This opinion piece is in response to @jaynie's Share Your Thoughts Challenge published a couple of days ago.
NOTE: Cᴏɴᴛᴇɴᴛ ᴛʜᴀᴛ I sʜᴀʀᴇ ɪɴ ᴛʜɪs ᴘᴏsᴛ ᴀʀᴇ ᴍʏ ᴏᴡɴ ᴘᴇʀᴄᴇᴘᴛɪᴏɴs ᴀɴᴅ ᴅᴏ ɴᴏᴛ ᴇxᴘʀᴇss ᴛʜᴇ ᴏᴘɪɴɪᴏɴs ᴏʀ ᴠɪᴇᴡs ᴏꜰ ᴀɴʏ ᴄᴏᴍᴍᴜɴɪᴛʏ ᴏꜰ ᴡʜɪᴄʜ I ᴀᴍ ᴀꜰꜰɪʟɪᴀᴛᴇᴅ.
POSSIBLE FACTORS (HIVE-CENTRIC) FOR THE RECENT PERCEIVED MALAISE
USER INTERFACE (UI) ISSUES
The HIVE Blockchain Network has recently gone through a fork of the code. We are all still experiencing application programming interface (API) issues which has frustrated a great many folks, I being one of them.
I am sure this will be worked out eventually, but patience is not in abundance in the 21st Century World Culture. HIVE Stakeholders are no different.
INACTIVITY OF THE ORIGINAL GANGSTAS (OGs) of STEEM/HIVE
Although these folks for the most part are alive and kicking, some have gone on to other pursuits. I personally miss the Pimp Your Post Thursdays (PYPT) Podcast which was an icon of our greater HIVE community. Many current HIVE influencers as well as community leaders got their start on that weekly show.
It is not my place to give conjecture for the inactivity of these OGs. It feels like a great loss to many of us regardless.
CURRENT PRICE OF $HIVE COIN
Although in no way an indicator of the health of the HIVE Blockchain Network; it can be discouraging for long-time HIVE HODLERS to see the deflated price of the native blockchain coin. Those that have been here three years or longer remember much higher values. Although many of us try to put a positive spin on things, (e.g., HIVE is at discount, time to stack)... well, you know what I am saying.
SPAMMERS, VOTE FARMERS, TROLLS. ARE THEY REALLY?
Yes, there are some still with us. Problem is: some newcomers receive these labels unjustly. The unwritten etiquette of the HIVE Community is not easy to navigate for everyone. We are an international melting pot of many different cultures.
There are those that are, at times, afraid to post because they do not understand our unique Western Miss Manners standards when it comes to plagiarism (claiming another's work as our own); spamming (seeking attention); farming (ain't figured this one out yet, but I have an idea).
Then there are those that will mock the cultural politeness of these newcomers (which is their norm). This is the exception, not the rule, but I have seen it enough to see a problem.
Let us take for instance; we do not like what we define as spamming. Yet? Many influential HIVE individuals are doing that very thing on the more traditional social media sites and receiving incentives/rewards to do so!
Do you see where a newcomer could become just a little confused ? We can talk community all day long, but everyone wants to make some dough, moula, coin, dinero, cabbage!
What kind of bee don't fly? A NEWBEE!
—Traditional Greeting to young Marines at their first unit; Quote courtesy of My Marine Corps
Maybe we should leave the hazing to fraternities/sororities and Marine Corps Corporals and Sergeants. Let us not forget when we started on this blockchain journey and had to navigate the obstacles we came upon.
I need to work on my gruff, elitist and duplicitous bearing as well, so not throwing shade as it will boomerang back and hit me in the grape! I am, after-all, a legend in my own mind!
POSSIBLE FACTORS (REAL WORLD) FOR THE RECENT PERCEIVED MALAISE
THE HOLIDAYS
Historically engagement drops off during this time of year. Thanksgiving, Christmas, Chanukah—people are planning or adding appointments in their DaytimersTM for Holiday gatherings and such. Busy shopping for presents. Dealing with hyped-up children.
This year is different. With the following playing a factor:
- Political Instability (Worldwide)
- Economic Uncertainty and Hardships (Worldwide)
- Health Pandemic (Covid-19)
- Separation from loved ones and extended family (Worldwide)
- Increased Tribalism and Violence (Worldwide)
- Mental Health Issues (Worldwide) Caused by 1-5 of this list!
Not much more to be said here. I think I have just stated the obvious. When it comes to the state of planet earth and its bi-pedal intelligent(?) mammal inhabitants, I believe we are all experiencing a little fear, uncertainty, and doubt (FUD)!
So those are my perceptions of what is going on. The HIVE Blockchain Network is fine. It will remain so, not by depending on the witnesses to fix everything. Not by the community leaders saving the day.
The health of this chain is
dependent on YOU and ME.
♦ LET US GIT 'ER DONE! ♦
I'm still all in, I had a 5 year plan, never spent a dime I couldn't afford to lose and am just about to hit year 3....So even at the low prices, I'm still stacking when i can.
That being said...There are some very exciting things happening. The building is still strong...The drama seems to have toned down a bit though....That's always good for some page views LOL
Lol I must be living in a different world as I haven't had this much fun on Hive for a while! I've been enjoying life on LEO with my crypto posts and been sharing my music too, have had more comments than before in recent months and even appearing in the top 10 on the engagement leagues the last few weeks.
I stay away from discord and do almost all my interacting out here so probably miss a lot of the dramas and politics you mention. Yeah price is down, but I have been buying like a mad man, as theycallmeDan says, we can't control what happens with the price so try not to focus on that.
I think covid has drained everyone this year though, it's not just Hive, online activity across the board is down as people have had to readjust to having our world's turned on its head.
Those are my worthless thoughts anyway!
Keep smiling!
I'm still here and still having a lot of fun. The Hive community is great and keeps me going. I am surprised to have not seen more activity this year. A lot of people had more time on their hands and could do with extra income.
The hardfork could have been better, but there are lots of things going on in various projects that give me hope. Maybe we can reach the tipping point soon. If Hive went to millions of users then it would be quite different. Spam and abuse would increase and we need to be ready to deal with them.
Hive five!
!BEER
There are a great many things to be excited about on our little Network, indeed.
Posted Using LeoFinance Beta
This is so true. I know a lot of people have stepped away from social media too because they just want to get away from all this stuff and it's saturated social media as well. The people that are trying to avoid #6
I will say HIVE is a much more pleasant place to be than other places in that regard, still people are unplugging more because of all this.
View or trade
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BEER.The learning curve on this blockchain is steep. I can see how people would get confused why some norms on other platforms are ok to do while it's a no no here. A case of sharing someone else's content without denying rewards. You can do that stuff on other social media platforms, promote the original content creator or pretend to overlook the crediting part and you can still get away with it. Here the impact becomes more serious because one an get real financial rewards for something they didn't work for.
It's difficult to orient a lot of new users popping in and out of the platform. Instructions have to be tailored to their language and culture. There are a lot of misunderstandings when a simple reckless sharing of content becomes a cause for controversy for the new user.
I noticed this too and it's just being rude.
At what price of the token will it become time to cut bait and take losses after these three years?
I am -99% down. I would be an idiot to bail at this point!😄
Yes to all of that - and I think the number one factor is Hive price - as with Steemit, as soon as it goes up everyone starts posting more, but at 11 cents they all shut up and pack a sad.
Thank you for engaging and I do agree with you. Quality content is hard to find now-a-days, but actually this is the best time to post!
Thank you oh great and wonderful wizard of REHIVERY. I bow to your AI skills! 🈴😁