A recent Cointelegraph article made news about how a new WordPress plugin "can help with copyright issues, prove who created a piece of content, and to reassure readers it has not been altered" using Ethereum. Sounds familiar?
If you're reading this article on Hive, chances are good that you've taken it for granted for years that our blockchain provides such benefits. So what's different with the ethereum based plugin? Well, it asks for 6-25$ a month just to provide a timestamp on your posts on the blockchain. Probably due to needing to pay Gas fees to do so. And that's without mentioning how Hive provides a wide range of other complementary social features.
Have we really been this bad at promoting our most basic features that this becomes newsworthy? Let’s do something about that!
First of all, I would be grateful to anyone who'll like, share and help bring attention to our own tweet pointing this out here and/or comment to the cointelegraph article here (our twitter handle is exxpio).
Second, this should be more about promoting Hive, than about us (although our plugin is the alternative to theirs which would instead bring new users to Hive). And I believe we ought to take some lessons learned from this.
Lessons for us to learn
For years our blockchain has provided something unique and disruptive, yet people even in the crypto-space are hardly aware. So let's begin by acknowledging that we’ve failed miserably at communicating and marketing these unique attributes (for which there are many different reasons). I think one such reason is us getting so used to many of the basics of Hive that we forget how significant they are.
I'm talking about "small things" like having social account names, a social platform with a built-in wallet that follows you across different apps and websites. Or how similar to the Ethereum plugin, Hive provides real ownership over your own accounts, rather than making a password and user ID in someone else’s database, and provides an immutable record of content changes, enabling proof of originality.
In a way, I am feeling happy and encouraged about all of this. If such a simple product is newsworthy, then it means we have an untapped source of marketing material at our hands. I know I'll be spending the rest of my day working on a new tab for "Why blockchain" to explain these basics on our new website www.exxp.io
Please let me know what other "basic" elements about Hive you would like me to add there. Or even better, visit the new website and tell me what I've forgot to communicate!
Have a lovely weekend!
Fredrik
Just posted something you and your readers might like. https://hive.blog/hive-175254/@cryptographic/one-of-a-kind
Great initiative. We definitely need to do more to get the word out, and no time is better than now (since I think the long mark down period is over and now we've got a long mark up coming).
Thanks for drawing this to our attention. A couple of points:
Firstly, I have to agree with @alittlewhile regarding issuse related to hosting and/or WP packages. When the app was first launched, I had a basic WP package and through that, a domain name. However, I couldn't access the app. Eventually, a year in, I canned the .com and bought my own .net. Two reasons - I wanted to use the plugin and given our exchange rate, the WP packages that would "allow" me to use the plugin didn't justify the cost. Looking for a local host and reseller was/is a considerable saving.
Secondly, IMO, there are huge issues associated with marketing Hive. They're fragmented and inconsistent. They're often also conflictual (is there such a word?) because people do not agree and because they are often voluntary, it's easy to become distracted. I know that much work is being done on Twitter to raise awareness of Hive - excellent work - @stellabelle, @traciyork, @jeanlucsr (with #HiveChat) and also @nathanmars with his initiatives. They are not formally coordinated and, again, IMO, Twitter's not enough. I don't know the solution, but these are just my observations. Again, IMO, there is a case for a Hive-funded marketing project that's properly run, managed and implemented.
Finally thanks for this app and for bringing this to our attention.
The first point you raise is simply a WordPress thing. And there's no real way to provide a product like ours to people who don't own their own website the way you do with a proper hosting solution.
As for the second point, I fully agree. And that's why I think it makes more sense for each and every dApp and website to do its own marketing, and for Hive to piggyback the success of the different platforms using it. Rather than us trying to market Hive itself to people. (Or at least to "Normal" users. Marketing Hive to developers to come join our ecosystem, or for investors is another story).
I understand that, and I should have been a little more clear: WP in their blurb purports to offer a hosting solution which suggests, until one delves deeper, all the benefits of a self-hosted site. So, while I'm a great proponent of WP as a platform, I'm a little more circumspect about how they market themselves as a cost effective platform for aspirant/part time bloggers. As I discovered.
I agree. I still think that those initiatives need "proper" marketing support and it's in Hive's interest to shore them up as they're really the conduit to the blockchain. Developers are not marketers and vice versa. Each needs the other. Anyhow, either way, @exxp has my vote and I'll do what little I can to support those initiatives.
