@acidyo is going to flag me!!
Well, perhaps not quite yet. And I plan on never, because:
If he, on the other hand, was only to generate posts, only reply to comments on his own posts consistently, not curate, not engage with other posts, not use any dapps, start receiving less genuine engagement, etc, then yes at that point I'd also think that he could use some downvotes or less upvotes eventually, no matter how great of an author he is.
And I don't plan on lacking off and riding a sense of entitlement, though sometimes, I have to admit, I do struggle to keep up with Hive activity.
I was always a procrastinator and much of my life, I haven't got much done, because I was putting off today, what I could do tomorrow and as we know, tomorrow never comes. Most of my life was spent largely inactive, with my time and money wasted on not much of consequence.
While I started to change my behavior earlier, what really catalyzed a sharp pivot in activity was the birth of my daughter and the challenges we faced. It forced me to reassess my life practices and I found myself lacking. So now, while I still consider myself very lazy, I work a fulltime job as an employee, run a sole proprietorship training business, am renovating a house, writing on Hive, playing too much Splinterlands and of course, making sure I spend enough time with my wife and daughter, for which I am doing all of this anyway. I fail to meet my own expectations daily and I have the tendency to bite off far more than I can chew, but compared to "past me", I am almost unrecognizable.
The post the above quote is from was talking about the value of content and how it is important to bring readership onto the platform, which is very important of course. However, this has also changed a little over the years, as blogging is not the only part of Hive anymore, which means that while still the main target for distribution of HIVE, the kinds of topics are also changing from pure blog form, to a more diverse mix, including gaming content, like Splinterlands. What this means is that even if the content is only read by internal readers already here, supporting internal readers is also valuable.
While internal-facing content has always been seen as poor by many, it is actually crucial, because Hive itself and Web3 in general is something that is largely unfamiliar to the mainstream consumer world. As important as it is to have a wide range of content, one thing that people should also remember is, "Hive content" is pretty much always sourced on Hive and doesn't appear anywhere else.
But, what is Hive content?
Okay, this is Hive content, as it takes a Meta view of a facet of the ecosystem, meaning that it is self-referential. However, a lot of the content that is Hive-centric, doesn't actually reference Hive directly but rather, delves into parts of Hive that are connected to the chain and community, but aren't directly about the chain or community itself. For example, all of those Splinterlands or LeoFinance posts, content about the Speak Network or any number of other bits of content produced around Hive applications and communities.
It is all Hive related in some way and does support the community, but it isn't Hive shill. This is important too, as is the Hive shill itself, because it does help people understand the ecosystem they are part of and encourages at least some to get more involved, as they are influenced by various people here.
And, Acid was talking about influencers too, but mostly the externals who come into the platform and nearly without fail, fail. They fail because they are already monetized other places or, they are already getting their hunger for attention fed on other platforms. So, what they end up doing here is posting and running, never actually exploring and learning about what Hive is, what it means to build a community and the potential if they do so. This is because they don't care about those things, they are in it for the money and let's face it, for an established contributor, the money is better elsewhere.
For now.
But that isn't always going to be the case. Also, the reason they have been able to get monetized on the other platforms in the first place is because the platform has "allowed" them to. It isn't their fans for the most part, because even if they put in the work to build an audience, that audience doesn't have any say in whether the influencer is paid or not, the platform does. That is different on Hive of course, because there is a more direct relationship through stake between, creator and consumer.
And this is of course where there is a lot of conflict that raises the question of the value of content, because in a social circumstance like Hive, if it isn't getting consumed, if no one is engaging backwards and forwards, no matter what "information" is contained within, it is valueless. It is very much like the proverbial tree falling in the woods.
If a post is written to the chain and no one sees it, is it valuable?
No. It is not.
Similarly and as contained in the quote at the start, if a post receives "less genuine" comments, no matter how many there are, it is still valueless. Have a look at some of the posts that are in Trending with either zero comments or some comments that are all single sentences and say things like, "beautiful" or "I haven't seen fireworks for a long time" on pictures of fireworks. When all the comments on all the posts are similar, something is up. Note, you might need to translate some of them. And, when the same account posts daily and gets into Trending, but has five comments in the last 3 weeks, something is up.
Should this stuff be rewarded?
Well, that is the question, because stake dictates what gets rewarded and what doesn't, as well as has the ability to remove rewards if it chooses. Yes, stake can do what it likes, but that is the same for all up and down movement. When stakeholders see other stakeholders upvoting the same content over and over regardless of what engagement or value it has to the ecosystem, eventually, it will be targeted to remove rewards. Similarly, should people who consistently only shill the various interfaces and communities that carry large stake for votes get voted highly?
And this is perhaps what should also be considered by voters. Of course, it should be expected that people who earn here are also going to want to benefit from it financially, whether now or in the future - we all do. However, while people often cite not supporting those who extract, it is also useful to think about the kinds of people you want to hold staked on Hive, because that matters for the ecosystem too.
Sure, you want wide distribution, but ultimately, the platform also needs to have people who are going to be here long-term, not as extractors, but as builders. The people who are going to powerup more than they powerdown so that they grow and, the kinds of people who are looking to make a healthy ecosystem, not just one that is the most beneficial for themselves or the tiny group they belong to.
We have seen how painful and harmful it can be when there are quite toxic personalities with a lot of stake on the platform and nearly without fail, the reason they have "become toxic" is because someone has come along an interrupted their maximization processes. Rather than being chill and finding some middle-ground compromise (like getting paid 50% just for clicking a button on content), they are self-voting as often as they can, vote-trading, running alts, selling their votes... whatever. Once interrupted, they lash out from behind their shield of entitlement and say "it is my stake" I can use it how I choose.
For sure you can!
So can everyone else.
But, why do people have to create so much drama, why do they have to be dicks once there is money on the table and instead of growing together, they take an everyman for themselves approach, extracting as much as they can, as often as they can?
People are people?
It explains a lot, but you have to acknowledge that some people are far more wankerish than other people.
It is a spectrum.
And, people are people and personality matters. The reason I don't slack off and ride the autovotes on Hive isn't because I am scared of flags, it isn't because I am greedy, it isn't because I have a face here. It is because I have some self-respect and believe what I do each day has value to me and for the community. Sure, this value is a spectrum too, but while the reputation number is a load of toss, my reputation within the community is based on me delivering decent content, not shite. It has never been easy for me to produce like this and it has become magnitudes harder in the last year, but fuck if I am going to give in to being a lazy prick that rests on my laurels.
I want to be my best each day.
This doesn't necessarily mean being better than yesterday, but I am going to put in the work to try, because what kind of life is it to not value what you do enough to do it well? And, because this is an attention economy where content attracts HIVE, there is a competition ongoing daily for the distribution of the pool.
And I want to compete for it too.
Because if there is one thing that I have made very clear in my time here it is, I see a very strong future for Hive and because I want to be a part of it, I am going to put in the effort to earn my place. It isn't just my place based on the size of my stake, it is my place based on my standing in the community. But, when I look in the mirror, I want to know that I have earned it and deserve it - not that I tricked and manipulated my way into the good graces of some high stake voters.
I have taken many, many downvotes on this platform from some of the largest accounts this platform has seen, sometimes for months on end. However, I never "deserved" any of them due to the content, lack of commitment or because I have been behaving in an unseemly manner. But not deserving them doesn't stop them coming and sometimes, that is the reason they are given, because they are just looking for a reaction, that dummy spit from me.
They will never have the satisfaction.
So,
There is "value" and, there are values.
Sometimes, when there is money on the table, people seem to get the two confused.
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]