The News

This week just about all crypto went down again. I am not trading as my biggest stake is in powered up $HIVE, but I like to see how things are going. I monitor the prices in terms of Bitcoin as I want to know how they are doing relative to the biggest fish. $HIVE was over 1000 Satoshi until recently and has dropped a few places in the charts. It really ought to be doing much better than the other two below, but hype and manipulation go a long way. It just takes a casual remark on Twitter by certain people for markets to shift by billions. I will keep playing the long game.

From @coingecko

The next Hive hardfork is due at the end of this month. This will remove the incentive to vote early and I hope people will consider doing more manual curation. It takes time to find and contemplate a post properly. Vote on what deserves rewards instead of just going fhe safe options. My only automated votes are via the @tenkminnows trail which only supports smaller accounts. Hive is losing users and we need to give good people reasons to stick around. Comments are part of that too.

Followables

Every (well almost every) week I pick out some people who I think deserve more followers and attention for what they do on Hive. That can be fairly established users, but also new people I have noticed.

• I have met @basilmarples a couple of times. He is a very creative person and has a nice new song for us with a moody video filmed at a funfair.
• @keys-defender is looking out for various issues on Hive such as people accidentally posting their private keys. That does happen. They posted about yet another phishing campaign. Be very wary of what sites you entrust your keys to. If it is not using either Hive Keychain or Hivesigner then it may not be safe to use. You can change your keys, but never give your master key except when changing your keys on a trusted site.
• @ninasophia is brand new to Hive and already shared some art. She is in Northern Ireland and is only the third active user I have found there for my Brits List. There will be an updated list next week, so please let me know of any people you find.
• @dickturpin must be a very happy boy as he just got a new Xbox X after much messing around. I hope he finds time to play with it.
• @eroche keeps adding functions to his Hive Analytics tool. There are lots of people making data easily available so you can check on how you are doing as well as the general status of Hive.

The Doghouse

For some time @mintdice has been seen to give every post and comment they put out a large self-vote. When it is 20% of your voting then that can be considered excessive, by some. Replying to your own posts to have another comment to upvote is just taking the piss. I get that people think their efforts are worthy, but the greater community gets a say in your rewards and can adjust them if it is seen as selfish behaviour. After having most of these votes cancelled out this person appears to be doing a big power-down. They have been told the reason for the downvotes and that would stop if they just changed their habits.

From HiveTasks

We can earn from posting and by voting up what others do. If others like what you do then they will show their appreciation, but nobody is automatically entitled to rewards here. If nobody takes action against such behaviour then it will only get much worse and Hive will be seen as a scammy platform, whereas if it gains in reputation and users then we all stand to do better. That is why I am always looking for ways to improve the situation for others.

I am fortunate to do well from Hive, but then I have put in a lot of time and built connections with people. Remember that this is a social blockchain and not some 'magic money tree'. I do not self-vote at all now. I do not see the small increase in rewards as worthwhile.

We each get to choose how we use Hive, but our actions are public and may be judged.

The End

I hope the hardfork goes smoothly and we will be able to start judging the impact next week. There are other new features such as automated regular transfers.

I also hope to see some improvement in the $HIVE price soon. Consider buying some for the next Hive Power Up Day whilst it is relatively cheap.

Hive five!