Summer Reflection #29: Lock 'em Out
For today's Summer reflection, it is going to be a bit of a rant, because I haven't ranted on Hive for awhile, and I think it is due, as over the last week or so there has been some drama with proposals, people who should know better not behaving better, and you know, some tosser who posts "photos" of "his" cars for reward, but can't even take the time to answer the comments he gets from comment farmers.
I ended my last post with the thought:
I wonder what happens in the results of a country if everyone in it worked to be a little bit better.
And I have often wondered the same thing about Hive. If people actually worked a to be a little bit better here, the place would be pretty amazing, but instead, many are looking for the easiest way to get as much as they can for themselves, without having to put anything in. It is pathetic.
Don't get me wrong, most people are here to earn something in some way at some point in time, but this isn't Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, TikTok or whatever other fucked up centralized media is out there that pays, this is Hive. The other platforms might pay a small percentage of creators, but those creators don't own anything on the platform. Even the ownership of their account is an illusion, just like the fool who adds all the "photographs of my cars" from Gran Turismo 7.
He owns exactly none of those cars.
But on Hive, there is the possibility to own a piece of the network itself, which gives added benefits for the individual, plus gives the potential to help others build their potential and ownership of the network too. But, if everyone is only in it for themselves and unwilling to support the infrastructure or others in any way, what happens?
In this way, Hive is a bit like a business, but damn, can you imagine being in business with some of the assholes here, with the level of entitlement and extractor mentality they do?
How long would that fucking business last?
My daughter has been looking to improve her decision making abilities, and one of the discussions we had was about how to value our behaviors, by prioritizing what is important and what is less so. The thing is, that most people are looking to be happy in this world, yet when their behaviors are only looking at what makes themselves happy, they will soon run into a roadblock that will make it increasingly hard to be happy, as they become more and more isolated.
Hive is a bit the same, because as soon as an account starts taking the "easy way" out and posting shit and powering down everything, the community that supports them recognizes that they are only in it for themselves and will stop supporting. As far as "earning on Hive" from content creation goes, the less support you get from people who have invested into growing their stake, the harder it becomes. Ultimately, people support people here.
And some people are dicks.
Over the last seven something years I have been kicking around these blocks, I have seen a lot of people turn into dicks once they started getting support from larger accounts, by lowering the quality of their content and increasing their sense of entitlement to keep getting the support. When those votes dry up, they become even bigger dicks, by lowering quality even further and behaving increasingly badly, often complaining about how they get treated.
There is a place in hell for these people.
But, as said, I wonder what it would be like if everyone on Hive actually put in effort to consistently improve themselves or what they create here. I wonder what it would be like if all those comment farmers actually tried to add value to the conversation they were engaging with, rather than just adding whatever they think will get them a vote. Or if the content creators actually took some self-pride in what they create and try to make it something that the community wants or needs.
I wonder what would happen if users of Hive, made the decision to be healthy owners instead.
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]
You're right brother, the lack of accountability really hurts the community. We really do need more people who genuinely care.
I'm honestly really struggling to see if Hive is actually worth my time and effort. The main problem that I see is that there aren't many content consumers here... most posts aren't really getting read by the outside world... and then, why would they? There is so much misinformation on Hive, you really can tell that people posting here are mainly doing so because they've been banned off so many other sites... so what reason would anyone from outside the Hive ecosystem come to visit?
Additional to that, if someone does come to visit, how easy is it to get an account to make comments? Sometimes it seems easy, and sometimes it seems so hard and they have to figure out a way to buy Hive or crypto to spend on creating an account.
I feel like I could spend all my time refuting the misinformation on Hive with actual data... but would that be a good use of my time? Would anyone actually ever see it or care?
It is something that I have been thinking a bit about lately. I don't see it in the same way though. The "outside world" is a bunch of strangers that are connected by ad-revenue models. That is a simplification, but it is essentially what it is. Most of the content that is created anywhere is pretty useless, other than DIY stuff, because it doesn't actually provide anything personal, anything that connects people. It is a lot of random.
What I would like to see is where real communities form, but that only happens when people actually interact with each other to the point they get to know each other, otherwise, there is no skin in the game. Here, through ownership, it is a step to having skin in the community and that could lead to more humane interactions.
Signing up should be easily available on every front end. It should be on the splash page of all whenever anyone isn't logged in. And, it should be "free" in the sense that it can't earn until it has staked enough, either through buying or earning through content creation. It can have something like 20 comments a day and one post or something like that.
You can do that on any platform. They are all cesspools.
This is, ah, a pretty bold claim.
How would you explain the high daily usage of Twitter, Threads or Instagram if people aren't getting any value from those sites? If it's useless, why do people keep logging back in?
