I Have Thought Long and Hard About This Post...
This is a very difficult post for me to make, and it will be fairly lengthy, but I think, also very needed for informational purposes on this platform. Please allow me to explain. As someone that has been a member of the Steemit platform for years, but is fairly new to the HIVE ecosystem, there are certain behaviors that to me, should not really be, let us say, approved of on the HIVE platform. When I first joined Steemit, a little over four years ago, one of the first things I did after joining was to join the Discord server for Peace, Abundance, and Liberty and I developed a lot of the way I looked at Steemit in general from the people that I met in that server. If you are not familiar with this server, I would highly encourage you to join it.
About this post...
Back then, downvotes could really do damage to your reputation score and at the very minimum, made you look bad within the community. Really, downvotes were saved for fairly egregious infractions of the different "community codes" that were in effect across the platform. For example, not labeling a post that was NSFW (Not Safe For Work - Adult) would likely result in a downvote, or using tags incorrectly, or in general, yes, just a bad post could result in a downvote, but downvotes are by far not what this particular post is about, although at first, it may seem so. This is about a set of "tactics" that at least one member of the HIVE community is using to get followers, and I feel that the other members should be made aware of this, as I said, if only for informational purposes.
Hold On Karen!
That type of terminology is part of what made me decide to make this post. You see, without "dropping names" or anything like that, some of the people that were involved with the original Steemit platform, and that are now involved with the HIVE fork, are at least as old, if not older than me. I was born in 1974, making me a Generation X guy, and by far not a "Boomer" in the normally accepted sense of the word. For example, I have been involved with crypto for at least four years, if not five, and I have been mining BTC for two years. I am very active in the crypto space, trading, defi projects, staking liquidity, and we are not going to discuss programming BASIC on Commodore computers, TRS-80's, playing Pong, and Atari, and going to see Star Wars opening day. Sorry guys, not a "Boomer." Let us be honest and talk about some investment thinking, the truth is, besides "institutional" money, the crypto space is patiently waiting for all of the "Boomer" money to begin the mass migration into crypto as the stock market loses dominance. That is the "moon" everyone is waiting for. Boomers are not so funny now, are they?
Social Media, Right?
That is the underlying "tone" I guess of this post, does the HIVE community see HIVE as a "Social Media" outlet, or is it something greater. I am personally someone that no longer is on Facebook and am only on Twitter to follow crypto, and to gauge what one side of the American political spectrum is doing. I do not go to YouTube for information, as it is slanted and information is throttled. Basically, my thinking is this, you have to work very hard to sift through all of the information you are given daily, just to get a decent gauge on the true state of the world we live in. That being said, one of the things that really bothers me about the current state of Social Media is the almost immediate assumptions and name-calling that happens there. Do not agree with someone? You are a Nazi! Or a Libt*rd, or a "Boomer," or a "Karen" or whatever "hip" name is currently being used. Another commonly used tactic is "trolling" or trying to get someone to say something you can use about them later. I am sure you all have experience with these tactics on Social Media, but until recently, I have not seen much of it take place here. That is what this post is going to outline, and hopefully, the HIVE community will give me some feedback on this. As someone that holds a BAS in Digital Media with a minor in Professional Communications, obviously, I have an interest in the communications field, in general, and blockchain technologies aspect in particular.
So What is the Deal?
I recently received a downvote on a post, but please, do not think this is a complaint about a downvote in any way, it is not. It is an open statement about the HIVE blockchain, and what it is and should be, to me, that is all. The "weight" of the vote did not affect my earnings, but I was genuinely interested in why the vote had happened. The post I had written was about earning crypto on the HIVE blockchain, by playing the CryptoBrewMaster game, and I had used the LEO tag, as it was a post about crypto. It was not a chart-heavy analysis post, it was simply a light-hearted post about playing a game and earning crypto. I felt it was a decent, but not by far, my best post. After I received the downvote, I sent the following comment on one of his posts (Keep in mind I am attempting to keep names covered, although it is likely easy to find)
I then looked around and soon found this...
and then this...
At this point, I began to get irritated and looked around more, where I found this...
Like I said, I am someone that is big on manners and respect, so I really began to wonder what was going on here. I saw this response to someone...
Being someone who is very willing to speak his mind, which is one more reason why I do not frequent social media any longer, I decided to send another message to this person, under the above post that was a response to someone else, and that went like this...
Yes, that was a bit confrontational, yes, but at this point, I was seeing this guy as a bully, and another thing not high on the list of good things, is bullying. This guy to me, was just playing games, and in my opinion, hurting the HIVE ecosystem. I soon received this response...
So, wondering what was going on, of course I went and found this...
And then this...
So now, of course, I am a little angry. To me, this is not only bullying at this point, it is trolling to get followers by using downvotes in some strange way! What kind of idea is this, and who came up with it? That is really a question because I do not know if this is some legitimate way to get followers here now, I know that when I left Steemit, this type of behavior would have been at least highly frowned upon if it was not somehow a violation of the rules outright, from the way I remember things running "back then," and I say it that way because things get better quickly. I decided to respond with a longer, more detailed explanation, and again, yes I am capable of sarcasm...
As you can kind of discern, I was really attempting to end the discussion, and I did not want it to escalate, but of course, it did. The person responded to me again, like this, and to me, it was dismissive. At this point, I really just wanted him to acknowledge my point, and I really did not care about what I was now seeing as his "tactic" to get followers...
Again, not being one to be dismissed...
Here you can see that I am still trying to get the person to acknowledge that I have some sort of point so maybe we can continue the discussion somehow, or drop it. Remember, I started just wanting a reason for the downvote. Soon the real personality of this "wanna be" judge on the HIVE blockchain begins to show itself. I got this response next...
That last hashtag got my attention, Boomercringe, really? Again, I have considered Master's degree level dissertation thesis issues with social media. I could write about the consolidation of media channels and how the algorithmic pigeonholes affect everyone without them knowing it for days. As for the "Boomers" what this person is implying here is the oft thought misconception that age precludes being able to operate tech or get involved with crypto. As a Generation X person with an interest in educating the Boomers on how to not get scammed, and to get into crypto, an overlooked market, now I really had an issue with this person. Here was my next response...
He responded thus, and yes, I am being a bit confrontational, but I do not think I am really in the wrong here, although, at this point, I was feeling some pettiness in even responding anymore. I really want it to go away at this point, but I am still not someone to let disrespect and rudeness for no reason go, so when I got this...
Again, Boomer, and now, it is simply to dig, and be hurtful. Keep in mind, this is coming from some guy that wants to set himself up as some self-regulated overall HIVE critic. The response to me has up to now been a vague "I did not like your post," but yet, there is some desire here to be a critic in a way to gain followers. The person has an entire system set up for it. I even followed him, and all I get is, "I did not like your post?" So I sent this, and yes, it is almost done...
Here is where the individual gives me the out I wanted. No more name-calling, although they do continue to troll me to try to engage me, likely in an attempt to get me in some kind of trouble in hopes I would really lose my temper. Unfortunately for him, I did not respond again...
