Why is it Hard for Newbies to Get Upvotes?

ifarmgirl (76)in LeoFinance • 8 months ago

Some time not so long ago, I encountered a question posted on threads asking why is it hard for newbies to get upvotes.

Maybe that is one secret code that we cannot totally decipher or can we?

I left a comment under the thread saying Hive is a social network, hence, we need to make interactions with others so that they will know we exist. There wasn't any response after that and I would like to think that the user understood it (or she didn't read it). It's similar to the traditional social media where no one would be "liking" or "hearting" our content if we didn't have any friends or any followers, yes?

The thing is that, maybe most of us had the wrong notion when we started here - that we drop our content and expect comments and reactions (upvotes) coming. This brought me back to when I was just starting.

Quick Throwback

It was a rough start for me too. Although during that time, it was more of a curiosity, just that the clueless me didn't even bother to check things further. Thought I can just create and share my content in anyway I want and that was okay. While I was reading other people's posts then, I was not even making any comment on them. I often ran out of Resource Credits so I come and go.

For four months (August toward the end of November 2021), I had mostly zero to a few upvotes on my content and there were no engagements in most of them.

It was until a wonderful soul (coquicoin) reached out saying we should learn how things are done and that was what we did. We joined communities, observed things, started interacting, learning, showing up, etcetera. That was when it felt we belonged and started enjoying the process.

So back to the question...

Why is it hard for newbies to get upvotes?

My only answer to that would be because not many people know us when we are new. Unless we have been onboarded by a whale to have at least a smoother start, most of us go through similar process - of having to go out of our way to make our presence felt.

That is why the Cryptomaniacs guys (TM and Jongo) often say on their podcasts that we got to keep showing up.

Getting out there and making noise (and by 'noise' I mean, engaging with other people on their posts. That's how they will get to notice you).

This reminded me of a comment I read many moons ago where a long-term user of Hive _{(one from The Alliance community if I wasn't mistaken)} shared how she got intrigued by a newbie who was asking questions that people do not normally ask. That's when she knew that the newcomer is interested and willing to learn (teachable). So she supported her (upvoting her content, commenting on them and I think she even spared time to tutor the newbie about Hive).

Taskmaster also shared how he noticed some users through their interactions and activities on threads. Thereby earning his upvotes by simply showing up, consistently engaging and creating content.

So what to do?

There is no written rule on what to do but I'm sharing some things below based on my personal experience and observations and it may vary from person to person but the common denominator I guess is one's general activity here on the blockchain.

Show up every day

Be present. Enjoy the process of learning things, creating quality content, getting to know other people through their posts, engaging with them not for the sake of being noticed but to build a good network (connection).

I read some people say they set a time going through their notifications and another time to draft and publish their content. I guess it's creating our own strategy on how we do things without having to sacrifice or compromise our real life responsibilities.
Be consistent

This is not only my personal experience but it's what I have noticed as well with others. Having consistency in your presence (engagement and in your content).

Sometime ago, someone sent me a direct message asking me what to do so his posts would get upvotes too. I shared to him what I and others are doing - coming to Hive every single day, upvoting and commenting on people's posts, staking HIVE, even joining contests, making friends, creating one post a day etcetera. He was adamant. I sensed through his response that he didn't like it.

Whilst another who asked the same thing on my DM and applied things, stayed consistent in her quality content and engagement, growing her account. And she's doing pretty well up until now.
Grow your account

And by that, I mean in various aspects (network/connection/followers, Hive Power). It is quite noticeable that most big curators tend to support those who show they are here for the long run.

Everyone's wallets (Hive accounts) are publicly viewable and although it may not be 100% true to all or most, it is observable that those who are not growing their accounts (no matter how long they have been here), are not getting enough support. Although there might be some exemption. But yes, I've see some 5-year old accounts that are still struggling to date while there are newer accounts that are doing well.
Have fun and be open to learning

The thing is if we focus mainly on the rewards, we won't last long. I would probably have gone elsewhere during those four months where my content were getting mostly zero upvotes if I was only thinking about instant gratification. I was curious and I want to learn and they were enough to keep me going.

Yes, we all want to monetize our activities, but we just can't force it.

Final Thoughts

Each one's situation and journey on Hive is different and what I have shared are not by no means rules set in stone. They are those that worked for me and for some people I know. Hive OGs say the same thing. But it's up to you to find out what works best for you.

Or you can also apply them and not try to reinvent the wheel as they say.

TM mentioned yesterday that he treats his Hive account as a business where he got to do all he can to keep it thriving. Perhaps doing the same thing will work too.

