Engagement is a huge part of any social network and I believe the engagement on Hive, while low in transaction volume, is of a very high level on average - at least for me. I think this is because for quite a long time now, I have focused heavily on the discussion around content, not the content itself. To do this however, requires creating content that resonates with people and inspires the conversation.
Content is very important, but it is only valuable when it lives past the content itself and results in some kind of practical action. I am not saying it has to change the world, but if it sparks thought and conversation, it could be part of the stream that does.
Content is more than a place to hang votes and get curation, it is a meeting point where relationships form, the nodes of the network thst bring people together, the water cooler.
One of the fantastic things currently on Hive is being able to interact directly with the author, but in time, I hope this changes to some degree. The reason is that I think that the conversation is more important than the content, and the greater the depth of discussion, the better. This means that rather than me writing to you and you talking to me, there will be the content as the meeting point and the discussion thread below the post becomes nodes of their own. This means that there is less reliance on the author and a far greater degree of participation and potential for depth and breadth of topic to develop.
In some way, it is kind of like a book club, where everyone reads the same book and then come together to discuss their own observations and perspectives. In this way, the book is enriched by the variation in experience and rather than relying in the position of the writer, people can bring in their own interpretations - like any art form.
Through this process, the conversation is not only widened, it becomes more inclusive and potentially more transformative as variance in perspective or reiteration of concepts can better engage the audience than the author arogibally could from their own, original perspective.
While the payout window on a post is only seven days, I believe that content can live beyond that of it is able to influence some kind of change in an individual.
If a post for example encourages someone to look into investing fiat and they do an invest, they are also likely to invest a second time, then a third. The original post can be long forgotten, even though the investment mindset is very much active. The value of that post might be incredibly high, even though ko one remembers it.
Similarly, the comments below the post can be highly valuable, because unlike the post itself, comments are personal. What I mean by this is that I write a post for the audience, I reply to the individual. When this is the common behavior of users, personal relationships form, a social network of real people who learn about and care about each other beyond any financial gain.
I think that one of the potential competitive advantages of Hive is it ibcebtivizes building an account through relationships long term. This means that it encourages people to act consistently and the more people invest into this, the more social capital their account holds, the more valuable it all becomes.
Rather than registering a hundred accounts that can be thrown away, there is benefit to focus energy on building one that is valued by the community. I see this as building track record based on personality, skill and participation in the community. It also means that once built, we are more likely to protect our account, which probably requires acting in a healthier community orientated way for a longer term. It is like the branding of other social media, except with more personal control and accountability - and without the centralised risk of demonetization.
For me, this is important, as it means that the network I build around the nodes that are my content, has value to the network I own am invested in. There is a feedback loop in place that not only encourages my participation, but encourages my behavior to build and support the community.
One of the things I and a few others have been trying to do is develop the depth of discussion and for me at least, I want to see the discussion spawn more discussion, greater interaction across accounts and formation of more complex social frameworks and relationships.
We live in a world where people are quite disconnected due to online life, but it is no wonder when we are throwing up content for likes and engaging without depth. On Hive and while we want a lot of users eventually, to get there it is about having a compelling use case, and in my opinion, one of those is about having personal discussions with each other, not just between audience member and author, but member and member to build a rich community fabric of interaction.
What I hope people start realising is that there is a difference of impact and likely continued influence between a post with lots of comments and a post with depth of comments. Some posts inspire thought and discussion, some also facilitate the formation of new relationships, if people are open and willing to engage.
I will always work hard to engage with my audience for as long and as often as I can, but I hope that there will be a growing number of comments where people will be engaging with each other, kind of like at a restaurant filled with different groups of friends and family, all talking concurrently, while enjoying the food from the same kitchen.
We are a social network, let's be a little more social.
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]
Personally, I think the only way to get this platform to the place it deserves, is to engage and have real genuine connections.
I agree. I also think that the only way to really enjoy it si by making genuine connections too :)
Very true! It'll be very dreading if not.
It's been more than three months on Hive for me. I know that you have been around far longer than that. I always tried to genuinely engage on posts that I think are valuable based on my limited knowledge and interest.
