After more than seven years on this blockchain, I can say with absolute certainty that I know nothing about HIVE. Just when I think I have it figured out, something comes along and makes me question everything that I thought I knew.
I work with a guy who likes to say:
"he doesn't know what he doesn't know"
More often than not it is in reference to one of our superiors, but I feel like it fits really well with myself in relation to HIVE.
I wrote a post a few years ago called something like "A Tale of Two Posts". In that particular piece, I took two posts I had written the week before and I did a short comparison of them to each other. One was a post that I took a lot of time writing and had a whole bunch of really great photos to show off in it. The other post I still took a bit of time to write, but not quite as much as the other one. It had some nice photos, but in my opinion they didn't hold a candle to the other post.
I was a bit shocked at the end of the week to find that one of the posts had earned a mess of upvotes and the other post had earned virtually nothing. They had both gotten lots of comments and things like that, but the divide between the payouts was pretty apparent.
I really never figured out why that was the case, and I probably never will, but it was a stark reminder of just how mercurial the eyes of HIVE can be.
I find myself in a similar situation now. If you look at my account, you will likely question why I would be complaining about rewards. I'm not. That's really not what this post is about. It is interesting how the tides of HIVE seem to shift here and there every now and then.
I can remember a time when a food post like the ones I have been putting in my grilling and smoking community would have gotten a ton of love. Hence the photos I am sharing in this post.
Lately however, it seems that food posts in general have fallen a bit out of favor. Part of me wonders if I am just not getting the right eyes on those posts. Part of me feels like it's all a bit of chance and a matter of the right person stumbling upon it at the right time.
Then another part of me thinks, maybe I just shouldn't care about the rewards I get and just do it because I love it. While I don't disagree with that point of view, I also am not going to lie and say I'm not here for the money. While I do love the community I also hope that one day HIVE can be a nice supplemental income for me. It might take two decades, but it would be cool to see that dream achieved.
Like I said, maybe I am expecting too much. I know that HIVE is a relatively small footprint when it comes to the Internet at large. I'm not saying I expect my grilling and smoking community to have a million members like the ones on Facebook do, it's just frustrating to see the work you pour your heart into get very little recognition.
I know, I'm preaching to the choir here. I think the main difference is always going to be how you react to it. Will I get bitter? Will I stop posting grilling and smoking stuff? The answer to both of those questions is no. While I am not unfamiliar with being bitter, this isn't one of those occasions.
For me, it's more of a point of reflection. Hence the reason I posted in the #reflections community. What could I have done differently? Is there a different set of tags I should be using for food posts? Why doesn't anyone besides me post in my community?
Which brings up another good point. I think many people pigeonhole themselves into specific communities because they know the rewards are going to be better there. Even I am guilty of this. I started posting my grilling posts in the @discovery-it community and then cross posting them in my grilling community because I realized they wouldn't get the eyes if I put them directly in my small community.
How sad is that?
I'm not ashamed to admit it, it's kind of pathetic isn't it?
How do you get that traction though? Barring a community incubation bid from a group like @ocdb, I don't think it's going to happen. At least not with the number of users we currently have.
Like I said, I don't know what I don't know...
Sports Talk Social - @bozz.sports
We had a discussion in the Saturdays Savers Club at the end of last year about whether we should set up a separate savings community. The consensus was to stay as we are because, although the regular weekly savers club post is published in LeoFinance, members of the Club publish their posts in many different communities and that disseminates information about the Club far more widely. The feeling was that less people would find out about the Club if it was separated into its own community.
It's really hard work to build any community, especially with a tiny user base like Hive. This is the fifth year the Club has been going and I would guess there are about twenty-five member posts each week on average although a lot more Savers are registered. In the first year, there were very few, if any, posts. There's lots of competition for creators' time and attention and some communities are able to offer higher votes through curation programmes which makes them instantly more attractive, although that is not always in the best interests of the community concerned.
I'm not sure why your grilling and smoking posts should get less attention - I love reading them!
Those are some great points. It sounds like you folks put a lot of time and thought into it. I appreciate you stopping in!
🔥 🍗 🥘 🙂
😍
One of the biggest issues is communities that encourage any and all content with stake behind it as it drives people to post there for the rewards and there's were a lot of attention goes in terms of engagement then as well. They're not doing niche communities any favors. I'm happy appreciator stopped focusing on the GEMS community early on and that I also realized this early and kind of deserted OCD because these "anything goes" communities just split the already small community we have here in even smaller pieces. They shouldn't encourage users to post in their community just for the sake of extra curation while taking away a piece of content that could've fit into a community specialized around that genre. They should just go and curate there.
However, there's cross-posts as well, even if they're quite broken and half-assed still where authors such as yourself are disincentivized to use them as it'd mean all autovoters on your account would get their curations rekt voting up the cross-post that has rewards declined.
