In the spirit of all the excitement of our new "Home," I decided to take part in @anomadsoul's introduction to Hive challenge, also sponsored by @blocktrades and @ocdb.
You can read more about the challenge here and I encourage to write an introductory post of your own, as well.
Hi! My Name is Shadow. I'm a Cat!
I actually started my blogging "career" on what was then Steemit, on March 9th, 2018, and I am very excited about our new community here on Hive!
I generally am best known by my online nickname "CuratorCat," and I am a little black cat with a short stubby tail (no, I wasn't in an accident — I was born that way!), about four years old.
I was quite adorable as a kitten, and — as you can see in the photo below — even black cats are slightly striped when they are little.
My blog is a cooperative effort between myself and my Hoomans @denmarkguy and @whitelightxpress, as well as their 27-year old daughter whose idea the Curator Cat blog originally was... and who gets the credit for many of my older photos.
I Love Sunpuddles and Birdwatching!
I am 95% indoor cat, because we live in a somewhat rural area with lots of eagles, coyotes, cougars and bobcats... and it's just not very safe for a domestic cat to be outside around here.
Fortunately, the Hoomans have created lots of spots where I have a good view of the outside, and cozy sunny spots for napping, on the inside.
They are also talking about building me a "Catio" on the upstairs deck... which would be awesome! Until then, I am pretty content to just go outside with Hooman supervision!
Watching the birds at the bird feeder is my favorite form of "Kitty TV!"
Them birds!
So why a CAT Blog?
Well, the idea came about because my Dad-Hooman was always going on about how great the Steemit community was (at the time), but when the Daughter-Hooman took a look at it she declared that it all seemed very "nerdy, developer-ish and boring, and in need of some CATS!"
So we all talked about it for a bit, and decided that it was time for the blockchain to have some "light and fluffy" content, aside from all the crypto and blockchain chatter.
And so, the @curatorcat blog was born!
The idea was to focus mostly on cat-related content and encourage its posters, and to bring a lighter side to the blockchain.
I know what to do with a mouse!
Isn't That Out of Context? No, Not Really!
Now, you might be wondering whether cat photos are really appropriate content for a community like this.
Well, it might interest you to know that the by now quite popular web tradition of calling Saturdays "Caturday" actually has deeply nerdy roots.
A lot of people think Caturday came from that chubby gray "I can has cheezburger?" cat meme from some years back... but actually it didn't. If you did deeper, "Caturday on Saturday" can be traced back to about 2004, to one of the "general" image boards on 4chan... and if you know about the earlier days of 4chan, you also grok that this has pretty "nerdy" roots.
Sleepy kitty!
Promoting the Community; Attracting New Users
There was — and there still is — purpose behind the Curator Cat blog, and it has just been re-ignited with our move to Hive!
The intent behind posting cat content was to "soften" the user profile a bit. Back then — as perhaps holds true again today — many were trying to find ways to increase the number of users... and hopefully reach a more mainstream audience.
Well, like it or not, things like blockchain, cryptocurrencies, anarcho-capitalism and such are... still pretty niche kinds of topics.
*Sleepy kitten! Some things just never change!
CATS, on the other hand?
Some social commentators have gone as far as to suggest that "Cats may be the unofficial mascot of the Internet."
You don't get a lot more mainstream than that!
As I write these words, there are more than ten billion photos of cats on the Internet, and YouTube videos of cats have been viewed more than FIFTY billion times and counting! That's some serious interest...
So having some cat content — appropriately tagged — can definitely help us draw a kind of user to Hive that might not otherwise give our community a second glance.
Obligatory cat selfie!
Helping and Encouraging Newcomers: Engagement Matters!
When I started here, I was encouraged and supported by a number of users who had been here a while, and that was very helpful.
I am getting to a point where I know the ropes well enough to help others who have just arrived here. And — as my HivePower continues to grow — I plan to continue to help more.
Engagement Matters! It's one thing to simply have a place where you can post your content, but if nobody pays attention to it and encourages you, it's easy to lose interest.
I was always a big fan of @abh12345's Curation and Engagement Leagues on Steem, and I hope he decides to start up a Hive version... it was certainly something that often helped encourage me to keep going!
And that's about it! I hope you now have a better idea about who I am... and maybe even what I am hoping to do here on Hive!
Thanks for reading!
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Welcome to the Hive @curatorcat and thank you for the kind words regarding the EL, which will be on Hive soon I think.
10 billion and 7 or 8 now 😁
Thank you @abh12345, I look forward to it! The whole idea of this fresh start on Hive is almost like hitting a "reset button" on all the garbage that went down on Steem, and getting a clean slate to build what we really want!
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Nice re-introduction @curatorcat! I followed you on steem and so so happy to see you here on #HIVE. I didn't know until just now that you are affiliated with DenmarkGuy, that's awesome!
Hi @lynds good to see you here, too! You sort of fell off my radar with all the downvote wars on Steem... hopefully things will unfold a little more cordially here!
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Here's that #posh purrroof of twitter: