I've had 9 Hive Birthdays but this is a story I've hardly told. I was in the University and heard about a group for Literature lovers and writers, and no one got in bed with Literature more than I did at that point, so I jumped into the group.

Apart from my love for Literature and the fact that I was a writer (or at least wanted to be), another reason I joined the group was because I wanted to find out all the opportunities for writers the group members know or would ever know. I wanted to know about any opportunities like that if they ever came to the group in future.

And just a few months after joining in 2017, this guy @ogochukwu came to the group with information about Hive (the old chain, that is). As soon as I heard about it I knew it was the perfect stuff for me. A lot of the group members were skeptical, procrastinating, asking questions, etc. But not me, I hopped on the very day or so I heard about it, and the rest, they say is...

When I was joining, though, I thought it was a great opportunity to be a blogger, grow a following and be known for blogging. I guess this is what the founders intended too, but sadly Hive couldn't grow down that path, Hive no matter how good and potentially good it is has grown to NOT become a site where consumption of content is really big.

I started by trying to be the sort of writer who is writing for voracious consumers but over the years I've come to find that you can get a lot of love and support here but not really a following of people who eat up your content.

And because of this I've started to lean less into writing and mostly just want to make posts about my workouts, things that I'm doing, etc. I still plan on dropping a lot of cartoon skits but even that is mostly because I want to grow a page on YouTube. Well, if I make it there it'd definitely benefit Hive too.

I've not been consistent enough to build that yet, and I've not been consistent enough to build anything else on other platforms where consumption of content is bigger. I'm really good at creating great content but I'm not good at doing it every day, I could do a few times a week, once a week, or less, but that's not going to build shit on social media these days. The algorithm mostly favours every day posters.

I'm a little late now but I'll find my way around this and get my big page one of these days. HOPEFULLY.

WINS ON HIVE

• It's been quite good, though, I got to benefit from the 2017 and 2021 bullrun because of Hive, and I would have done it again last year if not for that orange man Trump! 😡.

• Because of Hive I've been able to write a lot of stuff that I'm proud of. Even though I don't write a lot these days I still have so many write-ups and content here that I pull out sometimes when I need to impress a potential job offerer, a lady, anyone who requires impressing at the moment.

• I got to publish my one and only novel Professor Otagburuagu all because I wrote about the character in a story contest here on Hive hosted by @vcelier in 2017 and the Scandinavian artist Katharsiddrill loved the character like many of the readers did and wanted further collaborations with me where I'll write stories about the character and he'll illustrate.

In Closing

It didn't turn out to be what we dreamed it to be, but it's been quite great, and I plan to still be here participating and doing my part. Hopefully we'll all see Hive become what we dream it could become in future.

🫂

The End

Hi there, buy my novella Professor Otagburuagu. It promises to be thoroughly entertaining and intellectually stimulating. Written by myself and illustrated by Scandinavian artist @ katharsisdrill.

You can order the hard copy from anywhere in the world via this link:
https://katharsisdrill.art/the-katharsisdrill-shop/professor-otagburuagu/

Thank you!