It's been a minute since I had a little window of time (and an idea), to write a post, but here we are! For those that wonder, as the responsible one in the family, I've been busy fixing "family things" IRL, while racing to catch up on content that I'd been falling behind with elsewhere.
If it wasn't for me, the drug-addicted grifters in my family would be running even wilder than they are now. So from time to time I've gotta reach in to protect the beloved elders from having their assets completely drained by these substance-abusing Vampires.
That's what I've been doing.
I haven't left Hive and have absolutely no plans to, but periodically I have to dip out to take care of real-life stuff and recharge my creative juices, as I tend to write only when I have something to say. I refuse to post junk just to "get something out" as I write from the heart and enjoy doing so. I will never allow Chat GPT to write my posts for me. Everything you're reading came from my own head.
You went from writing posts in broken English to SUDDENLY creating articles in perfectly flowing prose? As Joe Rogan would say: GTFOOH! We know who's cheating with Chat GPT. It’s so fucking obvious. Stop using the "English isn't my first language" excuse, and get off your lazy lard ass and learn, or better yet post in the language you DO know.
You'll never develop into a good writer naturally by cheating or copying and plagiarizing someone elses work. Its soul-destroying. Stop stealing content and copying people from English-speaking countries. Don't be a dick. Learn how to write better naturally. Get it done.
So I got to thinking about all of the people I've followed over the years here on Hive and it made me wonder about who we follow and why.
"This Ain't My First Rodeo"
This took me back to the early days of Steemit in the spring of 2016 when I was notified about the platform, popped on over and decided it had to be a scam because no way anybody was actually making $1,000 for writing a post.
However due to the fact that I'd been on hiatus from writing on Blogger for a few years due to a foreigner plagiarizing my content (there was no Chat GPT back then in order to cheat with), I saw the utility of combining blogging and crypto, and kept coming back to Steemit.
I didn't post back then, but I lurked, each day my faith that the platform might actually be legit, growing stronger. Before the year was out (2016), I believed everything was kosher and was in learning mode, trying to pick up as much knowledge about the place as I could.
I didn't want to go in half-cocked, and wanted to start strong with my first post. So I watched video tutorials on YouTube, and read the many posts that explained exactly how Steemit worked.
So I started following good Steemians who were observing best practices, so that when I was ready to write that first post I was already locked and loaded.
Many of the people you call whales today were brand new back then. I got to see them back when they were slumming it with their "crappy" early posts and no followers or hardly any upvotes.
Before They Were Whales...
That's why I know these whales are actually human just like you and me. You see them now flush with followers and regular earnings, all dolled up like Hollywood movie stars. But I saw them back when they were figuratively sleeping on a friends sofa, broke, no makeup, farting in public, scratching their ass, picking their nose and eating the boogers. :)
Yet there was something there with them, you know what I mean?
They kept showing up day after day even though their posts were getting almost no support. Even more inspiring, they liquidated assets and invested back when we were still in Steemit's early days. In short; they believed, and put their money where their mouth was.
So I started following them and by the time I felt ready to write my first post on Steemit, I was already aware of and following best practices.
For example: somebody (I don't remember who), taught me the folly of listing photo credits at the top of the page under the photo, as that started out your post as "Photo Credit: Pixabay" instead of your chosen intro paragraph containing your chosen keywords and phrases. This had the potential of fucking up your SEO on Google, which is why I decided to list my credits at the bottom of each post.
I still see people making this mistake today, and you can see it on LeoFinance where their opening line is a photo credit instead of the actual content. So little things like that caused me to follow and interact with a person because they seemed to get it and were living their example day after day.
So Who Do You Follow And Why?
Other people that I followed had an expressive way of writing and/or an expertise in a certain subject. I had very little money to invest back then (and still don't today), but I'm always happy for the success of others. I remember those days when the future whales slogged through it not knowing what the future would hold. So it was inspiring to see them take that calculated risk, invest in the platform and grow over the years.
This is why I say that the people that you see doing well on Hive absolutely deserve it. I only wished I had the money to invest back then along with them, but all I was able to muster was about $500 which I put into $STEEM back in late 2017 as the price was peaking.
I know, bad timing, right? But that was the window where I had a little bit of money with which to invest with, so I did. Before the great purge sparked by the downvoting gangs, there was a rich variety of voices to interact with, and I'm glad that I was around to experience that.
So no, I don't follow everybody that I run across, having learned from that mistake back in the early days of Twitter. Everyone that I follow has a unique perspective which I enjoy whenever I read them. So I'd love to hear your take: Who do you follow and why? What is it about them that keeps you coming back for more?
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Image Credit: [1] @EverNoticeThat Created using Canva.
i remember the glory days of steemit. i didn't post a lot, and when i did, i had no idea what i was doing or what to write about. it was definitely a wild ride seeing people earning $500 on a post or more. my brother was one of them. he's no longer around on Hive though. i have a similar perspective. i know that 60% of the people that i see active now won't be in about 3 months. i'm particular about who i follow.
Hey, I noticed you used Threads back in March. The User interface works better now, maybe you want to give it another try!
