two pictures next to each other in a post ?
A. One way is to create a table and put an image in each column such as:
| Title1 | Title2 |
|---|---|
| Image1 | Image2 |
Where "Image" is, you should replace with an uploaded image.
Q. 4. How do I follow a curation trail?
A. You can follow curation trails using a service called Hive.vote.
First you need to register with the service by setting up a password:
Once you click register, you get the next screen:
Here you need to enter your hive username and your private key, such as your posting key.
It will then give you the option to create a Hivesigner password. This means you won't need to login with your private keys in future. Logging into website with private keys is not recommended.
Once there, you can then select curation trails.
From here, you have the optino to either search the name of a curation trail if you know it - steps 1 and 2. Otherwise, you can also scroll through the list of available trails and select follow - steps 3 and 4.
Q. 5. How do I get people to like my post on Ecency in the beginning?
A. Some good advice given by 
There are many community activities and competitions organised and participating with others in the community can build friendships. A good idea is to find other users new like yourself with a similar level of Hive power in your chosen communities that you like and you can support each other with comments and encouragement and grow your accounts together.
Q. 6. How do I transfer some Hive crypto into USD?
A. This you need to use an exchange and first withdraw your Hive to an exchange that you are registered at which allows withdrawals to your bank account or other withdrawal method.
One popular way is to use Binance, here you can send your liquid Hive directly to the exchange and then sell it for another crypto, such as Bitcoin and then sell this once again to USD. Once this is done, you can then initiate a withdrawal in USD if it is allowed in your country.
First you need to request a deposit of Hive in Binance. This will then allow you to get the address where to send the Hive. Once you have this, you can then goto Ecency and send the Hive to this address:
In the wallet, select Hive. Next to your Hive balance, there is a gliff where you can click and it brings up another menu where you can select Transfer.
Next, you enter the given username which is the address where you should send the funds to Binance. Then the amount and Memo given. A good practice is to send first to any new address first a test transaction to ensure you didn't make any mistakes, because with the exception of ETH, most blockchain transactions are immutable.
Once the funds are sent, you can then use the market facility on Binance to transfer to USD or your local currency and withdraw to bank account if available.
Another option to withdraw to an exchange is to use the Hive Engine on the second layer of Hive and convert this as follows: Hive->Swap.Hive->Swap.LTC and then to withdraw this LTC to your required exchange and convert to USD or local currency.
To do this, you need to convert your Hive first to Swap.Hive which is Hive but on the Hive 2nd layer using a swap service. There is usually a fee for these services to be aware of.
First I decided to use https://uswap.app/ and enter how much Hive I want to convert. 2 shows me how much Swap.Hive I will receive. 3 shows that I use the Hive Keychain to authorise the transaction. 4 is the button to press to execute the swap.
You will notice here that I will gain more than 100 Hive because there is a minus fee. This is because, if there is a high demand of Hive on 1st or 2nd layer, the USwap service can actually pay you for supplying the lower demanded side.
Next you need to go to the https://hive-engine.com/ website and login. From here you can then find the required market to swap your Hive for LTC. 1 Click Market. Next type in "Swap.LTC". At point 3 you can see your Hive balance (in Swap.Hive). This should increase to 100 once you transfer your Hive there. 4 shows you your current LTC balance.
Next you need to swap the Hive into LTC. To do this, you need to check the 1 Sell orders. Then click the highest Ask price under 2. Then click number 3 and it will show you under 4 how much LTC you can buy using the Hive balance. You can also adjust the quantity if you wish a lower amount than your full balance. Once happy, you click 5 to execute the swap.
Once you have bought your LTC, you next want to withdraw it to the exchange where you can exchange it for USD or local currency. Here you go from the main page and select Withdraw.
Once selected, you will then be able to search for LTC. Here you need to enter the amount you are withdrawing and the address from the exchange where you should deposit the LTC. If it is a new address and you have not used it before, it is recommended to first do a test transaction. It is better to pay a small fee to be safe than risk losing your whole balance.