They log in precisely because they feel connected. They have friends and family on those platforms, they have people posting about stuff they care about. Those sites are popular precisely because it's all extremely personal. I don't think they should... but a huge number of people are getting their news from social media, they're being entertained and they feel like someone sees their content.
There is so much content on Hive that never gets a single comment, if you were posting to Hive purely to interact with others I think you'd be pretty disappointed. So much of what is posted on Hive is posted with the lens of 'Will this get upvoted?'
I would love people for feel ownership of the Hive blockchain with their stake... but let's be real.. the vast majority of people just see Hive as a means to make money... and if the votes stop or Hive drops significantly in value, the posting will stop too.
I don't see it as a bold claim really at all. If it doesn't change your behavior for the better, it is useless.
Addiction and the feeling that they are getting something out of it. When you are training, you could watch a lot of training videos, but unless you get off your ass, you aren't going to get better.
Are you spending your time there? A lot of people are complaining because they don't see their family and friends unless they go there directly (like here), otherwise they get pushed content and adverts. I don't know much about TikTok, but it is a lot of random trash that doesn't help anyone. If you want to look at harmful content, look at most of the "influencers" pushing paid products.
I don't think there is a problem seeing Hive as for making money - but people could consider how that money can be made. It doesn't have to only be through content - ownership can work too - and better. It is like a business, isn't it?
People would rather be an employee.
It's not the feeling that they're getting something out of browsing social media, they are actually getting something out of it. People are checking social media all day long because that's where the latest news is breaking, as well as the most up to date opinions and jokes.
People who post a lot might be addicted to the dopamine rush of likes or whatever, but the vast majority of social media users are people browsing, not posting. They browse because they get something out of it... and people post because that's where the eyeballs are.
Fundamentally that's the problem with Hive... until there are some creators posting content exclusively to Hive that the general public is interested in, the content will always be better on the centralized sites.
There's no problem with seeing Hive as a means to make money at all... the problem I see is that if people ONLY post what they think will get upvotes then it becomes a silo very quickly... especially when a lot of upvoted content is misinformation.
Encouraging your daughter to prioritize important behaviors is a great lesson for all of us mate. There truly is a place in hell for those dicks
How does this work I don't understand getting upvotes from big accounts is terrifying.
Entitlement.
Brother, little by little users are becoming proactive, the problem is that some of them only focus their interest on the monetary aspect, and I am not talking about economic needs that lead them to it…
It is unfortunate that we do not give the right value to HIVE, that we do not reinvest in it. It's like the fable of the Goose with the hourly eggs, everyone is watching every egg it lays and no one feeds it.
I am an optimist and I have a feeling that with the H28 update, the conscience of most users will change.
I don't know the story of the hourly eggs - is that a Venezuelan thing?
I don't think hardforks will change the mind, until the focus on the users, not the infra - but the infra is highly important.
This reminds me of a Monk (former monk) I used to watch on YouTube. The part of his talks that stood out the most for me was when he talked about how we can get better at improving ourselves.
it came down to three simple concepts that we could use in our daily lives no matter what we were doing. He suggested that we...
Do a little bit more than we think we can
Do things a little bit better than we think we can
finish what we start
I'm not so sure about how the third one would apply here but I think the first two guidelines could benefit the entire @Hive in what kind of content we create, how we respond, and how we treat each other.
I think those three things are all possible for everyone right? While we are all born and develop different skills through experience, each day, we can all be better with what we have available.
Te third one is only important if doing the right thing. If it is started and then realize it isn't the right thing to do and there is something better, change.
I'm pretty happy for whatever I get here. I have been doing quite well lately, but there are times when I put a lot of work into a post and it makes nothing. I try to stick around 1000 words give or take some to be sure that I am actually producing some good content. I do think people just need to be a little better and practice the golden rule a bit more.
It is a balance, isn't it? It has to be interesting for the audience, but it also has to be interesting for the creator, otherwise it isn't authentic and it shows. A lot of content I read from those doing it "for money" have no passion in what they are saying.
Yeah, that is a good point. I find the writing a bit therapeutic, so it's more of an outlet for me.
I was gonna comment...
But I didn't want to just " blurt" it out like verbal diarrhea.
Good Rant Bro.!! I enjoyed it. Now I gotta go grab some screen shots of "my war ships" from the Forces of Warships game to post over here... 🤪
:)
Blurt is a cesspool of fools.
Interesting idea, that of everyone focusing a bit of their energy, perhaps just 10% of the time they a lot to Hive, to do something really selfless, whose sole purpose is to build up the commuity.
Personally I feel many would say that they can't because they are not a developer or whale.
