Nooooooo!
I missed a day posting!!!
A four year streak of at least a post a day - cruelly ended!!!
Ahem... Oops...
No I didn't.
Continue on streaking streak.
For a moment there, I thought I missed a day of posting as I was checking on Hivestats.io and saw this:
The first number is my curation activity, the three zeroes are my post earning for the day. It was late last night when I saw this and I have to say, my heart sank a little at the thought of having the streak ended and figured - it must be a mistake. So I scrolled back a week in my post feed to see what I had missed.
Phew...
The tired stupid in me had forgotten how my internal clock works... it ticks over every three seconds on "HBT"
Hive Blockchain Time
Hive blockchain time is always accurate and doesn't get affected by silly human things like "Daylight Saving" as if changing the clocks tricks the sun. However, different interfaces calculate the time in different ways and the above zero grab from hivestats.io calculates on my local time, meaning that locally, I did miss a day of posting, but blockchain time I was well within the limits.
For example, this is the post in question that almost cost me my streak - kind of.
Looking at the "timestamp" on the interface, it is actually wrong on Hive.blog, as it is my local time and since it is 6 minutes past midnight, it has moved to the 4th of September.
From Hive.blog:
However, on Peakd.com, the same post was posted precisely three hours earlier.
Double dipping rewards!!
From Peakd:
Of course not, it is the same post, but the interface time is the interface's decision, but the blockchain is always accurate to the block. Peakd just happens to use blockchain time, which I far prefer because it makes things easier. For example, a Hive competition with an end time should conclude at a blockchain time, because it saves a lot of nonsense worrying about local times and differences between summer and winter etc.
Hive midnight is the same for everyone.
We have finally reached global equality!!
I know that most people don't care about what time the blockchain does what, but since this is an immutable and unedited blockchain, it is good to recognize that time matters. If you are quoting the time that something took place on the blockchain, make sure you are using blockchain time and not your local time, as that way it is always consistent.
Right at this moment it is:
You can always find the exact time on https://hiveblocks.com/ as well as other useful information either about the blockchain like the supply or feed price, or your individual account. It is worth having a look at and learning a little bit about "yourself" on the blockchain.
For example, what was your first activity?
For me:
What a dick move.
Granted, I had no idea how Hive (Steem at the time) worked, which was evidenced by many of my early posts and questions. But, I started to really learn after about six months on the platform when I met @acidyo and he started guiding me through our chats on all kinds of things.
@acidyo actually has the best first cast vote on the platform I have ever seen, which is his 5th transaction. After two comments, his third transaction he authored a post.
But his fifth:
Yes, he downvoted his own post. Again, back then in 2016, it wasn't overly clear as to what was an up or downvote - so he was probably going to upvote himself too.
I wonder how many people who come in for the very first time upvote their own first post? I don't mean new alts, I mean real people. Perhaps it is less common now as people get invited in, but back then there was very little information as to what was going on - if I knew more, I would have had the account @taraz, rather than @tarazkp - But I thought I could change it later.
As I said, I didn't have any idea about what a blockchain was, and even less about how one works. In fact, I didn't have any idea about crypto at all and didn't actually know I was joining a crypto community. Do your own research fail. but, I started to learn and once I scratched the surface, I was hoked and stared diving into areas that I have never really had a connection with before.
And this is why I think people who are interested in improving their experience here should start to learn about it too, rather than just rely on what they know and assume. Everyone acts on what they know, so knowing a little more can make quite a big difference in how we approach and walk our path - perhaps even finding like I did, a lot of new ways that I didn't know existed, and there are even more now.
There are a lot of different interfaces to use and interact with, as well as get user feedback so that we can see how we are doing and perhaps, where new opportunities lay. I know one person who after a chat with another user face to face, bought some SPS and staked it on Splinterlands, even though they are not going to play. Connections matter and sometimes, the thing that holds us back is that we haven't had the opportunity to sit down and have a real chat with people. For example, I probably would have stayed lost for a lot longer if I hadn't have met @acidyo and I am unlikely to have got connected with a host of other users from around that time and then, going forward to build a larger network over the last four years.
It doesn't matter where you enter Hive or through what gateway, we are all connected by the blockchain that enables us all. So, learning more about the infrastructure is part of the process of building a network, as we all have something in common. This way, we are able to discover new relationships across the blockchain and the community. The people who take the surface level path only, tend to limit their effectiveness quite a lot, as when they do start talking blockchain as they inevitably do as they have a lot of confidence, their understanding and information is heavily lacking.
As said, time matters and being on the blockchain a long time doesn't mean that a great deal is known, as there is the possibility to stay very narrow and not roam wide. This can mean that there is the feeling of knowing, but there is no visibility on what isn't known. No issue, but remembering that there is always more to know than we do, means we might also realize that we don't know everything we need, so we might want to get curious and find out more.
So anyway, while my posting streak continues, hopefully people get a little more interested in finding out a little more about the Hive blockchain, even if you have been here a while and think you know enough. Who knows what we are missing...
I don't. Do you?
I know what time it is though.
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]
BTW, the sunset picture used, was taken after midnight.