I've been playing Splinterlands for almost 3 years now and played over 10,000 battles on the game.

When I started playing I had no idea what HIVE was and I think now I can say that I have learned a fair amount compared to what I started with.

FIRST

I'm going to break this post up into three parts.

Why?

Because Hive sort of consists of three parts:

There is

HIVE the cryptocurrency
HIVE the dApps
HIVE the social media platform.

When I started out with Hive I actually started out with Splinterlands. I was totally oblivious to the fact that is was part of a much larger ecosystem. Little by little I branched out into the larger ecosystem.

I had to learn Hive Engine so I could bring in my bitcoin or ethereum into the Splinterlands game

I had to learn Splintertalk so I could earn SPS tokens to get more rewards in the Splinterlands game.

I had learn Tribaldex so I could fund liquidity pools to get additional rewards in the Splinterlands game.

In Short

Splinterlands was a dApp which got me into the ecosystem.

Tribaldex and Hive-Engine were cryptocurrency / financial side of things.

Splintertalk was the social media part of things

As things Progressed

As time went by I learned more about how the pieces fit together. I learned there were other dApps which paid out coins. #Actifit was my next app to try out.

Then I found that there were curation rewards and author rewards so I thought I can write why not make some coins!

I tried a few different communities. #Market Friday with @dswigle was my first foray into writing. I love saving money on shopping so it seemed like a good fit. She was an awesome curator for the channel but ultimately my writing style wasn't a good fit there. Market friday is more about the shopping experience while I'm much more focused on the minutia of getting a bargain. #SilverBloggers and #HiveThrifted were also channels I looked into. In the end I found that there was just so much that I didn't know about proper engagement in the Hive Community. I had a lot to learn and with the help of @dlmmqb and @bruno-kema I finally ended up in the #HiveLearners community.

I think I've gotten better

With a little work on my html skills. A lot of work on my presentation skills. A lot of time and thinking on my articles. A lot of patience from the leaders of the various communities I think I'm a better Hivian than I was before.

I may be wrong but I've taken home Author of the Week a few times in the #HiveLearners and #Actifit community plus I've gotten a lot of positive feedback

I've Enjoyed My Time on Hive

With regards to dApp Splinterlands

I've loved my time on Splinterlands

I can't thank @engine-witty and @saffisara for their helping hand in getting me started on my Hive journey. Without them I can guarantee I wouldn't be still writing or engaging or even still playing on the platform.

With regards to my time on Actifit.

Well, Actifit isn't really the most interactive dApp out there. However, I have to say a big thank you to @priyanarc for pushing me to try and get out on Hive and meet more people. And also for sharing her personal struggles...I hate that she is going through hard times but nice to know I'm not the only one who had awful times. (less now but so many earlier)

With regards to posting on Hive

I cant thank the #HiveLearners community enough. Without their support and the weekly prompts I doubt I would bother writing. Most of the topics I want to talk about take a long time to write about and would have a tiny audience. At least with the #HiveLearners I can be guaranteed those articles I spend hours writing will be read by at least one person.

But I've learned I'll never be Great at it

If I learned one thing on Hive is that it is all about the people you meet.

If ever I got to Sweden I'd love to meet @Saffisara and get her view on the nature she gets to enjoy. Then again, I'd probably chicken out because I'm so awkward around people...but still.

If ever I got to go to Nigeria I'd love meet up with @monica-ene and get her to show me around her farm and tailoring operation

...and meet up with @emreal to talk theology and have him take me to his church.....and try to get him to stop calling me sir.

...and meet up with @jjmusa2004. He seems like a great guy. I'd probably have arguments with him because we have different views on lots of things. But I respect him and know he is knowledgeable and openminded. I think they would be great arguments and maybe even a little agreement. At the end of the day an argument with someone you can respect it lots of fun.

But why won't I be great on Hive?

...Because I've learned that a lot of the best parts of Hive happen off of Hive.

I love being part of The Alliance Guild... but the true Comraderie is to be found on the Alliance Discord Channel.

I love being part of Hive Learners ... but again the true Comraderie is found on the weekly Discord chat's.

The best part of Hive is when you can engage with other members in real life. I look at users like @danielvehe and I'm inspired and jealous at the same time.

So Why Don't I get out there and onboard people or at least join the Discord chats?

Age

I'm older than most others on the blockchain. Well, maybe not older than the #SilverBlogger crowd but I'm pretty sure I'm one of the oldest in both The Alliance and the Hive learners. Being part of the older crowd I just loathe video chats. Being introvert and quiet by nature certainly doesn't help.

Finances

If I'm lucky and @lazy-panda comes to curate my post I make about $2 HBD. So I'll do a little math here. 3 posts / week, $2 per post, 4 weeks per month. $24 HBD/month.

$24 HBD is actually more than minimum wage for someone in Nigeria.
$24 could be decent pocket money for someone from Venezuela or Pakistan
$24 would be somewhat less than the hourly wage for a Canadian.

How much time does an article worthy of curation take me? 2 hours of thinking time and 2-3 hours of writing time. I'll say 4hrs per article. That's about 50hrs a week month writing articles....for less than an hour's pay.

Financially engaging with Hive doesn't make sense for the majority of Canadians. Socially it would make sense but tearing someone from Facebook or other social media would take more incentive than Hive offers. Especially since Hive has such a steep learning curve.

Final Message

I've really enjoyed being on Hive. I've made some great friends. I've gotten to do some research on interesting topics. I've found a good way to send money to others far away.

But my personality means I'll never fit on in Discord and the financial aspect of Hive means it is unlikely to take off in Canada from a social media standpoint.

End result: Won't meet fellow Hivians locally (probably) and too shy to meet them online.

So I'll keep doing my best to write intersting articles but in response to the Hive learners prompt: What have I learned on Hive: