HivePH has been doing a few charity initiatives since 2020 with the most notable efforts linked below:
A Visit to the Orphanage: Home for the Angels, Crisis Home for Abandoned Babies Foundation Inc.
HIVE PH donates 35,000 pesos to Typhoon Odette Victims
Hive PH Donation Drive Update
We also did some minor donations in small amounts to some members within and outside the community but trying to keep it lowkey that it's not going to be a poverty porn community. The community used to have a lot of funding stored but a series of charity works have drained a large amount of the coffers. So we just took a step back on shelling out more of our accumulated funds until we reach some sustainable levels. We release monthly reports about our community funds for added transparency. And we've been doing all this with efforts generated by only a few members.
Felt like the post above needs to be shared for new members in the community that this was what we've been doing and things like charity work wasn't just for show.
I say few members because there's really only less than a quarter of the total members in the community that are actively involved with this community while the rest are just associated by name. I'd like to get rid of the latter but everything happens in due time. The community has undergone a lot of changes when it comes to weeding out excess baggage and the net effect has been positive for the remaining members. Turns out, by cutting off unnecessary baggage, you tend to gain more from the deal but this doesn't mean you don't get the ire of the freeloaders. What I'm saying is that this community that used to have active members from the Steemit OG era have changed culture at a slow pace to the point that it's no longer the same community that let lip service goers thrive.
Only few Filipino communities thrive because there's no greater vision beyond just being a group of individuals that shitposts, anyone can make that group on Hive and it doesn't have to be consisted of Filipinos and then slap a common niche topic then you're done. What separate HivePH is the quality of the few members willing to put up with the vision that it has and can be more than a shitposting group. Beyond just curation compilations and blogging contests, we are doing more value creation through supplementing onboarding efforts and generating value that changes lives little by little. There are no lofty goals beyond teaching people how to maximize what value they can generate from their Hive account because having a Hive account in itself is a life hack for some to get into crypto space. What we're investing our resources into are the people that will eventually find the time to pay the favors forward given to them by the community.
At HivePH's core, it's a Filipino-based community that supports one another on Hive within reasonable lengths. We're a casual tight knit group and have no plans on expanding to greater ambitions like countrywide conventions or spearheading crypto efforts in the Philippines. That's something other Filipino groups on Hive can try to do but not this one, at least, not when I'm the current lead. But when thinking about community impact and use case of Hive in real life, I think we as a community did alright.
Beyond just a place where we shitpost to print magic money on the internet, this community tries to make small real world impacts whenever it can just by existing. The visit to the orphanage, donations to those affected by the typhoons, and other misc. charity initiatives done, these are things that no casual group on discord usually go in lengths to do. While the idea that cashing out the donations is bad for Hive because it contributes to the selling pressure, I beg to differ in terms of the method this community uses. We have peer to peer trading done for those that want to buy into the platform but don't want to be bothered with the tx fees and need the volume at the x amount of price set. This sets up seller and buyer and contributes to a mutual relationship . I think the stigma of cashing out needs to change on some points because for every seller, there is another buyer on the receiving end that is interested in getting into Hive, but that's just my opinion.
But I get the part when members don't see what we do as a community because the self game is really shitposting and maximizing what one can earn the most on the platform. Even when it's the community account that others have taken some effort to build that contributes to overall member wealth, one can still fail to see that stake accumulated as part of their asset therefore they don't feel compelled to contribute even if it affects their income and how much they use the #voteme channel. It's just a lowkey batting at the idea that I'm more than willing to throw more people off the list because the cost of doing so doesn't really affect overall community wealth given that only few are really putting in the effort. Some people can't be even assed to curate others despite having no cost on their part but that's just me observing spoiled folks.
The requirement for any community member to feel some sense of belongingness is the bonds formed within the community. It's that bond that helps members distinguish themselves from the us versus them. It's that vested emotional interest with peers that are no longer strangers online that compels people to care. It's this sense of belongingness to that makes people show up to the community even when there's no monetary incentive to care.
It's this sense that people would still bother talking to other members because their interactions are more than using their social relationships are a means to fatten up their wallets. In a platform where social relationships have monetary consequences, everyone has a good reason why they should be guarded about who they want to support.
Lip service is when hear people preach about how much they are into something but don't really mean it. They tell what you want to hear and that's pretty much how most people on Hive are thriving. Every community has these individuals and this strategy works because we're not playing the same game, some are more altruistically inclined to help while others lean on to a more selfish route, some are just here to make money and that's understandable, but they got to keep it to themselves because being open about wanting more on your wallet is taboo talk.
It's not that hard to notice these people because time really filters out what it really means for them to be in the community, you'll see how much the paper trails they leave on the blockchain and when called out, you'll get responses like, you don't know the thing or two about them deeply enough. I'm telling you that your chronic behavior on the platform gives your motives away and it's difficult to hide this especially when people think they're on the clear when nobody is looking. A lot of people are looking. They look at each other's blogs but leave no trace that they do. Most are on the game stage on their Hive journey where they start taking up roles and feeling for each other up.
Why I still bother to show up at the server is perpetuating that vision to actually contribute to something greater than what my shitposts can do. It's the same reason that I still allocate a portion of my posting rewards to the community and this has been going for as long as I can remember. When you want to encourage people to do more and think beyond themselves, it's better to be the role model that urges others to move otherwise you end up being a hypocrite.
I know what I need to do for the community and that's more than enough to jumpstart some minor projects within this community. But for the common members that have yet to figure out they want to do, perhaps it's time to look beyond what the community can do for you and seek out ways on how the community can improve what it does for everyone. Delegating more to the community account is a practical step but it's also the lowest form of commitment, anyone can do it. But to curate for others and even guide newbies in how to use the platform, those stuff are more meaningful because these methods changes people's lives little by little.
For the people that have formed meaningful relationships here on Hive, think about how much impact that one onboarding lesson you got that changed your Hive experience so far?
Thanks for your time.