~ The Other First Things That Are First ~

---

After such an incredible response to my How To Get A Great Start on the Hive Blockchain post and such great questions asked in the comment section, i decided to make a follow-up. I will try to answer those questions and explain a few other topics here as best i can. My purpose behind these posts is to help anyone and everyone understand this place a little better.

_{Free to use.✓ Photo by Suzy Hazelwood from Pexels}

I noticed it wasn't just new users but some that have been around the block for a while that were also helped by some of the information shared. If you haven't checked the other post you can definitely go see if it offers you any new information or a deeper understanding of some of the unspoken etiquette and inner workings here on Hive.

As a brief recap, i thought i might just hit the highlights and mention some of the things that we went over last time for those that won't be checking it out.

• Zero Tolerance for Plagiarism anywhere on Hive!
• Copy Pasta is Plagiarism
• Recycling old content or Posting the same post more than once is wrong

We went over a lot more than that but those were the main points of contention as far as what could end up getting you and your account off to a bad start or ruining all that you have built. Some of these issues will be mentioned again so i just wanted to refresh us a bit moving forward.

_{Free to use.✓ Photo by Suzy Hazelwood from Pexels}

Here are some of the highlights of what was mentioned as tips for success.

• Put effort into your content
• Engage your audience
• Engage the community

There was more than that too but i don't want to be too redundant. After posting that last one i was happy with what i said and shared... but i couldn't help but continue to dwell on and think of all the things i didn't share. I keep trying to think, "What do i wish someone had taught or told me in the beginning?!" So, let us go ahead and find out! hahaha

_{Free to use.✓ Photo by Suzy Hazelwood from Pexels}

~ Nothing is Free ~

One of the things to consider, whether you have been here for a while or are just getting started, is that nothing here is free. What i mean by that is that just because crypto or money is involved that things don't work the same around here. This is not a pay-to-play environment, but your cost will come in the forms of time, effort, engagement, consideration, and understanding.

You wouldn't be here now reading this if you weren't willing to consider and put effort and time into understanding... so you should already see what i mean.

One of the easiest mistakes early on one can make is to compare yourself and your content to others. Just because another account gets more traction and upvotes and/or rewards doesn't mean you are entitled to the same response, even if your stuff is 100 times better. Having said that, if you continue to produce content that much better consistently, then you will most likely surpass that person in time.

Your reputation number next to your name is based on upvotes given to your account. The more you get voted on comments and your posts the higher that number will go. I wouldn't focus so much on that number but usually (not always) the higher that number the longer folks have been around. The longer someone has been around the more time they have had to develop an audience and a following.

One of the best tips i can give to new and old users is to just do your thing. Do what you do, engage, and create content and just keep on keeping on. If you consistently do this, it will be difficult not to grow or catch people's attention eventually.

If you put in the time and the effort and keep your quality to the highest level of your ability, then you will find the cost isn't all that high. The connections you will make and the rewards that may come will all make this labor of love something well worth your time and efforts. Don't be as focused on rewards more than you are focused on your own quality of contribution.

~ The Rewards Pool ~

_{✓ Free to use. Photo by Anastasia Chaplinskaya from Pexels}

I used this image above for a reason. A great analogy i can use to simplify and explain the rewards pool here on Hive is a pie, so i used that image of a nice Blueberry pie. Everyone that comes to Hive is fascinated with the rewards and payouts and potential to make money. Since it's cryptocurrency it can be quite complicated and technical to explain. Rewards and cryptocurrency do not just come out of thin air.

The best way i can oversimplify the process is to say that the Hive Blockchain Network is a baker. Every day this baker bakes a nice Blueberry pie. When that pie comes out of the oven it's divided among all the users on the Hive Blockchain according to their Staked Hive. This allocated pie that each user gets is not for them to eat but rather distribute out to other users.

