Living life with others is complicated! How about complicating it further by paying people to live life with others?
Source: Creator Sanet_Nieuwoudt on Pixabay
- Are trees not wonderful examples of life? Stable, grounded, deeply rooted with long spans of life, for most types of them? I think so and loved this illustration of one surrounded by images which altogether imply prosperity.
During my long discovery phase, it became my understanding the creation of the Hive blockchain could be considered as something of a social experiment. Proposing rather than simply providing affirmation to others via likes, or hearts, or thumbs up, "No!" it would make possible something far more tangible.
Be affirmed by
getting paid!
Being affirmed, by getting paid, to do what? Generating "quality" content!
Hmmm. How is that working out so far? This post is one newbie's thoughts on that question.
Caveat: This post builds on my last one, as part of my ongoing discussion starting here, which I have been having with @minismallholding about community. Both are intentionally focused more narrowly on our interactions here on the Hive blockchain.
On this blockchain we find, on top of my open question of how real any virtual community truly is, Hive adds the complication of paying people to participate.
Fake. Phony. False!
How many factors could we quickly list in thinking about what a person might be willing to do, however reluctantly, if it results in getting paid to do it?
Source: Creator Peggy_Marco on Pixabay
- More than any other image I could find, this one illustrates what I have experienced the most, since following up on my initial introduction to the Hive blockchain. Are there exceptions? Yes, thankfully.
While the world's oldest profession might come to mind for some, my thoughts ran more along the lines of becoming a mercenary. Whose services are typically rendered to the highest bidder? Rather than any pretense of allegiance or loyalty or principles, they are primarily motivated by getting paid.
Is there any way to measure the infinite varieties of human interactions objectively, with the goal of quantitatively determining the influence of the exchange of money on them? No, I have never heard of any way to do this either.
Nonetheless, I believe it is undeniable there is a considerable impact. Is it positive? Or negative? No matter our answers, I believe it is also undeniable the probability of the key word "corrupting" having a role increases.
Genuine affirmation. Sincerely and truly given!
How important to our overall sense of wellbeing are encouraging words, affirming gestures, and similar interactions with each other?
Source: Image on Pixabay
How important to us, upon receipt, is being convinced of their sincerity? Of knowing deep down they are genuine?
If the exchange of money is involved, what impact does that have on answering these questions?
From my own experience in life, I do not believe there is a higher, purer form of affirming others than genuinely and selflessly providing it without any thought of getting something back. If we have ever been the recipient of such interactions, do we not all have an innate sense of knowing that?
To whatever degree anyone reading this would join me in saying, "Yes!," then I will close this section with asking what the exchange of money does to our perception of these interactions?
Community Focus: Personal versus Business
With the above now written, I will return to the community focus of this series of posts. Stating what is well known, the Hive blockchain is not where the idea of virtual communities originated. Many attempts have been made. A couple of the better known examples being Facebook and Reddit.
What do all of them share in common?
Various schemes to
monetize content!
So, while Hive cannot claim this idea originated with it either, some might at least argue it was created to attempt accomplishing that goal via a more straightforward, upfront methodology. Much has been written about other methodologies and will not be covered here.
Continuing the discussion about virtual communities, then, and "monetizing" the generation of "quality content," would anyone argue breaking them out into two broad categories? Let's see what this might contribute to the conversation.
Personal versus Business
One of the fascinating aspects of our participating in generating content for the Hive blockchain is we are working alongside others all over the world. Certainly, then, our diverse histories, customs, and even different understanding of words comes into view.
With that said, I honestly wonder if anyone anywhere would argue with my saying the introduction of getting paid into human relations and interactions would naturally orient them to being more accurately described as associated with a business than a community.
Clearly to me, in the context of our ongoing conversation, the word community conjures up images of fellowship, where nurturing and affirming others is at the heart of the human interactions claiming to be community oriented. Free of any profit motive or benefit whatsoever.
What are the thoughts of anyone reading this?
Discernment
Discerning what is what can be challenging enough in the real world. For example, separating fact from fiction, when it comes to how best to invest any hard-earned money we might have available. Whether claiming our motive is community building or otherwise.
How about in a virtual world?
Source: Creator geralt on Pixabay
While new to participating on the Hive blockchain, I have plenty of experience in the broader crypto world. The vast array of all the different ecosystems out there share their version of this same basic question.
Which boils down to fundamentally asking who do you trust?
In the absence of absolutely certainty in answering, it has been very sad and sobering to witness the number of people who seem content to substitute
what they
want
to believe!
to believe!
And reading about why they want to believe it. The predatory types who are keenly aware of this aspect of human nature are all too willing to take advantage of it. While they are certainly present in the real world, these virtual worlds seem to be far more ideally suited to them.
