The News

I will include my usual price chart that I generate each week. $HIVE is generally trending upwards over the last month, but things are just too unpredictable to say more. We just need to keep building community and utility in this platform to add value. It will not magically happen by itself. If each of us could bring in someone who stays active and potentially invests then we will get somewhere.

I am pinching this chart from @arcange as it shows that we are improving in some areas. The numbers of minnows, dolphins and orcas are the highest they have been this year, but they were better last year. The @tenkminnows project has been running for over two years and we still have a way to go to reach the target. I may add to the list of people it votes for, based on the following criteria and my own preferences:

• Actively posting and preferably commenting too.
• Not powering down.
• Not yet a minnow. That threshold is around 550HP now. I review once in a while, so some may keep getting the votes after they reach that level.

Friday Follows

Last week @tdctunes also did a #FollowFriday post. You are free to use the tag however you like, but I encourage you to share accounts you think will interest others and deserve more followers. You can do as I do and set them as beneficiaries of the post rewards if you like.

• @katharsisdrill has illustrated a story (not a comic as I originally said) by @nevies that you can help crowdfund. The cost of international postage means that physical copies may only be available in Nigeria and Denmark, but I have ordered the PDF version.
• @erikah wrote a good post about Hive communities. I have more to say about that feature below.
• @sidekickmatt has kicked off a new story with his The Real Superheroines of Hive Valley comic. There have been updates nearly every day this week. He is a busy man.
• @bryan-imhoff is also sharing pages of his apocalypse comic that could well go to print.
• Now I am running again I am using @strava2hive that makes a post from your Strava activities.

The Doghouse

I am not going to name the parties, but today I saw someone get upset when his post to a large Hive community was rejected and he got a small downvote too. One of the community moderators left a comment saying why the post was muted and I feel the poster overreacted by responding in an aggressive manner.

Although Hive in general is decentralised and we can post what we want to our own feeds the communities are 'walled gardens' where activity can be moderated. Those who pay the fee to create a community get the ability to declare the rules and appoint moderators to enforce them. I am not sure how much moderators get rewarded for their efforts, but that is a matter for the admins. When you participate in a community you are accepting that there is some control. This is to keep it on topic and maintain a level of quality. When a community has thousands of subscribers you do not want to waste their time.

You have to appreciate that the moderators may have a lot of posts to sort through. The moderators in turn need to act reasonably. If someone misunderstands the rules they ought to be given another chance. I realise there may be language and culture differences that make communication harder. I think that in general when it comes to moderation and curation on Hive there has to be some give and take. There will be those who set out to abuse it, but there will also be plenty for whom it is all new and confusing. We need to guide them to a good path.

You do not have to use communities at all, but they can be a way to reach a wider audience. There is an option to have the posts appear on your own feed too.

Personally I am not so into big communities that may have hundreds of posts per week as it will be hard to find stuff I actually like. I have created a few myself that are more focused. They are not so busy, but I know that I am likely to find posts I enjoy in them. So far I have not had to do much moderation. I did have one guy stealing video content who was ejected.

I do think communities are a great feature, but you still need to work to build a following. Quality and engagement are key for that. If you never respond to comments then people will go elsewhere.

The End

@Hivefest is fast approaching. I have bought my ticket and you can see who else has in the wallet. I seem to be the only gold level so far. Number are not huge, but I expect some people are powering down to pay for it. I certainly had to as I plan to pay for the whole trip with what I make on this platform.

The UK could have record-breaking temperatures next week. I hope everyone finds some way to stay cool and healthy.