πŸ“¦ The Hive Merch is Finally on its Way! πŸ“¦

in HiveUP Europe β€’ 11 months ago
Authored by @tibfox

Yes Finally I was able to Send the Stuff out!!

20230519-DSC00007.png

On Saturday I sent the first 3 packages out to meetup hosts in 3 different countries!

Next Meetup

25th of May 19:00 - 23:00(?)

Mariahilfer Straße 148 1150 Wien AT
Austria
@schmidi
The Netherlands
@coldbeetrootsoup
Next Meetup

29th of May 12:00 - 23:59(?)

Sint Janstraat 8 4811 ZL Breda NL
Next Meetup

3rd of June 19:00 - 23:00(?)

Miletičova 27 821 09 Bratislava SK
Slovakia
@awildovasquez

All of the packages are promotions on their own because I put 2 stickers on them thehe:

credits to @tibfox
credits to @doze

The Hustle

Let me tell you it was a bit of a hustle to pack and ship them all. I had rough last few days with being ill for almost the entire week. But as soon as @coldbeetrootsoup announced their meetup on the 29th of May I knew I have to act quickly to get the packages out to the meetup hosts. I know that @schmdi does the Vienna meetup pretty often but a meetup in The Netherlands is not happening that often. Also @awildovasquez got promised to receive the merch for his attendees on time for the First ever Slovakia Meetup so many where waiting and I had to act. I am still a bit ill but the work had to be done and I think it was worth it.

Meetup Table Display

credits to @rubencress
A few days ago the one and only @rubencress designed a template for our community to create similar-looking displays while still being able to brand them to the specific meetup location. He came up with this amazing design which he was open to sending me in *.PSD format so I can take care of all the upcoming customization. The custom branding may sound simple but let me tell you: Searching for royalty-free images of cities that look good in the design was the most time-consuming task of completing the packages. But after some digging, I found good pictures and I even got deep enough into Photoshop to be able to re-align the images in the different layers a light bit. In case you are wondering: The QR-Code is an https://hiveonboard.com referral link for @HiveUP-Europe redy to get scanned by excited new Hivers!
A huge thank you again @valueplan for making the whole merch even possible and to @rubencress for the outstanding table display design!

They look great in pictures but the shiny surface of the acrylic displays adds so much to the already amazing artwork. I was stunned for a moment by the beauty when I put the first one together. You should attend at least one of these meetups to be able to see the glory in real life!

The Packaging

Depending on the feedback of the meetup hosts I have added various t-shirts of different sizes, bags, caps, and mousepads as goodies and a lot of stickers to the packages and of course the table displays. They weigh 3kg each so there is a lot of cool stuff in it to give out to the attendees!

Shipping was the easiest task (my lovely girlfriend helped me carrying) but I did not imagine the high postage costs of 18 euros each. So I asked the receivers for some HBD in return as a compensation for this part of the costs.

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And now: Some (Critical) Words

Critical Words in such a positive post? Yes because I think that an open conversation is important for growth on a personal and a community level. So I decided to write them down instead of sucking them up and I did not give them a dedicated post so only invested people will read this paragraph...


You hopefully know that all of this is done out of pure idealism with happy meetup attendees and crowded meetups in mind. I think that this community and my work of the past weeks are in the interest of meetup hosts, meetup attendees, and the whole Hive blockchain. Of course, I will not reach people to acknowledge the work I do from other parts of this globe but I imagined in the beginning of @HiveUP-Europe (formally known as @hive-eu) that people from Europe and more important the existing meetup hosts will give me probs for the then following work.


For all the work I have done (including "designing" the shirts, bags, caps, the one hive.io sticker, and mousepads and all the communication needed) I did not get paid by anyone which is absolutely fine for me. I work for the community and not for the money and I will keep doing this.

