“All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.”
― George Orwell, Animal Farm
Upvotes - a Taboo Topic? Guide for (other) Newbies.
It’s hard to believe that I have only been on Hive for five months, but it is also hard to believe that it has been five months already! One thing that I think everyone here notices, and no one likes to speak of is the disparity between what different articles receive as an author payout. This is an almost taboo topic, and, as such, I feel the need to ape right into it.
I think that most people who are new to Hive have had the experience of seeing a payout that seems extremely high for what an article actually is. Similarly, most of us have seen great articles that receive only pennies. At first glance, this seems terribly unfair, and in some ways, maybe it is.
I notice a lot of newcomers, especially those whose first language is not English, directly asking for upvotes. I believe this is because they have not noticed that there is a culture on Hive in which this is an extremely taboo thing to do – both asking for upvotes and asking how to get more upvotes. However, it seems like a normal thing to do, particularly if your livelihood depends even partially on what you receive from Hive.
Hive economics are somewhat complicated. Nothing comes from nothing, so, when you receive an author payout or a curation reward, where does that money come from? The least complicated answer is that it comes from people who already have money staked in Hive. However, most people have more than money staked in Hive. They also have hundreds or even thousands of hours of time staked in Hive.
It makes sense that people who are invested (in every sense) in Hive would want to invest (by upvoting) in only quality, unplagiarized content. However, beyond that, people want to invest in other people who are interested in building Hive.
Practical Suggestions
What does this mean in terms of practical suggestions?
- Write your best content regularly.
- Participate in contests because it helps you to get to know Hive culture and for people to get to know you. Winning is a bonus if it happens.
- Try not to consider the financial rewards (or lack) at first. This is difficult, but if you are persistent, it will pay off.
- Power up your account when you can. I know that not everyone can afford to do it, but some people with a large stake notice whether or not you do this. Why does it matter? When you power down or don’t power up, you are taking money out of the Hive ecosystem. That is not a positive thing for the Hive ecosystem, which is something that some stakeholders consider when curating. Then again, if you need the money, you need the money, so you have to do what you have to do. This is simply one more consideration.
- Have a goal each day or each week in terms of commenting on other people’s work. Don’t just randomly comment. Write something meaningful that shows you actually read their article and thought about it. If you can’t think of anything to comment about on a particular article, don’t comment (this seems obvious, but I have seen comments that were pointless, so maybe it needs to be said).
What is the point of commenting on other people’s work? You will see the word “engagement” get thrown around, but it truly is an important part of the process. No matter how much (or how little) an article has been upvoted, it is empowering for a writer to feel like someone actually read and considered his/her/etc words. If you want people to notice you, commenting regularly on many different people’s work is a good way to get established.
Personally, this is something I struggle with. I get depressed and then I don’t write or comment for a few days. However, fortunately, I find that as long as I keep getting on the horse, it seems to work out okay.
Conclusion
Do not ask for follows or upvotes. It is the surest way to turn people against you. Instead, post regularly. Experiment with different communities, entering contests, and different types of posts to see what works best for you. Have a comment goal each day and try to stick with it. Among other things, you might find you meet some very interesting people. That has been my experience, anyhow.
I have had some frustrations with Hive, but I have also been extremely fortunate. I am very grateful.
Hive provides us with a means to improve our financial situation, but also highlights the economic disparity between us. It is important, I believe, to encourage one another in our financial goals, and to try, although it is challenging at times, not to envy others their successes.
The nice thing about Hive is that you can begin with nothing or almost nothing and begin to build it up through daily effort. One thing I have observed is some writers who might have begun in a way that was not ideal gradually catching on and writing better and better posts, building their audience, getting better payouts. It can be a slow process, but it happens, and it is great to see when it does.
What I feel best about are the stories I hear about Hive being life-altering. There are people whose lives have been completely transformed because of Hive. I don't know whether Hive has the ability to transform my life financially, but it is gradually improving my writing. It convinces me to write more frequently, which is good for my writing as well as my overall wellbeing. And, unexpectedly, it has been good for me socially so far. I would not have expected to meet so many interesting people.
I hope 2022 will be amazing for all of us!
That's a pretty decent list, you just have to write with integrity, keep plugging away, and invest is my advice, the tribes can help too.
Oh, and Discord!
Discord is very good advice. I am bad at Discord as @shadowspub can attest to, but I do my best. I still think it's a great way to connect and great advice!
!PIZZA
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Usually I put a lot of time into Hive, but I very rarely use Discord. I think that the Hive community should be on Hive.