IKR? This place isn't for everybody, but it was the answer for me after I'd stopped posting on Blogger due to having my posts copied and re-posted under someone elses byline.
The real question is why do people like you and I stay? The swings in the token price over the years hasn't run us out, so their must be something along with community that keeps us coming back again and again. For me, it's the fact that I learned about crypto back when Satoshi was still posting, and I instantly GOT crypto. Combine two of my favorite things; crypto and blogging, and voila! you have my new home on Hive. :)
I also "noticed" your little promo sig for #threads (that's smart). The only issue I have with the new site UI is that it appears to hide the posts! I checked on it yesterday, and had to hunt around to find them. Maybe they've rolled everything into #threads now, I don't know.
Yeah, I think I pretty much did the same thing!
I think a lot of the same folk are still posting away here, although many have dropped off since the Steemit days. As bitter as it ended up getting there, I do remember a great sense of community - maybe it was the heady days of 2017? I dunno. Whatevs, it was good, and I suspect some stayed at Steemit and never came over here.
Reminds me that I should have a sneaky peek who of the old-guard is still posting over there...
I looked recently, and you won't find too much written in English over there. I was one of the few that kept my Steemit account when the split happened as the memories of the Polish downvoting gangs was fresh in my mind and I wasn't about to delete years of content that I'd created.
That $500 I invested actually cost me almost $1000 because Coinbase wouldn't let me open an account due to being an American living in Germany. As I had a German residential address at my dorm, but all my ID listed my US addy.
So I had to use Paxful in order to buy Bitcoin in order to buy $STEEM at twice the cost. But it was fun seeing that token price go UP, UP, UP! :)
I just checked back into my old Steemit account and was surprised to see from my feed how many folk are cross-posting their Hive stuff over there too (and actually, getting fairly high votes!).
Quite surprising!
That is surprising! Maybe I was looking at trending, where the majority of posts are in an Asian language, making them unreadable to me. I've also never cross-posted, and wouldn't know how to do so, not even over here, never had an interest in it.
I haven't posted over there in years, and advised everyone not to delete their accounts, but to do what I do and make Justin Sun pay to support Hive. Every once in awhile, I go over there and collect my STEEM and SBD. I take that, turn it into credits on Splinterlands and buy cards. Some I keep and others I sell to buy $HIVE. I thought it was poetic justice that I'm doing my part so that Justin Sun is indirectly allowing me to buy $HIVE! :)
100%
I just learnt and am about to start applying the photo credit at the bottom now. The alternative I do sometimes is to embed the source in the image’s own code so that tapping the image takes you to the source. I like yours though. Sounds better and neater.
I guess I follow people who I feel like I connect with on some kind of level, either through their posts and comments or even shared interests like goals. It’s mostly based on the content they create though.
I smile in every time I read you mention about being there from the start. How cool is that? Seeing everyone start from ground 1.
I hope that things get easier with the offline family stuff and that you can be around here more also. Stay safe out there, man.
The other alternative is to post your first picture after your first or second paragraph. That way, Google crawls the text first, and that shows up in search instead of "Image Credit: Pixabay."
Thanks for the safe wishes. It's dangerous here. This is one of the top 5 most dangerous places and worst towns in my state. I hardly ever go out, especially at night as there's gunshots all the time.
I still think you or Josediccus will end up a millionaire out of all of this. You'll take the seed money you make here and start a business which will allow for a comfortable living for both of you. God bless you and your family, and have a blessed rest of 2023. :)
Hopefully we’ll all be living comfortable lives by the next bull
Bad timing, of course. The truth is that in 2017, almost everyone was a rookie and I believe crypto has a way of messing people up before it actually educates, informs and sets them straight so, do not really blame yourself.
I don't know a lot about image sourcing and this might be because I create my own images. However this information will really come in handy TBH
It's like everything else isn't it? We learn more from our struggles than we do from our successes. On images, my plan is to one day get that iPhone that I want and maybe some inage-editing software to do the same. There's nothing quite like "rolling your own!" :)
Yes I think we basically learn from our failures because of the impact and the shock of becoming knowledgeable from consequential experiences. It's part of the whole process I guess.
Of course there is nothing like creating what you own especially because it will be designated for what you are exactly writing.
Yay! 🤗
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It's always inspiring to read about the old days on Steemit and how current whales were rookies figuring things out and putting in the work.
The tip about image sourcing is really helpful, I'll make use of it somewhere. I mainly follow active people who I resonate with their content, their style of writing or topics of interest. I'm all for networking and broading my horizon, there's a rich diverse information here.
Hope everything gets better out there IRL. Best wishes :)
Hello @evernoticethat
I'm surprised that I haven't come across you before now, you write really well and I've enjoyed reading the couple of your posts I have. I haven't even been on Hive for a year yet, but I've read and heard about the Steem days and how things got so horribly out of control. In a way, I'm glad I wasn't around because it would have made me so angry. I got a kick out of you collecting your Steem and converting it to Hive, that's a little bit of revenge, I love it.
The whales doing stupid shit in the old days? That must have been fun to see. I think that people mature on the platform and find that as they become more serious about it, they are expected to be responsible and act like leaders.