But what is not okay in my eyes is the lack of feedback from meetup hosts and signs of encouragement by them. I think people believe that I got some money in return or I use the HP of the posts for my own channel or whatever but I simply don't. I transferred at least 200 Hive to the account - not counting all the coding hours and recurring work for the map and tools of HiveUP.
One Example
I want to give you an example of the lack of encouragement. The following post has more than 20 hours of pure work in it (for coding) + the time to write 2694 words and to illustrate the points with many many screenshots:

grafik.png

Now you want to see the comments? Here you go:

grafik.png

As you can see: Not a single meetup host listed on the Map commented on it which makes me sad and question the appreciation for my work. Thanks to @growandbow @stortebeker and @bechibenner tho. I will comment back after sending this post ;)

So: Some more encouragement and feedback would be very helpful to keep my enthusiasm up for future steps. I don't want to whine or anything but you know the deal. Imagine that:

  • I scream into the void with various posts
  • I create and distribute merch
  • I even create a German video to explain the huge work I have done in the past weeks

and all I got are some engagement tokens and not a single word by any meetup host who are obviously benefitting from my work - is that fair and encouraging? I think you will agree with me: "no".

I will most probably not keep the amount of work and standards if that will continue to be like that tbh. But let's see if anyone even read this paragraph. I will not ping all the meetup hosts for who I am waiting on feedback. Check it for yourself right now: Do you see any of them in the comments below?

To Still Finish in a Positive Way

I have received some valuable and encouraging words from the community and I am very thankful for them. Also in the online meetups I have heard that people like the work I do. I appreciate every single comment, suggestion, and criticism of you all and try my best to make this community a place for connecting all people across Europe. The appreciation and trust by @valueplan also showed me that I am on a good path. The moment we as a blockchain gain more momentum and onboard masses of new users this HiveUP Europe Community will be very well received by the newcomers who want to meet and share stories with people in real life. I will not stop this initiative by any means in the far future. It quickly became my baby and I just want to hear the "Oh is that a cute little boobiboooo" a bit more from time to time ;)

That's it!

As we have told you before we rely on your input and help to grow the initiative and meetup list constantly. With a more complete meetup list we will be able to serve Hivers all over Europe to find their meetups quicker. We hope to see an organic relation between the meetup organizers and our initiative so eventually a post/cross-post into our community (or a ping of @hiveup-europe from within the post) feels like a simple step of announcing a meetup in future.

Please share our initiative and the πŸ“Œ European Hive Meetups - Local and Online πŸ“Œ with your friends and followers. The more people know our project the easier it gets to fill the meetup list with European events!
If you have any question, suggestion or you simply want to have a chat with us then feel free to enter our discord server!

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Hey Tib! The design works great with all the different photographs and citynames in them! There's a happy man looking at a screen over here (me lol). Yeah, finding free stock-images that work well can be quite a task indeed. Perhaps the Hive community can chip in their shots? I mean... Feel free to use my photograph inside the PSD (The Berlin one) for arranging this.

A few things about the shared criticism, and let me start with that it's always good to express your concerns and speak out/speak up for yourself. If you didn't I probably would've just DM'd you telling you how great the designs look with all the different photographs. While I'm not a meetup host myself, or (can) fund projects, I do want to take a moment and share my thoughts on it. And maybe others can chip in as well. Because I honestly do think that Meetups can be quite beneficial for the entire Hive community, whether you take part in it or not. It's literally (almost) free advertising when people show up.

So, from my understanding, you're saying there is a lack of interaction/communication between the meetup hosts, right? There's also a few people who assume things and let their fantasies go wild by just assuming you're getting paid, which you aren't. Right? I mean... if I'm reading correctly between the lines; if meetup hosts weren't sending you the $18 HBD for shipping compensation, it'd be you paying for it?

Perhaps a feedback system can help both parties (as I can just only assume everyone is too busy, or having other priorities). Promoting the tool is 1, and using the tool is 2. So maybe 2 small survey's that hosts can fill in could help everyone at the same time. One for before (to promote the toolbelt and for the hosts to receive the merch) and one after (for sharing their experience etc to improve).

As for 'free' local advertisement for Hive... Finding a funding opportunity for these efforts and boosting both meetups, isn't this a no-brainer to allocate at least a few HBD for this? Financial support is at its place here IMO. Even if it is the bare minimum that covers the expenses.

