Happy Friday and welcome to another #FollowFriday post. I have done these since joining this blockchain back in 2016 and have kept them up most weeks. It was originally about suggesting some people to follow, but I have expanded it to include some news and opinions to add value. There is always something happening on Hive and I will miss plenty, so I like to see others sharing news. I am also happy for others to use the hashtag to help build community links. There are plenty of cool creators here who deserve more followers and better rewards.
I am sure most people have noticed that $HIVE and other coins are not doing great right now. We are not far above the all time low from just after the fork from St--mit. The markets have changed massively since then and it ranks a lot lower now. We have a lot of work still to do in getting more people active here. I saw someone come back this week after many years away, so we should not give up on those who went dormant.
You may have heard that a Hive hardfork is due next month. Most of the changes will not be noticeable to normal users as they may be bug fixes or to provide functionality to those developing dapps. I did see mention here of a change to how votes work. This will mean that the value of your vote will not decrease if you vote several times in a day. Your voting mana will still decrease and I assume that once it is zero you will not be able to vote until it recharges. That takes five days from empty to full. This change was discussed two years ago. A benefit mentioned is that small accounts whose vote just takes posts over the dust threshold (about 2c) do not have to worry about falling below that. Feel free to correct me if I get any of this wrong.
There have been some posts recently about accountability for those who decide on where DHF (decentralised Hive fund) gets used and also for those who receive funds. Some projects are getting a lot of money, but it is a small group who get to decide who they are and the projects are not all giving feedback on what they did with the money. 
I have been hoping to see the Freechain documentary about how Hive came to be. 
In a couple of weeks there is the HiveBeeCon in Kraków.
@hivehubs which seems to be a new initiative to fund Hive events that could onboard more people. They set a lot of conditions, so I would hope the funds get well spent.
@gooddream about his experiences of being a musician. That is a subject close to my heart. We have lots of musicians on Hive with a fair few professionals.
@dbooster over in Japan just reached Orca rank. We have over 300 people at that level now.
@detlev runs the Hive beer community and has hosted lots of Hivefest events. He also wrote something on staying anonymous online.I have said this many times, but it may not be obvious to new Hive users. On Hive you have to work to get noticed as there is no algorithm that is going to push your posts at people. I am not picking on this guy, but it is a fairly typical example of someone who has gained an account, but is not reaching anyone. The only comment on these posts was an automated one. He is only following two people. He has made some comments, but they are too brief to really get attention. His posts do not really make much sense and at least one is in a community where it is likely to get muted as irrelevant.
I get that people want to earn here, but you cannot take it for granted. You have to add value that people will consider worthy of rewards. I always tell people to find users and communities that align with their interests so that Hive will be fun for them. If you have actual conversations in the comments then you can build connections. That is what I did from the start. Get to some Hive events too and if there is not one near you, then get organising! If you can get even a few people together then something may happen.
Hive gives us freedom, but that includes the freedom to fail.
This post worked out quite long as I did actually save some links that I wanted to mention. I hope you find something of interest.
Tomorrow is #HPUD (Hive power up day), so if you can power up you can earn a badge from 
Hive hive!
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