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.