@fredrikaa
Worth mentioning some of the tools that already allow you to check the edit history of posts/comments and in which block your content was added (in an immutable way) into the Hive blockchain:
Indeed! I think making online media transparent, verifiable and trustworthy, as well as having proof of originality and tools to fight against bots are the real value propositions of Hive. Not censorship resistance or decentralized rewards.
- Introductory post for @keys-defender
- Automatic-posts on leak detection, weekly reports
Other features:
- Phishing protection
- Re-posting detection
- Shortened URLs preview and scan
That's true, and cool! But it would be ideal for UIs to be able to pick up whether or not an account is a bot, and display that (perhaps just with a small robot icon in the corner) so that users can tell.
Yeah, that's a good idea and it that shouldn't be too hard. Add a robot icon if a Hive API was used to interact with the chain and/or a human icon if one of the frontends was used (so for hybrid accounts display both).
After all no-bots is one of the pillars of Voice, so there's defo value in that.
I'm not into cryptos (even after more than two years first on that other chain and now on Hive) but I love when I tell people about Hive and make a show-and-tell and after a while they ask "And what is your wallet name?". My dear, that IS the wallet name ;)
Indeed. It's so much cooler to have it built in, where you can send tokens to the person you're interacting with rather than them having to provide a 20 digit address at the bottom of every piece of content begging.
Hi @muscara we have a Hive related crypto discord come on in and ask questions anytime! https://discord.gg/E6AU9GZ - just say hi to HiveQA!
While I agree that we take it for granted, I also think it's normal. We're not customers of exxp.io.
There's another way to look at the situation. It would be best if you didn't promote hive. You should promote your business and get customers from within or outside of hive. You are responsible for your own marketing. It doesn't matter how many users hive has.
You don't even need to mention hive. Just use it in the background. Look at Splinterlands and Leofinance with the Metamask logins. You could use your plugin to empower to earn content, keep it all in dollars, and convert everything to hive yourself using exchanges in the background. All that could be automated.
Use the chain to your advantage, and get your business going. Success is the ultimate promotion. No one will take you for granted if you're bigger than your eth competitor.
Traditional marketing channels and raising money the traditional startup way may not be bad in your case.
It's a lot of work to make the experience smooth and seamless, hiding hive completely. And marketing through traditional channels is also very hard. But I believe it's the right way to go in your case.
I agree. This story was less about our own plugin, and more about the fact that 1. The world seems to find value props that are taken for granted on. Hive as newsworthy, and 2. That we clearly need to promote those better (we being Hive stakeholders, not our team).
Fully agree that different apps/websites should market themselves first and foremost.
Another "hook" for normal people could be Haveyoubeenhere. Everyone loves to show travel photos to their friends and family :)
Ridiculous right? Hopefully this will be a great example for people to witness what is already present on HIVE.
I think the main takeaway is that we need to do a better job of letting the world know what we've got.
Indeed, and that is a hard one for me in terms of writing the proper things. But I am good on other things I know I can help with. So that’s how everyone should think. Find what HIVE needs and that you are good at, and help with that.
Thanks!
You are absolutely right in everything but it's obvious that the Hive community is too small to have a significant impact on the situation ...
$tangent
Congratulations, @asimo You Successfully Trended The Post Shared By @fredrikaa.
You Utilized 2/3 Daily Summon Bot Calls.
TAN Current Market Price : 0.230 HIVE
I think peeps also have to ensure their choice of web hosting will allow connection to certain plugins.
Back a couple years on our old blockchain, I tried to connect a Steem/WordPress plugin but my hosting wouldn't allow it.
That can be a tough change over if you've paid for 2 to 3 years of hosting. 👍
Congratulations @fredrikaa! You have completed the following achievement on the Hive blockchain and have been rewarded with new badge(s) :
You can view your badges on your board and compare yourself to others in the Ranking
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word
STOPTo support your work, I also upvoted your post!
Do not miss the last post from @hivebuzz:
I think marketing and token price is the reason why alot of new bloggers have not been on boarded too the hive Blockchain but I guess all this will pass in time
Very well said...
Amazing catch. Each and everyday Hive proving very useful on the chain. This is why I'm here!
@fredrikaa
Worth mentioning some of the tools that already allow you to check the edit history of posts/comments and in which block your content was added (in an immutable way) into the Hive blockchain:
Congratulations @fredrikaa, You Earned 0.537 TAN & Curators Made 0.537 TAN.
Join CORE / VAULT Token Discord Channel or Join UPMELINK Web Site
TAN Current Market Price : 0.310 HIVE