It's been a week since @pinmapple ended our chapter on Hive. We made our announcement over a month ago and during that time it's been mixed emotion for me. In fact it was mixed emotion even before that, when the discussions started about sunsetting Pinmapple. I have been with Pinmapple since it started in 2017, not long after I joined the chain and it has been my adopted baby ever since (adopted because it's really @martibis's baby). Discussing sunsetting Pinmapple was a very heartbreaking topic for me.
I always enjoyed curating for Pinmapple because I get to travel virtually around the world to see so many interesting places. My geography has improved so much over the years without even stepping foot in many places. I've seen a lot of Argentina and Venezuela and Cuba, places very far away from me and on my to go list. There seems to be no end to the beautiful beaches in the Philippines, the tranquil villages in Italy, the stunning mountain regions in India, not to mention the Rockies in Canada. I have followed the footsteps of some of my fellow Hivers when I go on holiday, in particular my recent US trip, and the many European city breaks.
Curating for Pinmapple not only brings me self satisfaction, I enjoy doing it because know I can also contribute to help the travel community. Through the great work we do (and I'm not blowing our own trumpet here, because I'm sure many will agree with me on this) we have gained the support of whale accounts who trust our work and judgement and follow our curation trail. This makes a massive difference to the authors we curate. That, plus vote stacking by other whale accounts who don't officially follow Pinmapple's curation trail means when Pinmapple curates a post, the post can potentially get anything up to $50 or $60 or even more upvotes. To be honest, sometimes it can be quite a pressure to curate, knowing there could be so much riding on my actions. I needed to make sure I stay true to my job, and curate quality original content only.
The potential of high rewards always brings out the opportunists. Abuse and plagiarism have been rife in the Pinmapple community for a long time and dealing with it can be a job in itself. I have personally muted nearly 150 accounts on the Pinmapple community for abuse, and I make no apologies for that. That's what community mods do if you want to manage a good community and for it to stay true to its genre. Funny enough, some say the Pinmapple community is unfriendly because we mute accounts. I guess we all have different standards, I'm not here to support abusers or please those who sympathize them.
In the pre AI days, it was easier to catch abuse, but then it still relied on a a lot of manual work and help from the wider community. Since AI became more widely available about a year ago, things have gotten worse. AI generated content is very difficult to detect, making anti abuse work much harder. For example, would you trust the accounts who post this? You'd be surprised how many did and still curate them.
If you've been a curator for long enough on Hive, you develop your senses to pick up abuse. For myself, the account posting history, or change in writing style, or travel posts that are very well written with professional grade images but no personalisation are all big red flags. Or a brand new user who joins Hive from "watching a YouTube video" or "reading a Tweet" and knows to pin their first post on Pinmapple potentially indicates foul play. Let's be honest, Pinmapple isn't the easiest to use or even grasp, even for some seasoned Hivers let alone a newbie. Spending a few moments to dig deeper will save a lot of hassle in the long run. Nip the bud, as they say.
I can't remember what happened first. Did I get fed up with all the abuse, or did I get burnt out after 7 years? I used to look forward to curating for Pinmapple, but somewhere down the line, it became a chore, a responsibility towards the travel community. And when that happens, it's a bad sign.
I could have taken the easy way out, turn a blind eye to all the shit and curate all the "quality" content. I'd finish curating within an hour instead of spending 2 or 3 hours each time. But then, I'd be doing a shit job. I'd rather not do a job than do a shit one. There was only one alternative.
After speaking to martibis and choogirl, we all felt similar (burnt out) and decided it was best to call it a day. Pinmapple has become one of the most successful, much loved and popular projects on Hive. We've had a good run, and supported the travel community well over the years. We had built up such a good reputation and felt this was the best way to preserve Pinmapple's legacy on Hive. I don't know if I was relieved or sad when we made the decision. Pinmapple has always been such a big part of me on Hive, to sunset it was very painful, but some things had to be done because you love it so much.
Travel is a big and popular genre on Hive. In the post Pinmapple world, we now have @worldmappin led by @detlev and his team. I know many from the travel community, myself included are eagerly waiting for them to be up and running so we can continue to share our travels on Hive.
As to the abuse? NMPA. Over to you Worldmappin 😉