Thank you for the comment and the chat we already had two days ago mate!

I think you and @coldbeetrootsoup got it wrong: I am pretty sure that the meetup hosts will cover the shipping costs.

But yes you are right - if I would have calculated these efforts beforehand I am also pretty sure that it would have been covered by the funding. Next time I know better and do not have the hustle to ask the hosts.

The idea with the feedback system is pretty cool. I will have to think about it but the main issue is that the hosts are not responding at all (dms on discord are responded like 10 days later or something like that..) so they will probably do not use a feedback feature either. But yes: I will think about a good solution where I dont have to put too much efforts in to make it work. A poll or something maybe.

Thank you so much for the feedback, input and your encouraging words buddy. It means a lot <3

the designs look really cool! much ❀️ for these efforts!

Thank you so much for the kind and encouraging words :)

Oh is that a cute little boobiboooo πŸ˜ƒ

Just kidding, but I do understand your frustration as it happens a lot that people don't appreciate things that they are getting on their plate...

Btw. I like the merch and those meetup table stands look also awesome! I thought that they are just digital photos, but they look great in plastic! It will get attention from people from other tables, or whenever they are situated!

Thanks for everything that you are doing! Even going to the post office knows to be frustrating, but you did a lot more!

Get well soon!

Awwww thank you - I agree :P

Great that you like the table stands as much as I do :) I am looking forward to see them on a real life meetup some day and hopefully see a referred user in future too :)

it happens a lot that people don't appreciate things that they are getting on their plate...

I will wait and see how this whole situation evolves and how the meetup hosts will cooperate. And I will take all of this in account when it comes to further developments of the project. But for now I keep the momentum and plans. It helped a lot to clarify and formulate my feelings for now and the much feedback of community members like you helped me to get over it as well :)

Much appreciation for your comment buddy <3

Ty so much sir for all you do, amazing to see such engagement for the communities and love for the chain.✌️ Lets make Hive known to Europe, its my first time im gonna attend a meet so i cant wait, 29th so almost😎

Thank you so much as well for your comment and encouraging words! You are the reason why this initiative got founded in the first place :) I am super excited for the meetup even though I can not be there in person. But I am very very sure that you will have a great time!! Let us know what you experienced there and who you got to know at the meetup :))

These table displays look really cool! Well done! πŸ‘πŸ»

Towards your critical comments: Fully understand what you mean. ✊🏻
In my view such a valuable work like doing all this stuff for more quality and visibility in the Hive Meetups would be also something the Hive DAO could pay for. Don’t you think? I mean you are doing it because you love Hive and feedback is also some kind of support but it also costs a lot of time and money, doesn’t it? e.g. energy for your Computer, Shipping costs etc. The payout could be even a split between you and the guys that helped like @doze with some graphics etc. I would vote for such a proposal where there is a team that offers these continued support for Meetups in the physical world.

Regards and keep up the great work! πŸ’ͺ🏻
Thomas

Thank you so much for your input my friend! I think the project is too small to get thje visibility needed. I also think that it can get covered by @valuplan some day in future. But I can not measure the costs right now. I also do not think that the meetup hosts will not pay the postage.. I am pretty sure they will - I just did not get all the resonses yet.

It helps a lot to see that people from the community read the post and understand my thoughts :) There will come more in future but I am unsure how fast and how complete all the planned things will come out. We will see :)

Thanks a lot for your comment and encouraging words buddy!

Please push it just a bit more !hiqvote πŸ₯°πŸ˜

Thank you :)

Keep going your great work 🌱

Sometimes great ideas need time to evolve, being recognised as valuable.
In addition, people might not catch up with things because of personal matters, distraction or whatsoever. Like me at the moment. Many jobs and certain goals take my attention and keep me busy that I'm not able to catch up on things, though I really like to support. Everyone has their own bag to carry. Does not mean not to share. Sharing is caring and shared ideas will spread, solution will be found over time.

I believe in your work 🀞🏽😌🀞🏽
Hope you are well again. Otherwise, I wish you pink of health πŸ™πŸ½