Hey Matt, thanks for replying here.
I actually did message you directly about the strategizer proposal via Discord, as that's the only point of contact I had - also Aggroed, but got no replies. Is there a better place to message you? I don't think I'm part of the Splinterlands slack any more.

Can you clarify what you meant when you said that you would hire someone from within the Splinterlands team? Maybe I am misunderstanding, but wouldn't they already be being paid by Splinterlands? Do you mean that you want to direct someone from your existing team to then find an external agency?

As I mentioned numerous times during the Strategizer discussions, I am all for DHF money being used to market Hive, but as someone with a few years of experience marketing online (plus having also built my own social network previously), it's very clear to me why the significant spends to date have not achieved anything measurable (and the people involved continue to employ the same thinking). So it was especially frustrating to see the community reject the only logical step to correct this (an internally directed research project). I know that your business depends on your actions here and also know that having a centralised effort is beneficial in these situations to direct energy and get tasks completed - so on this alone I expect you guys to do better than Hive itself has done so far.

I have tried to on-board numerous people to Hive, even people with crypto experience - I even wrote them guides.. None of them are users today. I see that part of this is caused by the complete failure of all Hive sites to provide education about the blockchain and UI systems - leaving users confused and de-motivated. At some point I will solve this myself if no-one else does.

Sure, I will probably be at Hivefest - yes, I agree, it would be great to meet again. We actually chatted a while over dinner in Poland IIRC. Thanks for reminding me actually, I need to book some tickets! ;)

I look forward to your response here. Cheers!