Beware Hive Engine charges you a fee to withdraw or deposit any LTC on their wallet/exchange.
Finally on the exchange of your choice, you can withdraw to the USD or local currency if available.
Q. 7. Can I use A.I. to make a post on Ecency?
A. Ecency is a decentralised network, so you are free to post as you wish on your blog. However, if you wish to earn rewards from the Hive reward pool this would go against the rules of many communities and there is a general community Hivewatchers program that has given guidance that only human original content should be rewarded from the reward pool.
Therefore, using AI to create posts to gain rewards should not be used or the rewards should be declined. If using AI, it should be clearly referenced what it was created by AI and the post must still have at least 50% of original human created content. This was a guideline given by the Hivewatchers team with regards to using AI. However, it would be recommended to check in their discord for guidance if you plan to have AI in your posts for what would be acceptable or not.
Q. 8. Things to check if your Hive account has been hacked?
A. Often if you use your private keys in a web browser (not recommended), there is a chance they can be compromised. Therefore, it is recommended to always use a wallet or keychain service for your keys and be careful of phishing attacks.
Often, scammers will then start to power down your account and try to withdraw your hive to their own account and steal it from you. To check if you have any Hive powering down, you need to look into your wallet and see if it says power down. To protect your account, you can then cancel this.
The next step is to check if you have any withdrawal routes setup on your account where your Hive will be transferred to. To check this I use : https://hive.ausbit.dev/
Here you can enter your Hive userID and scroll down to where you see Withdraw Routes and it should be empty or show 0. If it shows up something like above, this means your account has been compromised and you should remove this withdrawal route and change your keys.
To remove the withdrawal route, click your wallet in Ecency and then Hive Wallet and select from the gliff, Withdrawal Routes.
From here you can remove any routes that have been added.
To reset your master, active and posting keys, you need your original owner key and can do that here:
Go to settings and select permissions.
From here, you can change your master password and keys. Enter your Master password in 2. Then generate your new passwords/keys and make a backup and save them securely. Enter the new Master password and then click update once you have ticket the box that you have saved them securely.
Some important things to note here are that once you have generated your new keys, you will also need to update any Hive Keychain or other services/Dapps that you might be using. Store the keys securely and do not share them with others.
If you have trouble, reach out to someone in the Ecency Discord for help.
Q.9. I have received a comment about spun, rewritten or rewarded...plagism or fraud and now have received a downvote. What does it mean? How do I find out why I have been downvoted?
A. This looks like a post has been flagged by the Hivewatchers team for creating content that is not deemed original and accepting rewards from the reward pool. Earning money from content that is not created by yourself or you do not own the copyright of, is generally frowned upon in the community.
Here is an example comment left by Hivewatchers. To find out more about this and resolve the issue, it is recommended to reach out to them directly in the Hivewatchers discord in the link that they provided. Until you do, your posts could continue to be downvoted by their them as this is to stop abuse of the reward pool on Hive.
Q. 10. Why am I not able to be boosted on my last 2 posts?
A. Each Ecency curator has their own criterion for approving boosts on posts. It can also be that voting power is low and large boost requests are skipped. Some tips to improve your chances of being boosted are to boost within 24 hours of posting, post using Ecency, create high quality content and request lower boosts as these are more likely to be approved if voting power is low.
Regarding post quality, some considerations that curators might look at are does the post show effort? How many photos and words does the post contain?
I hope these Q&A's might be helpful. If you have any other questions, feel free to drop them in the comments below or come to the Ecency Discord and someone will try to help you.
Credits:
Title image created with image from source
Screenshots taken from Ecency, HiveSigner, Binance, USwap, Hive Engine, Hive-Ausbit and Hivewatchers comment.
Questions from users in the Ecency Discord.
Ecency Waves banner by 
Let's connect : mypathtofire
