Newbie Expectations And Reality

Yesterday I got a lot of comments on my post about "what to write about", which means the time spent with putting the post together was not a waste. Reading through the comments made me realize there's something that would be helpful to share as it may change a few people's view of how things work on Hive and in real life in general.

Photo by Paul Skorupskas on Unsplash

Let Me Tell You A Story

This is not fiction, it happened on Hive a few years ago and made me see things differently and understand why people do what they do.

Once upon a time there was a frontend on Hive, called Musing.io. Basically it served to ask questions and get answers from the community. Both questions and answers were curated by the community account, which had a considerable delegation from the guy who sold us to the highest bidder.

It was good fun as you could ask almost anything and get various answers as well as you could share your own point of view on different topics, by answering questions. I met a few interesting people during those times, became friends with them and because of the common interests, we're still good friends.

During those times there was a guy who stood out of the crowd and not for a good reason. I noticed him because he was literally everywhere and no matter what topic was discussed, he never shared his opinion, but was always saying "We have to do this, you have to do that" and all his comments referred to human behavior.

My reaction to these "brainwashing speeches" is always "We don't have to do anything. You do what you want, I do what I want and you don't get to tell me what I have to do on a personal level as that's my decision!" We're all grown ups, old enough to make our decisions.

I started avoiding him as his style became annoying. Then one day, when I had enough of him, decided to ask him openly why he always feels the need to lecture everyone, every single day as that is what he was doing, day in, day out.

He told me he was a community leader and his job was to educate and teach. After taking a deep breath, I told him that it may be true in his local community, wherever that may be, but not on Hive. We agreed to disagree as he was firmly convinced that it is his job to educate everyone and continued his campaign without hesitation.

Long story short, Musing went down, he started posting on his blog, then became inactive after some time as talking to the walls seemed not profitable for him. Most likely I wasn't the only one not interested in what he had to say as his posts were never rewarded.

Adjust Your Expectations

This was not a single isolated case. I've seen others feeling the urge to teach others on Hive at any cost. I suppose it's the culture and it may be normal for them. Being senior may also mean others have to listen to them, but that's not how it works in other parts of the world. Once you're eighteen, you can make your own decisions, your own mistakes and learn from them. This is how you can develop as individual.

Obviously no one can stop you from teaching or lecturing others, you're free to post whatever you want on Hive, just be aware that not everyone sees things like you do and adjust your expectations accordingly. What you think it may worth gold, may not be appreciated the same way by others.

This is when disappointment takes over, frustration settles in and you know the rest. You see users asking for votes openly, which is the last thing you want to do on Hive. You see them on Discord asking why they don't get curated, which can also backfire.

Just as I don't like staged and over edited, kitschy photos, vegans don't like my meat recipes, Muslims don't like my pork recipes and so on. It's everyone's right to like what they want and vote what they like. This is why it's important to find the right audience for your posts and not force things that don't work.

Following users with high reputation and stake, commenting on their post, hoping to get notices is something newbies do. Been there, done that, then comes the bucket of cold water, when you realize things don't work like that.

Hive has users from all over the world, literally. I don't have any statistics to back that up as you're free to remain anonymous and not disclose your location on Hive, but most users are open about the country they are blogging from, so you most likely have met uses from every continent.

This means they have different interests and what may seem normal to you, may not be acceptable to them. I've read posts saying that parents beating their children is done out of love. Where I come from this is called child abuse and it's punishable by law, you can go to jail for that. So life is not the same everywhere.

See The Opportunity

Hive being so colorful as far as the user base is concerned, should be seen as an opportunity to learn about different cultures, customs, you name it. This is all free and can help broaden your horizons a lot. It is a huge advantage, as it is for free, you can meet a lot of interesting people, make new friends that you can connect with in real life too, if you want. Some can see the opportunity and adapt, while others will always be limited to their local habits and knowledge.

If you're a newbie, you may want to check out these guides: