So much patchwork to keep afloat a sinking ship when the ONLY solution is to focus on development of the ship.
SMT or SINK.
Look at how many are saying that this is too complicated and that they need to read it over and over. The simple logic is that many more would not even bother.
A post about engagement and the very post itself shows a drop in engagement. This is just making the USER EXPERIENCE unappealing.
This IS NOT how you grow a platform.
Two totally different things. Even with SMTs you have to strengthen the communities. In my opinion these "niches" are what will keep bloggers on the chain, the engagement in a community, from people with the same interest - this "we-spirit", the feeling of belonging is invaluable.
The difference though is that the code should take care of the user incentives to stay engaged. This method relies on self reporting and then moderators to notice to then distribute rewards... if any!
No way that's a good system. That's why 3 years ago when SMTs were announced they presented a very unique possibility for any community to give the "social rewards" a go without really needing to learn and understand Blockchain.
Algorithms are KING.
Relying on humans to manage a system like rewards always leads to favouritism, gaming and even the very opposite of what you're trying to achieve, since the many that miss out or see it as a chore rather than an enjoyable experience simply leave.
As a moderator and system administrator you then don't have that data live to realize if the system is working. Just look at the community stats right now. Subscribers celebrated but then actual participation is a fraction of that. Yet no tools available to understand why and also how you could target the silent majority.
It relies on a post.. then that post needs to be seen, then understood, then participation to take place, then moderation to determine who's worthy.. etc. By the end you're actually killing engagement because as I said the experience resembles work.. with the MAYBE that you will get rewards. This is why rewards are now seen by so many as a failed element of this blogging game.
I agree with that but again... simply because the code is so basic. The code should be able to automatically factor in participation, user reach, onboarding, comments etc. I personally would even reward private chat (if it existed here) because that way you maintain the silent majority on the platform and their attention is kept on THIS PLATFORM to then stay active in all else like voting on content, onboarding users, getting involved in communities by posting and sustaining growth.
Again though it must be CODE that recognises that activity not one human running some initiative. That's just not at all presenting Blockchain as superior. It's like going back to old world village society ... that's just not going to entice masses.
Simple as that.
Also I forgot to say that I DO agree with you on the community spirit, which exists as the glue of social/connectivity. The flaw though is that in a niche and small scale community a human could manage it, but then growth in the millions is what every platform aims for. Humans managing that is impossible.
Hence again: it must be code based.
Attention retention is actually the biggest asset of any platform which can then be forecasted into future development plans such as advertising and business attraction. Attention retention is Hives biggest problem though and there's no code in place to fix that.
Anyway until then as I said all I see on this alleged greatest Blockchain is patchwork to save it from sinking. 3 years on and SMT is still a ghost. I'm not confident on the move to make hive engine the solution because "no-code" stupid-media-tokens will likely be the outcome. Limiting possibilities.
Anyway imo Hive will always be niche.
The hype days of social rewards are long gone. Plus when content MUST BE ORIGINAL the system is too constricted. Only die-hards stay committed. Not masses.