Yeah, those are some really good points. I think some of those catch all communities are good for people like me that post about a variety of different things, but you are right it does detract from the other communities. The multiple front ends doesn't help either. Marky and I have talked before about how the stem community should be huge, but it just isn't.
All downvotes r micro downvotes having no value. It's a way to redirect traffic to blurt. All profiles link and talk about blurt if u open them.
https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:u37t33dyaufvrqujwmvm54ln/post/3lmyxlfjzg22r
https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:u37t33dyaufvrqujwmvm54ln/post/3lmyxlfjzg22r
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I'm glad I joined Hive because, for me, it feels like a pressure-free space. Unlike other social media platforms that can get really toxic, Hive gives off a different vibe. On other sites, I often feel discouraged—maybe it's because I can't keep up with all the trends and hype anymore. But I know everyone has their own reasons for feeling that way.
As someone new to Hive, I still have a lot of questions. I wasn’t even sure what I had gotten myself into. There were moments of confusion, and honestly, I’m still figuring things out as I go. But that’s also what makes it exciting. Exploring Hive at my own pace has actually been fun, and I’m slowly starting to enjoy the experience even more. No pressure, just a chance to connect, express, and discover.
HIVE has a toxic side, don't be fooled. If you have managed to avoid it so far, you should count yourself lucky! You just do you!
Thanks for the heads-up! I try to stay focused on the good stuff. Hopefully I can keep it that way. Appreciate you lookibg out😊
I know that feeling of disproportional votes 🤣 Sometimes, a post that I put up in one hour, gets SO much more votes than the one that I spend days preparing. And no idea why. Sometimes it's an accelerator, like I post something that gets the attention of big players e.g. in Splinterlands, and an upvote of them attracts more upvotes of others.
I still do both. Even if I don't get as much dopamine and HIVE for my great posts, I will still put in the time - I'm not here for the money, but to express myself. I don't want to learn the most efficient way of marketing my posts and exploit the system, but become in and of itself better at making them. And who knows - maybe my fast posts get that attention because the Hive-Verse is balancing things out, and if I don't put in the effort, neither posts would get attention 😅
Yeah, it's kind of nice not having to worry about chasing after all the curation rewards like we used to have to. Ultimately, it's probably best just to plug along as usual and take whatever comes.
That's what I think. I'm usually more successful when I don't care about being successful. But that's spontaneous, and nothing I can control 😅
A nice topic! I can relate to this. Yes, it's a bit frustrating when you put much into an article and feel like it's going unnoticed. But here's the truth, recognition isn't always immediate and the impact may not always be visible right away. Sometimes, it's a matter of timing or the right people noticing the right moment. I'll just shift my mindset to enjoying the process and sharing experiences. The rewards, whether big or small are a nice bonus. The joy of writing and connecting with others is what truly matters most. The recognition will come when it's meant to be 😍 By the way, I like your food 😃
That's a great way to look at it! Thank you for the kind words! I am glad you enjoy it! It's been a real pleasure working here on HIVE for the past seven years. I plan on continuing as long as I can.
That's truly inspiring. Seven years for creating and contributing says so much about your commitment. I'm really glad you're planning to stick around. Looking forward to seeing more of your work and learning from your experience along the way. 😍
Thank you! I appreciate it!
You're welcome! Have a wonderful day!
I think the part about “you don’t know what you don’t know” hits hard. Hive feels like this mysterious place sometimes, but I’m still learning and growing through it.
Keep at it! You will get there!
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Hello @bozz I admire your courage for putting this out here as not many would want to say all of this explicitly without the fear of being perceived a certain kind of way.
I’m so sorry that your community is not getting the recognition that it deserves. I went through your community and you were right, not many people post there and this can be pretty sad.
One thing is certain, do not lose hope or give up on your community just yet okay? Hang in there.
I’m rooting for you friend🥳🥳
Thanks, I appreciate it. I don't plan on going anywhere!
I keep learning about Hive everyday something new, but I am fairly new to Hive as despite my four year anniversary of my Hive account is going to be August 1st, my actual Hive anniversary on August 1st 2025 will be one year as I didn't really understand anything or was involved in Hive until around September or October of 2024. Before that I was basically a Splinterlands player with a Hive account :)
Hive is surprisingly not easy to initially understand... Maybe PeakD or Ecency could build AI into their front ends that could guide and encourage new Hivers help them get started on Hive as well as help them find the content that interests them.
There are a ton of getting started guides that people have created over the years, but finding them is always the hard part. I was here before the fork and I will likely be here for a long time to come.