One thing I have observed so far is the fact that we are in mad rush of producing content and upvoting and distributing rewards. I am myself to blame for that as well coz my primary motivation to join Hive was my greed and desire to earn crypto. When your primary motive is to earn then, sometimes, it may overshadow the type of intellectual (or more genuine) engagements we look for.
For that,we may need more users and streamlined content I guess.I wish people would invest more time on the platform, give time to read and write posts and manually curate just for the health of the platform.
Have you enjoyed the time?
Yes, but I think that this might also be the wrong intuition for many. I have followed quite a few people the last months (compared to what I was) and pretty much all of them were people who commented on my posts well multiple times.
It is a cultural challenge in crypto, but it will change slowly.
I am enjoying my time, to be honest 😂
May be I am in a stage where I am talking about improving the overall stage of affair on the platform. After reading my own comment on your post, I am thinking may be I should not be that worried about the platform this much. I should continue to read, write and engage and things will align on its own 😇 let me build my account first
!ENGAGE 20
ENGAGEtokens.This is accurate, I really do hope to build relationships and network on hive. I think that our view of hive hasn't moved past it as a "financial gain" and we forget it can also be a social media platform like Twitter and the likes where meaningful personal discussions and even arguements can be made
I think that part of the benefit of incentivizing building an account, is disincentivizing being a dick. Conversation tends to be better here.
I liked your opinion that the comments were more of a discussion between people who comment, not just with the author)
Hopefully more people take note, as it is what is really needed for it to be social - rather than just two people talking together.
Definitely good thoughts there.
I think there will be more conversation in comments when the value of $hive appreciates. Maybe because I remember the days of a stake as low at 500hp (barely minnow) being able to reward engagement in posts with less than a 100% upvote, and not completely drain voting power by doing so. As of now, being almost a dolphin with a couple delegations, I have to 100% vote in order for the reward to be bigger than dust, and I am tapped out below 60% Vp in no time. It really limits my ability to reward the engagement.
I do end up commenting and engaging in conversation with people i follow and support but more for the organic community it builds. A nice $.50 $hive and I bet there would be a lot more conversation and more rewards for the meaningful ones.
Looking forward to those days again my friend.
Not even a minnow here :) My strategy is to comment and let my presence felt coz I would not have enough HP even if I vote less than 10% to each post I engage on.
With smaller stake, it is best to vote on meaning ful posts, not comments - but, it is also worth from time to tie to add a small vote on great comments, as even though it doesn't add value - it shows appreciation
I agree. Since my vote on comments is not significant on Hive, I use an alternative. I vote those specific comments on Leofinance platform. At least I am rewarding the authors Leo tokens- bit more than hive in numbers :)
@dustsweeper helps also with comment votes. Even though my staked HP is up I have to jump to a 40% vote to reward comments, but with dustsweeper I can still maintain my 25% vote level on comments and then have dustsweeper pick up the difference. It's kind of like me giving a double vote even though one of the votes says dustsweeper, it was still my Hive that made the vote with a little bit added on by dustsweeper. A great program if you have not heard of it.
I like that idea. Never knew that exists. 😀
It's pretty simple, you send some HP, they help boost your vote, there are some restrictions and a few rules, but the system was running on steem for quite awhile and then also moved over here to hive chain to help out. Let me know if you have question, they do have a discord room to learn and look at your account balances.
It is the slightly saddening truth. There will also be an increase in the 'nice post' comments too I think :)
Nice comment.
This is exactly what I mean - valuable conversation.
The curve definitely doesn't favor comment voting. I vote comments and I think it "costs" me around 50 HP a week. I figure though that while most can't I will at least try to make up some of the shortfall where I can.
Yep. Hopefully it isn't too far away and that becomes the new floor - this floor sucks ;D
!ENGAGE 20
ENGAGEtokens.Last bull run I made $12 on a single comment.
It is true that the price of Hive has to do with all the conversation around, but it is also true that when you start interacting with other authors through the comments, you end up creating a link with them.
When Covid19 lockdown started here in Spain, I encouraged an online meeting with other Hive users. Some of them I knew them personally, others where people I had never seen before. It ended up creating a stronger link between all of us.
I believe, having online meetings every once in a while creates a much stronger engagement and stronger relationships which go beyond just the rewards. I have never used 3Speak live tool but integrating a tool for community online meetings could be something to think of.
Meetups are great. I missed the Finnish one this year unfortunately.
What I have found is that those who engage well and build relationships (not just comment to be heard) tend to survive the longest and have the most fun, regardless of price.
It would be great to have some kind of chat and videochat that is running in the UI, but not on chain - just for engagement and fun.
!ENGAGE 20
ENGAGEtokens.Indeed engagement plays a vital role.
Do you engage well you think?
I love both of these comparisons :)
It seems there is still an imbalance of creators/consumers(potential commentators) on Hive but as you say, it's like better than elsewhere and will hopefully improve in time.
I think that the bar for many is too high to comment well - they are used to writing "cute" on selfies.
The applications will/should close these gaps though.
True.
The applications could also take us further away from the blogging aspect, or maybe just those who were never in it for that side of things.
I'm happy both are in the running for the future.
On some post the comments end up becoming a part of the post. I love to read the comments and thoughts from others, sometimes I will first read the comments before leaving my own, and sometimes I just jump right it, it is kind of dependent on the post.
A lot of times I will re-read the comments, catch the ones I missed between mine and responses, it does get confusing at times, but nevertheless is still an enjoyable thing, and sometimes leads to another comment, thus the conversation continues.
The comments should become part of the post I think - it is kind of like crowdsourced additional information and context
I wonder if there is a better way to present the comments to make them easier or more entertaining to read.
A lot of times after leaving a comment I don't return to the post, to many other comments get made and to many other post get read, but sometimes a reply will come in on an old comment I made, (I have gotten replies from comments left months ago), and then i get reintroduced to the post and other comments.
Like receiving replies on old comments I have also left comments on old post that I searched a topic for. So even if the post is old, the comments and activity on some post continue.
!ENGAGE 25
I love it when old things get commented on or shared - It makes me look back. I also like being brought into conversations where someone feels I can actually add some value - I hate being brought into conversations because people want a vote.
The comment vote search is a real thing I think for some, but they are pretty easy to see sometimes, and after awhile they just drift away when they don't get the reward they think they were looking for. Most of the vote hunters know they will get no vote on a second supplemental comment, so they never reply to a comment they get back from the post author if it is one that needs a reply. not always a good gauge, as I myself don't always reply to replies, but most of them I try to especially if they continue the conversation.
ENGAGEtokens.I've shifted to doing predominantly comment curation.
I miss thought-provoking dialog here - dialog where I learn things. It happens differently through dialog than from passively reading something.
I haven't done the calcs lately, but I reckon about 40% of my daily power goes to comments at the moment.
Yep, it is a different learning technique. I am sure there is some fancy pedagogical term for it, but I think making learning more human has a profound affect on how we connect with it. As I wrote, a post is unfocused (even though an individual can connect with it) while a comment is personal. Here, I am talking to you directly, in the post, I am hoping to connect with you directly.
Yeah. :) We are finding a very particular common interest. And we learn and connect around it. And we talk directly to each other. And anyone else can chime in and it would be great to hear other points of view or contributions. So much happens through such interaction.
And your comment is of size that I find appealing. I don't have to read long paragraphs which are of no interest to me.
I'm a big fan of commenting, as I have done it a lot. It's actually impressive how good the quality is. On the old Tsu platform you would get loads of comments that just said 'Nice', mostly from people with poor English. I think they even filtered those out eventually. It was just an effort to get likes. I just don't see that on Hive, yet.
What I don't like to see is a post getting massive votes, but hardly any comments as that looks bad. I know a lot of votes of auto, but we need more manual curation and to leave comments to say what we liked, especially when people have put in real effort.
Hive five!
Introducing the New HIVE - Wishing Wallet!
A sacred HIVE wishing well where all your wishes come true!
Surprisingly, these kind of surprises, sometimes come to suprise you too often as an absolute and totally unexpected surprise!
I know I should probably engage with different people a lot more but I just find your posts intriguing and filled with little tips I could use to get along and move forward. It was actually on your post that I got a reply to a comment I made that really made my day and make me more conscious of why I am here. I also appreciate that I get to pick and choose what aspect of your post I would like to engage with.
I promise to do better now.
I agree that content can outlive itself and its author through the message it conveys. An idea can be a seed which if taken by the right minds can flourish and last for generations