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Its good writing practice, look at it that way. Anything else is a bonus!
I discovered Hive few days ago. So, I am quite new in this environment. I would like to thank you to have accepted to share with others your experience and opinion through this post. For me, it clarifies some points I did not consider and it provides also true incentives and useful advices. Will keep this post not far away from me. I am pretty convinced that I will appreciate to read it again sometimes.
Waw
Thanks for this tips
It will go a long way in helping me on hive, because am new
Thanks for your content. I completely agree with what. I just posted an article with some self-interrogations about how the automatic upvotes machine works and if it is really fair.
What about the creation of a joint call for a new upvoting rewarding mechanism?
Upvotes will always be a taboo topic.
At the beginning of hive there were many wars between upvotes and downvotes with the justice that were making the ecosystem fair as most users won Hive by being on Steem.
Another war that existed but that I don't know if it still exists is the votes in the posts themselves. I am against this because in reality by doing this you are not contributing to the ecosystem but you are only increasing your power in the network and over time this can become a problem. However I see some accounts to be done constantly and nothing gets done.
Regarding the rewards of posts, I fully agree that people should not go to other people's posts to ask for votes and followers. The purpose of hive is to be a social platform so people should try to interact as much as possible with other people and these interactions naturally ended up generating new followers and maybe a few more votes on the posts.
But this will not happen overnight.
I've been on Hive for a year and during the first year, except for a few posts where I had bigger rewards, I was getting cents but that didn't make me give up. I continued to make my posts and try to improve more and more and interacting with people.
The issue with rewards is that many people who join Hive come after easy money (I don't know if they were "fooled" by someone who told them it was easy or because there will be some posts with high rewards and they think it's like that as a general rule) .
Many of these new users don't even know the rules of Hive and even publish things that are not their own in an attempt to earn good rewards.
I think people should look at Hive more as a matter of creating connections and contacts that have the benefit of potentially having a financial return but never being the financial return the main objective.
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I needed to see this post for encouragement purpose.it is thoughtful. I am focused on just posting contents and anyone who sees it fine
But I need to work on my engagements with other authors
Very good post. It is true, that too often great posts (perhaps like this one) don't get the recognition they deserve. The reason? First, there are so many posts created everyday that not all of them can be seen. But also, it takes time to build a network and a reputation. Followers are much more likely to see and read your post than non-followers. Keep up the great work! !PIZZA
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Thank you for this post. I haven't posted a blog yet because I am trying to learn how everything works. I am reading a lot and this article was very helpful. I already made a mistake trying to start my first hive account which was very frustrating, but I learned about not losing my keys! I will follow you for more good advice.
Learned a lot from your post. It helped me understand a lot about the back dynamics of hive and it’s bigger meaning behind the curtains. Talking about fictional freedom and life changing impact of hive ecosystem is a bit difficult for me. However, thank you for coming up with such informative post. Definitely a goodread for me. You suggestions are impressive. Nice!
!PIZZA
Thank you!
!PIZZA
This is very encouraging for both newbies and old-timers who feel they're not getting rewarded for all their effort. I was in a twitter space yesterday and someone complained about this, I don't remember his name but I've reblogged and also posted on twitter hoping he sees this post.
You have spoken well,this topic of yours really caught my attention.let me be sincere with you,it really frustrating to write a post and at the end sometimes you might not even get a vote in some post,which I believe is what make some newbies who are less lucky to beg for votes.i have been in this situation which I still experience presently and I have also been on hive for almost five months now but if you check my upvotes they very scanty,well to cut the story shot I think there should be a way to help others especially newbies on the platform.just as you have said engagement and good contents are very important.but I can say some newbies do this on daily basis and yet they ain't still getting upvotes
@brainstommer
First of all the way you write your comment was sus to me.
Here is the reason I found why u have complain about low upvotes.
I just went to your profile and opened your first blog that appears.
The source of image your given:
https://themakingofamillionaire.com/my-4-income-streams-as-an-average-university-student-886653c4a5a7
The actual or proper source of image:
https://www.pexels.com/photo/person-counting-cash-money-4475524/
By this mistake of yours I came to the conclusion that you don't care about intellectual property of others. On further digging some of the images(before that post) were copyrighted.
And Can you asked why CTP tag is used?
Please don't consider anything in disrespect of yours. I did this to teach/guide you before it's too late.
O!thanks so much for the correction at least I have actually learnt something from you by doing the right thing.thanks alot.i guess you are very correct with that.
Thanks for your information, it really helped me as a new member on hive community.
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