For this new Hivian, I have already experienced enough to know this is not some hypothetical exercise. Nor can the Hive blockchain make any legitimate claim to being free of it.
The virtual world of the Hive blockchain has been fascinating to experience, now that I have recently started into being a participant in "generating quality content."
Source: Creator Sanet_Nieuwoudt on Pixabay
While interacting with others, I believe there is a lot to have a good appreciation for, in writing about what has been accomplished. With all due respect, I think there is plenty of "quality" content written about that.
At the same time, with good intentions, should constructive attempts to have open and honest discussions about areas which can be improved be encouraged?
This has been a challenging post to write. In reading it, please do so within the context of what I have written in its introduction. As well as knowing it has been written from the perspective of someone who is actively thinking about next steps.
I will emphasize this, in my next post, which will be documenting coming to the end of my first month of producing content for the Hive blockchain.
For anyone reading it, perhaps they can agree fair questions are being asked? At least reasonably fair? Maybe even tough questions? If so, will they at least be viewed as open and honest questions, from someone new to interacting inside this particular ecosystem?
Thinking out loud about these questions, I welcome any and all input. Soliciting that from others is always a prudent step, when the hope and desire is to reach a well-informed decision.
Best wishes, until we meet again,
QT
👋❤️👋
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I've often thought that the Hive blockchain is a mirror of the real world. It's just an experiment to see if we can function harmoniously with a different approach to governance and keep it decentralised. I've found it fascinating to watch how things unfold with this ideal as the driving force and it ha been pretty much as expected, given human nature. If you don't want certain types draining the monetary value from it then some form of control from others needs to be exerted.
The monetising aspect does tend to dictate that the community side of things leans more towards business that personal, especially with people coming in from poorer countries. Unfortunately most of those here for the money side of things don't really grasp the concept of the business and financial side of things. Community is still paramount if you're wanting to sell your product. The best sales people are know that you look after and interact with your customers. There's also the simple fact that if you rely on Hive for an income, you should perhaps research how Hive gets its value. Constantly pulling out of the system and adding no value to it yourself will only reduce its value and that is more detrimental to you than to those of us who have other sources of income. I wrote a post a while back now on the different ways in which you can use the blockchain to learn about business development, but I doubt anyone read it who want already aware and more business minded anyway.
Something I find rather ironic is the amount of people who don't seem to realise that (for the most part [some would argue otherwise]) the content creators most rewarded on here are the ones who give value to others here as well. They complain that they don't get good votes, but they have done nothing to contribute back to others here. Their account has little Hive power because they constantly power down and remove it and they often don't vote on others work either, so they are losing out on this form of revenue generation. Once again demonstrating that even if you are only here for the business side of things you still need to understand how a community works. It's not just take it's figuring out what you can give as well. Nobody wants to carry on giving where they don't receive anything in return.
A big difference between here and the real world has been the rise of AI. Now anyone can produce quality content without actually having to do it themselves and it can be hard to tell the difference between AI and meatbags produced writing. I keep seeing people throwing around the accusations of accounts being bots on social media and thought they were just trying to insult others. Yet it turns out that there are actually an awful lot of comments from bots programmed to comment from certain viewpoints. Propaganda bots if you like. I was gobsmacked and now I'm starting to see finally see patterns for certain topics. It does start to make me wonder, however, whether we would even be able to tell if we are conversing with AI. Our wonderful conversations here could be two humans conversing, an AI and a human conversing or even two AIs conversing.
Now I'd better leave it there and get on with my list of chores for the day.
Your comment is upvoted by @topcomment
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It doesn't really work like that. We're not paying for interaction, or even quality posts, although they are the mechanism by which we are distributing resources. We're paying it forward and providing an opportunity for an economy where everyone has a basic income, sometimes called a universal basic income. Two of the founders of what eventually became Hive, previously Steem, one of whom moved on to explore these ideas elsewhere, and one who is still with us, account name blocktrades, were/are ardent proponents of decentralisation and alternative economies.
The HIVE that is available everyday to share out, is not your HIVE or my HIVE, (although the amount each of us is able to distribute is dependent on our HIVE POWER). It is a bounty (an additional bounty) to pay forward and share between us, so that everyone has the opportunity of a basic income. It is more appropriate to think about it as abundance, unlike legacy economies that are predicated (falsely, some might argue) on scarcity. The mechanism that was used to share out the bounty was blogging - because it was already familiar and it was a way to get this new cryptocurrency into as many hands as possible.
We have the potential for utopia, but of course, it's a long journey and many missteps and misunderstandings and interpreting this new technology, which allows us to do so many things we couldn't do before like lending resources (delegating) to help community initiatives fund their work at no risk, within the context of legacy economies which misses the point!