And don't lose heart if you are doing everything and still you are not getting the support you expect. It can be frustrating but hang in tight, just keep going, enjoy the process and I believe it will come to you too. A year from now, you would be thankful you didn't quit.

_{Lead image created on Canva. Screenshot from my own page. 24092023/11:10ph}

Posted Using LeoFinance Alpha

#hive #experience #growing-in-hive #tips #upvotes #newbies #ctp #leofinance

8 months ago in LeoFinance by ifarmgirl (76)

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bitcoinflood (79) 8 months ago

Some great observations but always shows the struggles this platform has. There's a number of reasons I think people new don't get upvotes.

Discoverability on the UI's is extremely hard and honestly most people don't want to read though 10+ posts a day to curate. It's a lot of dang work in terms of time commitment. But not only that it's hard like really hard to find quality good content and work through everything being posted and that's only going to get worse as more people come on.

It's another reason why I like threads as it's quick and the payouts can happen fast including being discovered more easily.

I think it's wrong that people need to jump into discord and other places to start interacting and be noticed that seems like a huge weakness that should be talked about and addressed.

How votes work, by voting on articles from people or even threads that don't get voted by others because again discoverability it also means your own personal curation APR is going to suffer. It's why you see everyone pile on and join curation trails to make sure they are getting the most APR out of their votes.

What does seem to be working best however rolling forward is for those with decent stake in hive I would say 20k + hive powered up onboarding people one by one and casting some votes their way. For sure an area that needs to constantly be worked on but we do have many new introduction methods now like gaming and threads which are great alternatives to just making people come in here and write long posts which many don't want to do.

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edicted (82) 8 months ago

How votes work, by voting on articles from people or even threads that don't get voted by others because again discoverability it also means your own personal curation APR is going to suffer. It's why you see everyone pile on and join curation trails to make sure they are getting the most APR out of their votes.

This is an extremely outdated statement that no longer applies. (July 2021)
Curation has been linear for quite a long time now. Cursed Aztec Gold

You get 50% curation no matter what you upvote as long that thing doesn't get downvoted and you vote within the first 24 hours.

Other than that great comment... certainly the reason I don't vote new accounts is that frontends offer very piss-poor curation techniques in this regard. We could obviously benefit from some kind of algorithm or perhaps even hire professional curators who's only job is to find this exact type of content so that not everyone has to engage in such monotonous data filtering.

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bitcoinflood (79) 8 months ago

Ah good to know! I didn't know that changed the payout structure. I thought it was still a weighted system. That's very good to know and wonder if many others still have that same idea from the old school days. Thank you for brining it to my attention so I don't make that mistake in what I tell others rolling forward.

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edicted (82) 8 months ago

Yeah I forget what hardfork that was but they rolled back a ton of the old economic incentives. That hardfork was glorious basically it felt like a lot of my ideas were implemented.

Hardfork 25 Goes off without a Hitch.

Found it...

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2 votes

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ifarmgirl (76) 8 months ago

Yes, you pointed out exactly what new users need to aim for - discoverability. Whilst there are curators going around mainly to find new users and good content, it is simply time-consuming (I say that because I personally read 5-10 or even more long-form articles a day and manually curate). But I don't really go around looking for new users to read and curate and that's one flaw too xD

Like you, I like threads because of what it offers us - getting discovered fast and yes, easy to interact without having to read hundreds of words.

I like the way Leo is doing with the Stake-Based curation. Maybe it could be applied too, specifically for newbies, not based on their stakes but their content quality and interactions?

I think it's wrong that people need to jump into discord and other places to start interacting and be noticed that seems like a huge weakness that should be talked about and addressed.

It would be good if users interact on-chain than anywhere else. Although there are communities that require some presence in Discord (which I personally do not support if it is only meant for one to get his content curated).

I do like your idea of those with decent stakes to cast upvotes to their onboarded users' posts. We know for sure there are things that needed to be done when it comes to curation on Hive and hopefully, these will be discussed and attended to especially when there are many new users coming aboard. Because whether we like it or not, upvotes can be a good way to retain users.

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olujay (73) 8 months ago

This is golden! It applies to newbies, but anyone can learn from it. I needed to be reminded of this myself as I have slacked off in certain areas.

It's actually weird to see big shots now actually earning little to nothing when they first started. It is just the truth, however; many people here had really humble beginnings, but their work and effort to show up more and keep at being more consistent made the difference indeed.

Very insightful, iFarm. And thank you for enlightening.

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