Just a Lament of the State of Hive
Well happy Sunday y'all!
As I have become more active on here after taking oh maybe a year hiatus where I did not post even remotely on a routine basis, I have come to the realization of the sad state of affairs that Hive seems to be in. So, so many of the people that joined around the time I joined in like early 2007 have just faded away. I get it that Hive is not an airport and we as users do not have to announce our departures. In fact I bet many of the former active users never intended to be gone for so long. I remember for me it could be just getting busy by life's day to day events, or feeling a bit of writer's block when one doesn't feel that they have anything worthy to share. So one tends to miss a day or two and then that turns into a week or three, at which point it is way easier to stay away then to overcome the inertia and start posting again. I suppose this is how habits, both good and bad are formed.
I interrupted some gator's peaceful nap.
The Beautiful Sunday and Sublime Sunday tags are some of my faves! I want to thank @ace108 for running the beautiful Sunday tag every week and keeping such detailed stats and supporting the accounts. Also, a shout out to @c0ff33a for the sublime Sunday tag where your random Sunday posts are always welcome!
So the question arises in my mind: why are so many users on hiatus if not permanently gone? At first blush, I always thought it was related to low rewards. However I just don't think that cracks the code. I mean people seem eager to post on Facebook for no rewards! I have to admit I naively believed that Steemit/Hive would be a great success simply because of the rewards, but obviously that was way wrong. Perhaps it has to do with the quality of the interactions here on Hive . More importantly it could be due to the lack of any interaction to speak of here.
Yet after all of this doom and gloom, all is not lost. Of course I always try to see both sides of the coin and there is the good possibility that we will forge on being simply a micro vlogging site. In other words things will remain the same as it has been basically since we became our little independent site. As for me, I never got much in the way of rewards but I never looked at Hive as a job, but rather as a hobby. In essence Hive is a way to store my photos and record some thoughts as I felt them at the time.
By the way, all of these photos are typical of what I call swamps in South Carolina. In and around Charleston is what they called the Lowcountry and there are no shortages of these swamps complete with gators and snakes. The only thing not shown in the pictures are the fierce mosquitoes that seemingly irrespective of bug spray will gladly destroy your arms and legs lol.
Hoping for a good week for us all!
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All words and images are mine and can be also found on my various social media sites.
Long form content must not die. We already live in a world where we don't nourish our creative sides nearly enough, and that simply can't be done in 250 characters or less.
For me at least, I will refuse to go quietly into that short night. Long live long form content.
I'm coming up on nine years on HIVE soon. I've got a post that shares similar feelings to yours coming. I wrote it almost a month ago, I'll get to read it again in a few days when the schedule pushes it live.
But fundamentally, it is about the sense of loss that feel after all this time, and now, remembering what I wrote (or perhaps what I didn't write) - I wonder how much more keenly that sense of loss will be felt in the future, or if that's just a part of getting older.
I just vividly remember being a real believer and actively spreading the idea of Steemit/Hive. I have had a good time here, I am just saddened that it never was able to fly very far after all.
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i think you mean early 2017 ;) a lot are still active others like me had some IRL issues that prevent them from posting and put priorities elsewhere , but in the end a lot of them return.
!BBH
!PIMP
!HOPE
Yeah I think I fat fingered a digit and it ended up in a decade error LOL😆
I do hope many will return.
would love to see @dswigle and @barbara-orenya active again , and also some more postings from @brumest and @ewkaw , who knows what the future beholds ...
!PIMP
!BBH
Maybe one day... :p
It’s funny how the rewards actually seem to over complicate the social aspects of this place.
It’s sort of like if a friend offered you a pair of shoes because they’re slightly too small and you absolutely knew that he didn’t expect t anything in return, you’d probably accept them right away. But, if you knew that by taking them you’d be indebted to your friend, or that he’d expect something from you in return, you’d probably be more inclined not to accept them. At least, I think the majority of people would act that way.
In a lot of ways, posting and interacting here comes with uncertainty. How should I behave? What is the etiquette? What should I post? And all of us who have been around long enough have seen plenty of behavior that reinforces that uncertainty.
It’s unfortunate.
I think not having many, if any, real life connections also makes this a hard place to stick around.
I come and go as life gives me free time and takes it away. 🤣
Well I am always happy to see you on here 😊
I think you hit it on the head with the rewards analogy!
Yes some of the early years saw a lot of controversy as to what type of content was acceptable, and too many users were chased away.
They sure were. I don’t know if they still have that kind of drama around here or not. I feel pretty out of the loop these days.
How are those Virginia summers treating you? It seems like every year gets a little hotter and hotter over here.
The summers dont seem hotter than Michigan really, but they are hot longer. Michigan summer was 3 months max, here it is more like 9! One huge change was last summer in Virginia was dry and drought-like, this year its a monsoon!
Yes, there's no way this can be a job. More of hobby or just documenting the parts of your life.
It is good to see you posting again, my friend! I am also also back after a hiatus the past year or so. My wife and I have 4 little ones now so sitting down for an hour to share my thoughts and craft an article is a gift, lol.
I am encouraged by your outlook for this community of Hive. Maybe all it ever becomes is a slice of heaven on the blockchain where we store photos and share some of our daily life with a few friends. If that is what it is, and we earn a free cup of coffee here and there from rewards, well, that is a true gift. Blessings to you!
Blessings back and I am happy to hear you are here again as life permits. Four little ones is a special blessing as well as a full time job in itself - congrats to you and the wife!!
Yep I think you summed up Hive perfectly and it is a fun place we can be proud of.
I think it is generational supply and demand. I came to "Hive" because of the possibility to earn crypto doing something I like. Then I found interesting people who write interesting things. I found crazy perspectives and wonderful poetry, talent and enjoyed it so I stayed. I also found some loopholes in the system. Great people then forked the code to make it better, but no matter how many forks were made the reality exists. The next generation grew up with smart phones in their hand but they don't know what a computer is or how a computer works. They are used to having their steak cut up for them in little pieces so they can chew and swallow. They don't know how to use markdown and they don't want to. They don't want to wait. They really don't want to engage. Mostly they want to consume 15 second content to satisfy the lust of dopamine. There used to be a rush posting here that was better than dopamine. I thought it might catch on when bitcoin went up in value, but today even bitcoin is not what it used to be. It used to be cool, but today it seems like bitcoin is just another brag of the ones in power. I don't see much hope for change. Hive took a lot of time and I don't get what I used to get, but I check in every day and still find a few things that grab my interest.
I agree Hive does require work and patience. Perhaps the rewards are not enough to seem worth it now. I would think posts on Insta or TikTok require work as well, but maybe the chance to make it big as an influencer is compelling enough.
Yeah it seems as Bitcoin became more mainstream, all the rest of crypto has fallen to the wayside to some degree. I bet if Hive was back around a buck, more folks would be back at it.