Hey, @galenkp.
I've been thinking about this a lot lately. We seem to encourage the posting part as a whole more than we do virtually anything else. And yet, engagement and curation are actually how people get noticed sooner. And the system actually rewards both of those—curation has rewards built in, while comments, like posts, need to be seen and rewarded. But both can happen, and both can be used to create stake.
But when we talk about attracting people here, we're generally talking about how people earn rewards through posting, when there are certainly other means that will ultimately help them if they go on to do any kind of serious posting.
We don't really distinguish between creators, engagers and curators (or I would prefer to call them readers or consumers). We just all tend to do all of it. But the reality is, not all of us want to or are even really have time for posting, but we do have time to read, comment and upvote, or variations thereof. I think we need to say that's okay to do, too. I just don't know how that gets communicated in a meaningful way.
It's no different to the real world, some will do things others will not, or cannot. Same on hive. I agree with you and think a balance needs to be found. A platform full of readers and curators, with nothing to read or curate won't much satisfaction, as will a million content creators with only one curator or reader. So, balance is what we need. Therefore a balanced method of onboarding needs to be devised.
Trying to attract people by dangling reward-money in front of them is one way of course, but I think there's other benefits here and I think others feel the same, or would if they knew of those benefits.
I don't really know much about it all, but sometimes throw my two cents worth in, like with this post...Really I'm a bit of a novice and uninformed.
If I had the answers, I feel like I would be elsewhere, making millions. :)
However, all your points in the post are solid, and make sense, and with each new wave of users to HIVE, need to be reiterated by someone.
re: balance
Very true, we do. It seems, though, we've got plenty of content creators. We may not have as wide a range of topics as we might want, or enough of what we do want, but posts, there are a plenty.
What there doesn't appear to be as many of are engagers. People might be reading more than I think they are, but then don't leave a comment. And, since it's the least likely thing to be rewarded, that's not much of an incentive for them to do it. They need to have something meaningful to say, and they need to want to interact because they enjoy it.
If rewards are the main thing, it's much easier to autovote in some fashion, set the time, the vote weight, and move on. Unfortunately, engagement is networking and demonstrating your writing abilities on a smaller scale, leading to more interaction on the posts one might actually publish. So, it's pretty important for future rewards, but most seem to fail to see that, maybe because the rewards aren't immediate?
I like your last paragraph. Good points. (Doesn't mean I don't like the first two though.)
Immediate rewards...Hmm, we are certainly in an instant-gratification society for sure. Maybe an issue, but if someone was instantly rewarded for a comment would there be subsequent ones? The auto vote thing is interesting too. I have a few, and yet, in the last 48 hours have made 260+ comments...And not short ones either. Still, I guess many are reward-focused and don't find different meanings for the word reward. I agree that commenting shows one's ability...Maybe because there's so much plagiarism people are afraid to engage in real-time commenting? I don't know.
More balance though, that's what's needed...A more balanced approach to onboarding, newbie-retention (and support) and in the content-consume-curate process.
None of us are spectacular writers...If we were we would not be here...We're just all normal and average people playing out our lives here. I think it's time for people to stop trying to be the smartest person in the room and all start pulling in the same direction...Oh hang on, we're humans and in the last 45,000 haven't been able to achieve that.
I just post and vote though, no one special, not smart, not dumb, just average. So, what do I know?