I believe content discover to be a major weakness on Hive since inception. There is nothing to "feed" users information like many other systems, and the search functions have always been weak at helping you find posts you might like. I do think the communities have helped a great deal, but as you said, getting traction for new communities has to be hard as you've indicated. I don't pretend to have any solutions, just an observation from my perspective.
Yes, I understand what you are saying. It is almost a bit of a catch 22 at times. Hopefully we eventually see some growth here.
In Hive... Eventually people will get used to the use of the word "eventually"
Rewards encourage users to post frequently in certain communities, where they know they'll receive support from whales or projects. Sometimes, we put a lot of effort into a project and feel it's not recognized—it happens often. I've noticed that "luck" can also influence Hive.
Luck is definitely a factor! When you have rewards it can impact a lot of things.
I'm noticing these huge inconsistencies in post engagement and upvotes as well! I sometimes wonder if algorithms aren't responsible? Does Hive even use algos to limit or promote outreach? I often ask myself, "Is it me?" I used to have a fairly consistent audience and now it's really hit or miss (more miss than hit). I made the mistake of looking at stats in PeakD and was shocked by how few are actually reading my posts.
This could be for a variety of reasons—my long-time readers leaving Hive, my writing-style falling out of fashion, etc. but I can't help but wonder. I like some aspects of Hive communities but I wonder sometimes if it's harming the overall health of the platform by fracturing the user base into too many smaller subgroups.
It seems like "communities" would serve Hive better as — 1) chat groups separate from the blogging platform; or 2) maybe make it so posts would automatically cross post in everyone's main feed as well as the specific community feed. One large pool of users would be more conducive to attracting users looking to build audiences which would, in turn, scale the platform more quickly. Part of the thrill of the old days for me was having such a large and diverse readership. Hive is still the best blogging platform I've found but I miss the engagement of the old days. I've always told myself post rewards don't matter as much as engagement but once the engagement is gone my motivation to keep posting here will probably evaporate along with it.
I think part of it is just the long bear. People just aren't as engaged and a lot of the excitement from the supposed bull market has started to fizzle. I like your thoughts on communities.
At times, it dose not feel to write a post because the time spent to write a post is not justified in terms of rewards. However, as you said, this should be considered extra, unless we are fully on it. As far as I see, you still engage a lot, for me that's the missing part, but there is no guaranteed or proven way of getting the traction. There are many people who even earn very little or literally nothing for their quality posts and then quit after some time, but the key is consistent effort (which I see you are putting) over a very long period of time. I am sure, by couple of decades, you will be on the top.
Yes, like I said, I kind of see HIVE as a way of journaling, so it has been pretty great for me in that respect. Even without rewards
Grilling fish is an expensive form of cooking in my region and can't be accepted as a meal. Thus, it's done occasionally.
Regardless, I would join the community and save up to make a grill post. Cheers!
Really? That's interesting, why is that? Is fish just not that common?
it's expensive here
Comparatively it's probably pretty expensive here too, so I understand.
Having more people would solve a lot of our issues. But right now hive is leaking rather than growing.
Until we solve UX, nothing else matters.
I think that is very true. The small user base is killer.
I like you're grilling community and I wish I grilled and smoked enough to really participate. Due to some dietary changes I eat much less meat now than in the past, and eat more fish and vegetables. At one point I thought about starting a gold prospecting community, but after asking around there are so few of us who actually go out and prospect are very limited. So I didn't bother. But grilling most people do especially in summer!
I post here for entertainment and it's fun earning a little crypto on the side, but it's not enough to really even supplement my income. Living in southern California is expensive, thank god the house is paid off and property tax is covered by other passive income sources. Hive still has a lot of potential, but also has some issues that weaken it.
Lately I've been trying out a few different communities, but they can be very narrow in their scope. I don't have all the answers, but one thing we need to do is encourage new talent and get them through that painful first six months of earning little or next to nothing.
You can grill fish! :) I know what you are saying though. Someone pointed out to me that a lot of the users we have joining these days don't necessarily have the lifestyle that those of us in the states do. It could be a big ask to expect a world wide interest in something pretty niche.
I do on occasion grill fish, more in summer for fish tacos! A lot of users joining from economically disadvantaged areas are joining to earn and cash out. They seem to do lifestyle material more than anything, and definitely not grilling. Our lifestyle in the US is very different than abroad, I've spent a good 10 years living outside of the US and it's a different culture, and grilling in Latin America just isn't very popular.
Those are also some good points. It's too bad though. People could be learning about our culture.
As much as we all made fun of him at the time, it is a good point. Just maybe could be said a bit better.
Your post upvote story is easy to explain: trending. Posts that move up on the trending list get many more votes than posts that don't. It's a very broken ranking. We were talking about ways to fix that in a previous PIMP meeting. Witty mentioned that his developer for the PIMP frontend had figured out a new way to display posts that avoids the abuse of "trending". If it works well, maybe we can get peakd to adopt it as the default.
