I was a little worried to come back and read your reply actually - I thought my little rant might fall wrong. It's very nice for my complaints to be recognized if not validated. There's certainly a lot I can say about it but I don't want to dig a hole! The Natural Medicine thing almost broke me. The advent of community was such a heady time - it was honestly the most exciting, vibrant thing to happen post Steem. There was a real sense each community was creating something important that could spill out from Hive into the wider world. I mean, we had business cards made and all. To have that dashed really floored me. Looking at it from a distance now, it's kinda crazy how all that enthusiasm just flopped and there's a lot of fantastic people just have up around then.
I could write a book about those times! Honestly. It's hard to believe it was that long ago now - I remember being in India as covid hit and then in the UK running a community party on Discord and trying not to have a mental breakdown.
I wish we could at get that vibrancy again. I know people have different ways of seeing what's good for this platform, I totally respect that, but as you suggest, it's not fair that many of us who are fully invested emotionally don't have the financial sway to make it happen. State of the world though innit?
Bros in Discord jerking each other off with upvotes while someone writes a genuinely great piece of creative fiction and gets 40 cents. That's not a mystery, it's just depressing.
You have no idea how this recognition makes me feel. I feel like I'm the only one seeing this most of the time.
It's really nice to finally connect, and I really appreciate being seen and heard more than you could possibly know.
The fact you're still here despite how bleak and uncertain things have become goes to show you haven't given up and I think the universe has a way eventually rewarding that kind of optimism. Even if it feels like it takes forever to get it, haha. Now the overall crypto market is in a negative space, we are about to see who was really here for the money and who was here because they believed in the tech, community and potential of Hive (same for a lot of other projects, but especially Hive).
Thanks for making me feel better. Its hard to imagine a life without Hive.