How it was.
When I initially joined hive, the platform seemed so intimidating that I couldn't even tell anyone about it. Those who insisted joined and I made them understand that hive is difficult, it's not easy to earn from the platform.
Throughout the initial period I joined, it was difficult for me to navigate through and that made me abandon my account until 4 months later.
I should say that the job I was doing at that time didn't give me enough time to thoroughly explore the hive blockchain. In summary, hive seemed like a difficult platform, I didn't feel connected to anyone because I had not engaged with anyone I felt like it was just a boring place to be.
What changed?
Around September, I decided to take my time to explore the platform, although I still wasn't consistent with publishing posts, I tried engaging as much as I could by joining contests and all. After a short while, I started enjoying the time I was spending here as I could understand the platform better. Thinking about it now, joining a community, and being active there is one way a newbie can feel among. I was very consistent with joining in the weekly contests and a few times, I was among those who won, this also encouraged me to do better, I was intentional about being the best I can be.
How it is going.
My experience on hive has been a wonderful one filled with learning, earning, fun and fun. I am now addicted to hive and trust me, it's a good addiction. Now being here to me isn't all about what I earn but I must be sincere, the Friends I've made here are dear to my heart even though I haven't met them personally. Money is also a motivation because money is needed for a data subscription and bills payment which is important to be active.
My thoughts on plagiarism and vote begging.
Plagiarism is also known as stealing. In a blockchain like a hive, users are expected to publish only an original post so they know they are being paid for their work. Publishing someone else's article and getting paid for it is considered stealing. If everyone starts plagiarising, the blockchain will lose its value because there would be nothing special about it. Publishing a unique post is one of the things that make the blockchain valuable. Those who plagiarise are usually punished for plagiarizing and it isn't always nice. It's better to not engage in it at all.
Vote begging.
This isn't ideal because it would only give people the wrong impression about you. It's wrong to send your post link to people asking them to upvote it unless it was requested. This is frowned at.
Post recycling.
Post recycling simply means republishing a post that has already been published. Doing this would not only affect one's growth on the platform but it also has a way of making one lose the creative part of them. Other users who visited your post would no longer visit because they don't find it interesting anymore. In summary, recycling a post is bad for your blog as it may attract downvotes that may ruin your reputation.
How helpful has this post been to you in understanding Markdowns?
It has given me more insight into basic and important things one needs to know on the hive blockchain. There are a few markdowns I knew before reading and watching the video on the post. A few are, justifying text, moving text center, separating two languages in a blog post
I've been able to learn more markdowns which I'm certain would make my blog more attractive and neat so that my wonderful readers keep finding my posts attractive. I should probably publish a different post about those markdowns.
Learning and knowing how to use these markdowns are important for every newbie as they would make us good content creators and a plus is making our content look professional.
Applying a proper markdown on a blog post would also aid our growth on the platform. I'm sure there are lots of people who know what a lazy writer's blog looks like.
Earnings on a good blog post are seen to be well deserving. However, a lazy writer who doesn't make any effort in improving his or her writing skills would find it difficult to be successful here. Don't blame anyone.
We just need to keep doing what do while making sure that it's our best, our good work would certainly pay off soon.