RE: Hive: Why I am Considering Leaving After One Week

Thank you so much for your thoughtful comment. I meant to reply to it days ago, but I think it must have been my bedtime. It stuck with me, in fact, and I was in the process of writing something else when I suddenly remembered your comment and that I had not responded.

I feel so grateful at the overwhelming support I received on this post, and it has been hard to give every comment the considered response it deserves.

What struck me about your comment, among other things, was that you mentioned that what I said about people from developing nations resonated with you. I find this to be a very interesting and strange dynamic of the hive.

On the one hand it gives people from a wide variety of cultures the opportunity to interact, but, at the same time, there is this pachyderm in the room. Specifically, the wealth gap is vast. A few upvotes to one person might mean coffee while to another they might mean survival, and I am not sure everyone is aware of this. It makes downvoting for trivial reasons particularly cruel.

While I see the need for the downvoting option, I think it should be used with extreme caution. I have seen many posts with which I vehemently disagree. I downvote none of them. I think people are entitled to be mistaken in their views. Lol. Seriously, though, I wish people would reserve the downvote for extremes like phishing or worse.

That being said, the positives I have seen this week are, for one thing, this overwhelming support, and, for another, I realized that people are reading my words. That might sound obvious, but when I write elsewhere, I often can tell from comments that people are, at best, skimming, and, at worst, only reading the headlines. Of course I want to be treated well and I would love to make a bit of money, but to have my words actually be read and considered by others is a great honour in my opinion.

I really love to write and maybe it’s sort of a weird addiction too, but too often, people have begged me not to do it! Lol. I am speaking here of friends and family who have been the unhappy recipients of overly lengthy email diatribes on one topic or another.

Anyhow, thanks again for your insights. As I mentioned, they stayed with me and I combed through the comments until I found them again to reply at long last. My apologies for the delay.