I agree with a lot of this.
The fragmentation problem is not unique to decentralised communities. It happens in any large organisation / business, etc.
It would be nice if we had a large, communal kanban, where creators and developers could post their plans, and then find the like minded indivudals to collaborate with.
There is also the unending problem that software development is never finished, only abandoned, much like artworks.
My view on Hive is a simple one. We must not promote the platform itself, but instead what it enables. The real world examples of what it has done. Not rally cars, not boreholes, but the content from voices that would otherwise never be published in any other place.
There are so many compelling and well written things on hive, but it is buried under the superficial and banal bullshit that tends to make up the trending page - content about development work that is already receiving generous funding from the DHF, which is rewarded (again). It is the ultimate form of pontification.
While the trending pages have gotten a lot better than what they once were - truly wonderful posts often languish unseen and unrewarded. Then, the sadder part - they are never discovered.
Not everything posted will be prize-worthy journalism, or moving fiction, or incredible human-interest stories - but these are so rarely written for hive, and when they are, those that find them and cherish them (I've found a few) do not seem to have the power (yet - I'm working on that through my own writing practice and running a witness node!) - to push these posts to the front page of hive for them to get the eyeballs that they deserve.
If I write more, I am afraid that I might end up writing a post like yours, so I'll leave it there - as I do not really like writing about hive on hive - I'd prefer for content to be content, and not content about the platform.
I think you're exactly right that promoting Hive as a platform is not a good approach. Bottom line, it's not how most people use the web.
If you think about it, very few people go around saying that they're "on Facebook," or that they're "online;" they're online or on Facebook to do very specific things, usually related to some kind of hobby or interest group. Or perhaps they are following or promoting a business or artwork or a personal brand.
If more of our communities were more visible and more dynamic, it would make more sense to say to a friend "I'm part of a gardening community on Hive, why don't you come and join us?" and it might have more appeal than just trying to persuade people to join yet another social media platform.
In general, I'm far less concerned with whether or not something is quality content than whether it adds value to the community in some way. After all, I run a cat blog here and cat blogs are hardly the pinnacle of literature, and yet most of the Internet is obsessed with cats, from memes to kitten reels to God knows what else!
To close out what also could be a very long comment, I'm also not that much of a fan of posts about Hive, on Hive, just like I'm not that much of a fan of posts about development on Hive unless it is some grand announcement that will substantially affect everyone here. I far prefer it if people just write about what they're interested in instead of worrying quite so much about whether they're saying something popular.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts!
=^..^=
I came for the felines, I stayed for the intellect, though :)