So, the bigger your stake... the bigger your share of the pie is to give out. Upvoting is your way of giving out your pie. It's really a win win win scenario. Giving is incentivized. Self-voting is one of those etiquette things that aren't particularly wrong but many see as being not totally right.

One of the best ways to grow your account is to power up your Hive. The more Hive Power you have, the bigger your vote becomes in value. The bigger your vote value is the more you can share. The cool thing is that when you vote on posts part of the curation comes back to you. So, you can organically grow your account just by voting. You don't even need to make content on your blog to grow. You can just use your daily voting power to curate the content you enjoy and be rewarded for using the system.

~ Don't Get Greedy ~

_{✓ Free to use. Photo by Thought Catalog on Pexels}

Don't try to game the system for rewards. Making shitposts that have little to no effort and making them frequently is considering spamming. Making multiple accounts to upvote yourself from different angles is considered farming.

Though many of you think to yourselves, 'Who would do that?'... the answer may shock you. Many scammers, spammers, and farmers are trying to game the system every day. It's sad and ruins a lot of the generosity and fun around here for many.

This is the exact reason so many of the veterans and larger staked accounts have heavy hands with the downvotes or little to no tolerance for the etiquette. We have all been around enough to know that scammers are gonna scam. Don't be one of them, please.

_{Don't Spam}

You are free to post as much and as often on your own blog. (When you make a post make sure and check to add to your own blog in the settings.) However, if you post into a community too many times it could be considered Spam posting. If you are engaging your comments and putting effort into your posts it's quite difficult to actually Spam.

Spamming is a red flag for low effort reward seeking. Cross-posting too much can possibly be seen the same. Being a curator for OCD and a moderator for many communities i see many veteran users post too frequently in the same community. Sometimes, even if the quality is very good it can be considered in poor taste to do this.

The last thing to reiterate in this regard is to post your content in a proper place. If you have art-heavy content... don't post it in the photography community even if technically you are taking a photo of your art. That's just an example, but you get the point. Reading the rules of a community and following their themes and guidelines is important if you want to make a good impact. People look as if they are trying to fish for rewards if they are just dropping posts with no regard for the community or theme behind the community they are utilizing.

_Tags

The other last thing (hahaha) i wanted to mention is about the Tags. If you notice the tags are topic tags. So, putting groups or topics that aren't relevant to your post in the tags is not what they are for. I see many people tagging users that they want to come and give their posts a big upvote. It doesn't work like that.

I am a curator for OCD and putting OCDB in your tags is a waste of tags. In fact, i am less likely to curate a great post if it has that tag. Besides, the posts are never about OCDB (which isn't even a topic)... they just put that tag to get rewards. Unless an initiative is saying they are giving rewards for using a tag... then you will get no rewards for using a tag.

If you click on a tag it will take you to posts that have that tag. Tags are only to find groupings of posts on certain topics. The best thing you can do is just use tags based on the topic of your post. Honestly, tags are my least favorite thing about posting. I am dreading having to think up ten tags for this post! hahaha

~ Gift of Giving ~

On the other hand, going back to the rewards pool, don't be too generous. Your voting power diminishes in value each time you vote. You have about ten 100% votes per day. This voting power recharges but if you go too crazy upvoting everyone and everything you will find that your voting power may be critically low and you will need to take a break to refill your votes.

_{Hive Voting Power}

I see this as a common mistake for newer users. The problem is not that you aren't giving out more valuable votes but also taking a hit on your own curation rewards as well.

You don't have to cast all your votes at 100% power either. The slider is available to split your votes into smaller increments as not to diminish your voting power as quickly and to be able to support more comments and content. This concept also works in reverse. If your account sits at 100% voting power then it's wasting rewards that you could be distributing and that means curation rewards you are also missing out on by leaving it on the table.

