A couple of days ago @bigtom13 wrote this post about his take on Hive Communities. It was a brainstorming challenge to list three things that could be improved with communities or what needs to be done with them to make Hive grow and thrive. I believe it was the brainchild of @guiltyparties and the #hiveimprovement community.
As part of the challenge, you have to tag three people and I was one of the lucky ones. Let's get the rules of the way first and then I will get down to it.
Participate
Write a post listing your top 3 improvement ideas for communities
Tag 3 friends in your post who you want to challenge + copy these rules into your post
Come back here and link your post in the comments
Notes
.Make sure that your ideas are clearly presented and easy to see in your post*
. Don't include random memes or irrelevant graphics as they distract from your ideas
.You may write in any language you see fit; English is not mandatory (we can use Google translate to read)
.If you don't come back to post your link in comments, we can't find it*
Just to be clear, you need to share the link to your post in the comments of this post. That part wasn't too clear. What you don't want to do is link your post in the comments of my post or @bigtom13's post. That will for sure get you nowhere.
Alright, so the first thing I had to do was find what I thought was a relevant picture I dug through my Google Photos and found this one from before Covid-19. I thought the people in the BBQ joint eating was a good representation of "community".
I spent a good deal of time yesterday trying to think of my "three things" or thoughts on communities. Without further ado, here they are:
- While many of the current communities have tokens, I think to remain viable pretty much all of them are going to need some kind of token. I read a pretty good post yesterday (I apologize for not remembering who or what it was) where they talked about the Hive token eventually becoming solely for developers and bloggers will instead earn the majority of their rewards in community tokens. We are already seeing that to some extent, but right now most community tokens are severely undervalued.
That is why I also feel these community tokens need to have some kind of value or utility beyond just staking them so you can earn more of them. While that model works (to some degree), I don't feel it is ideal. I think there will need to be some kind of "exclusive goods" tied to the token that can only be acquired via the token. @actifit private trainer sessions, @splinterlands DEC, and @risingstargame Starbits are a good examples of this.
- This one might be a bit controversial, but I really feel that for communities to thrive, there is going to need to be some kind of guaranteed benefit to being a member. Part of that could be in the form of "exclusive goods" like I mentioned before, but I think another aspect is (dare I say) "mandatory" post rewards.
I think we can all agree that the main focus of joining a community should be to find like minded individuals you can share your content and experiences with. I know many who would argue that tribal connection is reward in itself. I don't disagree, but I also feel on some level it needs to be worth it. As Hive continues to grow and more communities come available, there may be a point where you have to pick which of two similar communities you post in. Call it human nature, but I bet nine times out of ten you are more likely going to post to the community where you stand the chance to earn more rewards. This will mean that communities need to invest in themselves. They will need a curation account that can grown and accommodate the influx of users and posts. This may require some significant start up capital, but in the end it can be rewarding for members and the community at large.
My third point was almost something about the ability to post to multiple communities in an easier way. Sure there is cross-posting, but unfortunately it has gotten a bad rap and I see more people frowning upon it or claiming abuse with it than I actually see people using it.
Instead, my third thought is this:
- Given my second idea of guaranteed rewards for posting content in a community, I think it is imperative that communities have people in place to police the community. I am not suggesting censorship, but I think we have all seen how people will try to milk the system whenever rewards are available.
If rewards are guaranteed, what is to stop a user from simply posting a crap post with a couple of lines of text and raking in the rewards. This is where the community having significant startup will help. A larger curation account will not only have a bigger upvote, but they will also have a bigger downvote.
It needs to be clearly stated and enforced that abuse will not be tolerated in the communities and there needs to be a united front when situations arise. Having clear, well-defined expectations from the get go will ensure there is no confusion about what is acceptable and what is not.
@cryptoandcoffee is working towards this right now in the #sportstalk community as part of the curation incubation program with @OCD.
So there you go, those are my thoughts. Feel free to follow the guidelines and participate accordingly yourself!
Editing this because I just realized I didn't tag three people to also join in the challenge: @steevc, @slobberchops, and @cryptoandcoffee.
Sports Talk Social - @bozz.sports
All pictures taken by myself or @mrsbozz
Some good points and I will join in and do a post on this as well. You gave me some ideas whilst reading through and one that I think might work.
Awesome! I look forward to reading it!
Hi @bozz
I didn't know about this challenge, but it's really good, it allows you to organize ideas and in a certain way look for a way in which everyone could give their contribution to make Hive grow, and unquestionably this growth is linked to the communities themselves.
I agree with your approach, and yes, I see that tribal tokens can be a great incentive, and a community that doesn't have a healing account, it's difficult for it to generate good traffic, if it doesn't have benefits for its members.
Thanks for the great comment! I am glad you enjoyed my post. Feel free to take part in the challenge yourself!
I actually disagree with you guys (at least partly).
Check out my comment Jose: https://hive.blog/hive-175254/@crypto.piotr/qjfcxe
Your post has been voted as a part of Encouragement program. Keep up the good work!
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Dear @bozz
Interesting choice of topic. I've missed post by @bigtom13 so thanks for sharing it. will definetly check it out after reading your article.
Personally I disagree with an idea, that each community should launch/have any token. Building trust and value of such a token is a nightmare and I would say that except of LEO -> everyone else is failing. Even STEEM and HIVE (With all resources and smart people behind those chains) cannot seem to succeed. Hoping that community leaders will do what STEEM/HIVE are failing is to much of a wish.
If bloggers would be receiving rewards in community tokens, then most bloggers would give up on posting. That is simple as that. Rewarding people with tokens, which are failing to hold value (which almost 100% would be the case) is not a way to go. We would end up killing HIVE as a blogging platform and most communities would simply vanish.
Right now Project.Hope is rewarding authors posting within our community with an upvotes, which allows authors to receive hive/steem tokens that they have some trust. If I were forced to launch my own token, create tribe and on top of that build trust and value to HOPE token -> then I would give up. Knowing that I'm destined to fail.
If I were to change anything with communities, then I would add some functionality allowing set up automatic beneficiary on all post published within such a community. So those who manage communities and invest their own time (manual curation) would also enjoy some rewards. Right now community leaders are struggling with lack of resources to push their communities growth. PH is great example how setting up beneficiaries can be used to benefit everyone participating within a community.
Stay safe and have a great weekend,
Yours, Piotr
By your won admission the Hive and Steem tokens are failing so I wouldn't hang your hat on the fact that they upvote content. That is why I suggested the tokens would need to have more utility than just staking to earn more. Many projects do only that and have failed or stagnated.
In the US setting a beneficiary isn't a huge deal because the amount we make posts couldn't buy you a cup of coffee. For others that percentage they give up could mean a meal(s) for a night or week. Because of that I feel communities need more tools that just people setting beneficiaries to help them grow.
Hi @bozz
I fully agree on that part.
I wish steem and hive would be more "open" towards advertising. I think all succesful centralized social media proved, that advertisers are necessary for them to survive and flourish.
STEEM and HIVE could be used by advertisers to pay for those ads.
ps. hope to see you posting within PH community more often :)
Cheers, Piotr
I agree, advertising would go a long way towards keeping the chain(s) viable.