But in my humble opinion making hive better every day is like walking along the beach, throwing stranded starfish back into the sea.
Everytime I open a new posts section on a community and I see a group of posts with 20 dollars and a group of posts with less then 50 cents, I like to go and read those posts to see if they are really bad, or if the creator is just new and has no network. In the case of the former, I move on, but in the case of the latter I make a point to leave a large upvote and a decent comment.
Now some might say my behavior doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things because the number of ignored new content creators who quit and leave is so big, that my saving one doesn't matter.
But I would say, it mattered to that one.And it mattered to the very first one, and the last one. So little by little my small efforts add up.
As for your daughter, I think it's great that she is asking these questions, and that you are teaching her value appraisal. This is truly the way she will learn to prioritize her time and efforts and feel fulfillment from the process and hopefully the product.
Good Luck, parenting is a huge challenge. I often didn't know if what I was doing was wrong or right, but as long as I remembered I am the parent and not the friend, and I did everything with a huge dose of love and respect, things mostly turned out alright. When I didn't , they mostly didn't, but there are always exceptions to your rules, you will learn from, if you are present and listen.
Take care, may good health come to you and bad health misplace your address.
I think all of our behaviors matter, whether to other people or ourselves. I often wonder how people look at themselves in the mirror after they behave the way they do. Do they feel good about themselves? This is a statement not just from here, but all of that social media nonsense where people go out of their way to hurt others, to score points against the enemy, from the safety of behind their screens.
I have a saying for everyone I train, and my children.
Most people don't change. Comments and posts will remain the same. A person cannot become wiser instantly. But good writing requires intelligence and hard work.
But even if all 15k active members start writing good posts every day, it won't help Hive. It is necessary to more widely implement Hive and HBD - pools, exchanges, market makers.
It is a process, a progression - none of us were born knowing how to speak, or walk, or run - but we can learn, we can improve, we can guide ourselves and be guided - we are able to change.
A lot of people face writers block and that’s why they tend to write articles that are not really meaningful and the best thing to do is engage in prompts
Also, making comments thought me a lot. Back then, I may not finish reading the article before making a comment but I then realized that there may be some informations that I did not get due to the fact that I didn’t finish reading the article
Also, no matter how much we fight for quality posts, some people won’t still do it
Writer's block is for writers - most people here aren't writers at all. This doesn't mean they can't write content - they just have to make it more personal and connect with the audience.
I'm familiar with the proposal fiasco, but not the cars thing. I think I could have eaten a big bowl of popcorn while reading the different posts about the proposal. I think when any monetary value is involved, a lot of people will try to take advantage/exploit it, then they will come up with a lot of excuses or be mad when they get called out or downvoted for it.
Kinda sounds like you want humans to be inhuman.
As in all my human encounters, I try to give to those who give of themselves, and ignore the others once I am onto them.
Gotta agree on the Blurt statement. I went there for the freedom of speech when Hive was going bonkers downvoting content, and I blissfully encountered quite a few like minds for a while there, but now it's just a waste of my time. Very little engagement there. I got slammed by a hive whale for being there and something I said, so the hellish aspect is in what being there does to an account that still wishes to contribute here.
I have seen an account on Hive, run by an extremely good person who was posting excellent content and working her ass off for a very vibrant community, be harassed and heavily downvoted into closing that community because a whale didn't like something about how they were doing it. Not for plagiarism, not for spam, not for content he disagreed with, but for having too large of a stake! How is that not allowed on Hive?!!!
I think Hive is pretty good at the moment. The downvoting of valuable (to me) content has subsided somewhat. Next time the world is brainwashed into thinking one and only one way about a topic, that may go topsy-turvy again. Some say it already has, regarding the Israel/Palestine issue.
So for your vision to come true, whales, and their sycophants, would have to be inhuman too. The place would have to not be powered by a currency either.
I enjoyed what you meant by rant even though it brought a lot of sense. I’ve been here for a few weeks now and I’ve seen the rate at which people make comments.
I’ve seen posts that do not seem appealing to me and that does not mean it is not appealing to every other person
I think the thing that happens is that everyone has their audience so it is always good if we are able to locate our audiences
It would be a wonder if just the Splinterlands players committed a little bit of time to learn more about the benefits of Hive and what all comes with the handle we use for our in-game battles. I'm glad I have a decentralized place here in Web3 to store my content.
I've got so many ideas for uploading cool videos and pictures from.the different events that I go to sort of like a living Web3 scrapbook. It sure would be nice to have a place to search things up while also forcing me to clean up my mobile gallery. So much to do, better get going!
I'm doing what I can. I hope people are enjoying the bits of strategy and humor I try to add into my Battle of the Day pieces!