It does require a collective view to understand this, rather than a transactional view of I pay you and you pay me. We might choose to do that with other aspects of our resources, but upvoting and downvoting, imperfect as it is, is about sharing out the bounty among the community.
Yes, we can agree on this, @shanibeer:
I believe that is more or less self-evident and the basis for some of what I have written about in experiencing it firsthand, as a direct result.
Beyond that, I am grateful for you choosing to invest your time into putting down in writing, what you believe it is instead. Would it be appropriate to insert the word hope? Either way, I respect the fact you and many others have invested a great deal of time in pursuing it.
Aside from the one most of us can read all over the Hive blockchain, you have given me the best overview of what it actually wants to be I have yet read. I have bookmarked it, for further reflection and future reference, as time and opportunity permit.
Thank you.
@topcomment, please consider this one!
Your comment is upvoted by @topcomment
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Thank you @topcomment / @friendlymoose!
In a way, the blockchain imitates life. People act based on their interests, and it is normal to seek any kind of approval.
The experiment on this same social system can be perceived as an infinite vicious circle. Because ambition is driven by ambition itself.
Yes, @neblomax:
Given there are people interacting with it, that is unavoidable. Technology changes continually. Human nature? Not so much.
Yes, I believe affirmation is an important need we all seek to have satisfied. By getting paid to provide it? A key question raised in my post.
Thank you for stopping by and sharing your perspective! 🤝
We appreciate you taking the time, to either use #ThoughtfulDailyPost, or otherwise help this Community grow. So...
Thank you!!
Thank you kindly @thoughtfulposts, @wesphilbin. Assuming you are also in the Silver Blogger stage of life, we both will be familiar with the old saying:
As I have done previously with TopComment, I am now delegating to ThoughtfulPosts. Not deluding myself it means much more than another old saying:
Finally, @wesphilbin, I have made this simple investment into what you are faithfully doing, as much as I can discern that. Which brings me to my final quote, probably much less well known:
I am well aware this post could easily be considered as much less than "positive." Thank you for the encouragement of still choosing to highlight it. 🤝
With however else one might characterize my contributions to the Hive blockchain, they will always be open, honest, and "out in the light."
Social systems — by their very nature — seem to revolve around the paradigm of seeking approval in the sense of being included in the system, rather than excluded. The we get to toss the vast range of human motivations into the mix and it becomes quite the soup.
Perhaps the thing about rewards — as we experience them in the Hive ecosystem — is that they provide a very tangible measure of something we otherwise experience is as somewhat fluid and intangible.
What motivates people?
Speaking from the perspective of being a participant — as well as occasional admin/moderator — in various web communities since (wow!) about 1996, it seems that we're always motivated by something, in these social scenarios, even if that "something" is relatively altruistic, in the sense of something like "freely offering expertise." That expert, non-the-less, gets their little dopamine feed from being the recipient of gratitude.
For others, the reward might be control, in the sense of becoming the group's leader or prominent figure.
Maybe the whole topic of quality content, rewards and engagement has been done to death already... but there are always new perspectives, and each new voice that joins the conversation has value, in some way.
I think the primary fallacy I have encountered on Hive — which as dissipated considerably, over the years — was always this notion that simply "being decentralized and on the blockchain" somehow exempts us from dealing with the vagaries of human nature. Not so, of course. At some point, idealism ends up intersecting with reality, and that reality isn't always very pretty.
We each have our personal philosophies. Mine might be summaried by the statement "This appears to be a Golden Goose of sorts, and so my best course of action is to be a participant in feeding and nurturing that goose for as long as possible."
Even if all I can bring is a handful of corn, now and then.
Yes, "quite the soup," @curatorcat.pal. That is certainly one reasonable way to describe it. At least from what I have experienced so far.
We agree on that, as I do not know how one can honestly get around the obvious. Which is what? All the new technology surrounding blockchains and the rest do nothing to solve the fundamentals of human nature.
As questioned in this post, I am not convinced getting paid to interact with others helps the situation much. To the contrary, I think a reasonable case might be made it makes it worse.
Thank you for stopping by and sharing your perspective! 🤝
You do it with passion, maybe I can learn something from you here.
!PIZZA
!LUV
Yes, I guess I might be described as passionate. If I am interested in something, I need to do my best, in following up. Probably a whole post or two could be written on why I say that. If I could first claim I knew myself.
Thank you for stopping by, @themyscira. 🤝
P.S. My limited understanding of Hive tokenomics is my upvote is wasted on comments. While I created what I call my "partnership pledge" to work around that, you will see just above that CommentRewarder has already tabulated the results of my upvotes on this post. I hope that makes sense.
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