Anyway, @acidyo makes some great points about the how communities are kind of broken. I think we really should go back to the drawing board and figure out how to redesign and redeploy them. In that redeployment I'm not sure if general communities like GEMS should even be allowed. What's the point? (I mean I know the point now, to attract the big curators in that general community; but I mean philosophically) Using a community should be for a very niche thing. Like my last post which I posted to the "Hive Collectors" community. Most posts there are people collecting things, usually stamps, but others as well. Very niche. That is what a community should be. If you join my community "Blockchain Poets" you expect poetry, not engineering or psychology or some whatever.
That seems very much like something a politician or a businessman would say. Lots of words to say a really simple thing! It would be cool if communities could start getting some more love. We have some good ones here that if they were on any other platform they would be overflowing with users. It's sad.
haha, well, that was Rummy. He and Bush weren't the best speakers in the world.
Anyway, I hear you about communities. That's why I think we really need to rethink them. Maybe we can talk some ideas with asgarth in the peakd discord.
Was Rummy as intoxicated as Bush?
But one thing's for sure. Every time you post here, you'll surely get an upvote. You're well-known and one of the users I admire when it comes to consistency and quality of work. And maybe the community about grilling is not that relatable, that's why no users or some of the few only post there.
That is a good point. It is a pretty specific topic, but that same specific topic has hundreds of thousands of users on other platforms. I appreciate your support!
That about sums it up !PIMP
I see what you mean. I'm experiencing a bit the same.
I think, as you say, is mostly a matter of luck. That the right people are curating on the moment you share your post. Especially from curation services.
The community also matters. OCD incubated communities could result in an OCD upvote.
I'm having my own Cyclingncommunity in their program which allows me nominate blogs in my own community for an upvote.
But understandably you cannot nominate your own posts. But it does help tour community grow.
I think it could help if we would have a better curation stream where people can filter out the posts they really like, regardless of the community.
I'm working out an idea to develop this.
You just have to expect nothing and enjoy your time here. Then every reward is nice. And bigger rewards even better.
Oh for sure, I am totally blessed to get the rewards I do. It's just interesting how the whole ecosystem works.
You are winning at Hive in that your posts make more than 95%+ of users can expect plus you get good engagement. I really don't worry too much about what community to post in as I think that the big ones are fairly pointless as you are fighting for attention. I only really use communities with a very specific focus so that I know what sort of posts I will find there.
Hive is tiny and can be random. A very few people will divide if a post ranks high in trending. We should just be happy if we are getting something from it and that does not have to be purely financial.
Yes, those are some good points. I was hoping this didn't come across as me complaining about rewards and more as an observation about how unpredictable HIVE can be.
That is a real problem for anyone who would like to make a living here - like writers, musicians. I've just been over to look at substack and they seem to have a more stable subscriptions model. Subscriptions on Hive are not without their challenges, especially if hidden from view. Plus the recurring payments facility in the wallet is not reliable.
Yeah, we still have a long way to go until mass adoption I think. It's unfortuante.
Man, I feel ya, written a few posts like this one myself. For me it's the lack of rhyme or reason to the rewards that gets me. There's nothing like getting the 'most voted' badge on a post you consider middling quality to inspire you do do really good work, only to watch it go nowhere. I'm not worried about the rewards on any particular post, suspect it's like when I waited tables and the good tippers balanced out the bad on a long enough time frame, but rather the unpredictability and the inability to set expectations that goes with it that get to me.
We seem to have a knack for creating perverse incentives for ourselves, realized a little while back I'd been pigeonholing myself in just a couple photography communities, in no small part due to the rewards. Centralization, once removed. I've been trying to spread around where I post since, wouldn't do to have one or two places hogging all the fun. Suspect part of the problem is just the small size of HIVE, there's what 10-15K active accounts in a given month? Got my brother to join HIVE back when reddit sold out, for him the rewards were irrelevant, he was just looking for a place to share his astrophotography with others. He eventually wandered off after finding the astrophotography scene rather dead, can't help but wonder how many other folks we've lost due to similar circumstances.
That's actually a good way of looking at it in comparison tips thanks for that analogy. It helps a lot. I think numbers are our biggest issues. With more of those the communities would probably thrive.
I can offer some upvotes support, contact me on discord and see if u wanna curate using our community account in your community.
$PIZZA slices delivered:
@danzocal(5/10) tipped @bozz
Moon is coming - April 19th, 2025
That's true, but I don't know why and that's the part that bugs me. I haven't bene able to pinpoint if it is just specific content or luck of the draw. It's frustrating not knowing.
I was pretty clear I wasn't complaining and you seem to be the only one that feels that way.