I look forward to this day every year, because it is on this day that my life changed profoundly, even though I didn't know it at the time. It was on the 29th of January 2017 that I joined Steem Hive, and posted my first ever article online. Though, to be fair, it wasn't much of an article. Still, it kind of set a tone for the future, and perhaps how I would come to see the Hive community.
A diverse collection of people - Good, Bad, and Ugly.
(I won't name names)
But, I think that *the good the, bad and the ugly is a good way to look at the community also, because it is a cross-section of global society, and in any community, there are going to be a range of variables and actions driven by incentives. And, as this is a platform where tradeable currency can be earned, a lot are incentivised by the earning. This sets up the conditions for the maximisation of income, and the minimisation of effort. Like a business.
Everyone wants to earn here.
I do. I want to earn. I want to one day be able to say that my writing has paid for my house, or put my daughter through university, or helped me improve my local community in some way. Yes, I want to earn, but Hive has limited resources and, the structure is that it is the users who decide who earns and who doesn't. This means, that if I want to make this the kind of place that a lot of people can get support, I also have to lend support to others. And the main way to support others on a platform that has value distributed by stake, is building stake and distributing votes to others. However, if they are just using Hive as an automatic teller and withdrawing the majority of what they earn, I don't want to support them.
Yeah, I get it, everyone wants to earn and many people are struggling financially, but at some point, people have to recognise that if they want to improve their situation, they also have to invest into others also. Investing doesn't mean just distributing value to them, or handing them money, it can be a bit like a parent investing into a child, so that they will be able to stand on their own two feet and face life.
Over the years though, there is a lot of entitlement here, where people believe that they should get rewarded based on their personal situation, or the effort they put in, even if it doesn't really offer much. They also seem to think that no matter how they behave, they are entitled to only have positive responses and experiences, even if they treat others negatively.
But all in all, after eight years on Hive, 6,808 posts and 69,233 comments, I can say that the majority of my time here has been good, even though I have been involved in some pretty dark times on the blockchain. While wishing is pointless, if everyone just did a bit better each day, this place would be amazing and would be a highly attractive and rewarding place to be - not just in Hive, but life experience. I think that many people don't get the "experience" part of it though - they are just interested in maximising the value they can extract.
Will it ever get there?
I hope so.
But there are no guarantees in this life, or the non-existent next. What I do believe is that it wouldn't take much in the world for Hive to be chanced upon, get some publicity with the right eyes and follower base, and actually become what it is meant to be - awesome. Considering how small the community is, a lot is getting developed here and it is being done in an environment that anyone can participate in, anyone can add to. The world needs more places like Hive where the users are the owners, because when the users are just users, the platform quickly becomes abusive.
Hive as a platform is agnostic to the userbase, so it is the userbase that makes it what it is, that shapes it, that gives it its culture. And of course, there are many subcultures in any large group, for a community to thrive, the good has to outweigh the bad significantly. Not just edge it out, but overpower it, make the bad insignificant. That isn't the case here yet, but maybe one day.
And I think that is why it is so important for people to powerup their stake and try to maximise the good they do with it. Sure, what is good and bad is subjective, but not that subjective. When people powerup, they become percentage owners of the platform and will benefit or lose based on the outcome of the community and as such, will take it more seriously - learn about it more broadly.
Care more.
Anyway - I have been here for eight years and while that affects no one and no one cares about it, I care about it because it means something to me to be a part owner of the platform, and a member of the community. We can all be very different, but when we interact on Hive at the blockchain level, we are all connected, and all affected by each other.
Want some cake?
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]