You can check your Voting Power/Manna by hovering over the i next to your name and reputation score on Peakd or here https://hiveblocks.com/@castleberry by just swapping my name out for yours in that URL after the @ symbol. Or, if you want a simpler way you can just type your name in the blank here https://hivestats.io/

_{Arnold Encourages You To Vote}

I wouldn't deter anyone from voting! I just want you to be informed so that you can make your votes count. Another thing to mention is that a post only stays open for voting for a seven-day reward window. Comments also have a seven-day reward window even if they are on a post that has already paid out. So, you don't upvote a post that has paid out... but you can upvote a comment that is on an old post if it's posted within the payout window.

If you happen to see an older post that you would like to vote you can leave a tip for the creator. On Peakd, by clicking the three dots next to where you would upvote, you will see a dropdown menu. In that menu is the option to leave a tip. However, if you want to use this feature you will have to have some HBD or Liquid Hive to tip with.

Another thing that bugged me forever until i was informed, which came up in the last posts' comments, was why the value of the post might go down after i vote on it instead of going up based on my vote value. Since Hive fluctuates in value, the price feed is updated when a vote is cast. If the value of Hive is down a bit since the last vote was cast then the outcome will seem like you are taking away rewards. I assure you, that is not the case. This also applies in reverse when the price goes up.

The last thing i wanted to mention about maximizing your votes and making them count the most is the timing of when you cast your vote. It used to be a big deal and matter a lot more in the early days... but i won't confuse things by explaining that.

I have it from a trusted source that the best time to vote is within the first 24 hours of it being posted. Your curation rewards take a small penalty if you vote past 24 hours, then again another penalty past 48 hours, etc each day. I don't think it's worth losing any sleep over but thought it wouldn't hurt to mention.

~ Front Ends ~

There are many front-end user interfaces for Hive. Too many to really get that deep into it. I tried to condense this post and make it as short, simple, and clear as possible. It's still probably information overload for many. My brain is fried just trying to keep it all coordinated in a way that makes sense.

_{Information Overload}

Many folks use mobile options to do their business on Hive. I personally use a laptop. So, there are many features and details that i can't speak to since i don't do the mobile functions. Some of the front-ends have their own angle or benefits for using them. If you have an account on one then your account is valid on all the others.

The user interfaces all just interact with the Hive Blockchain... so whatever you do on one, you do on all. The app to log in and keep your keys secure is the Hive Keychain extension. I use Brave browser and it works like a charm. If you don't have the Keychain i would highly recommend it. You can check that out here... Hive-Keychain.com. This secure extension will make all of your key usages much, much more streamlined, and easy.

_{Key Master}

Peakd.com and Hive.Blog are probably the two most commonly used front-ends. I prefer Peakd for many reasons. There seems to be more user options and information along with a sleeker look to the way the display is formatted in my opinion. You can check out in the profile drop-down menu the tools tab for some analytics and usage data. Then there is also Ecency.com which has an app for mobile users which seems to be pretty optimized as well.

There are also special interest front-ends like SplinterTalk.io if you are here for or from Splinterlands and that is your main area of focus. There is also LeoFinance.io if you are more interested in the crypto and finance aspect of the Hive Blockchain. It would be going too deep down the rabbit hole to discuss Hive Engine and tribe tokens and all the other special interests built into and on the Hive Blockchain. Maybe in future tutorials perhaps.

~ Back Ends ~

_{Not Those Back Ends}

For many of you, this may be too much information... but for others, these will be a couple of useful tools. One back-end site that can help you see a little bit behind the curtain is HiveBlocks.com. If you click that link you can see what my last post looks like in its 'behind the scenes' format. You can also do a search at the top of the page to look up accounts or posts. The information in the URL link can help you navigate more quickly there as well.

Another awesome Block Explorer was developed by one of our witnesses AusbitBank. (We can talk about Witnesses Next Time) You can play around here by searching for yourself or an account of interest and check out all the tabs there Hive.Ausbit.Dev. Once you get your legs underneath you here... some of this stuff is fun to look into.

If this stuff was over your head... please disregard it and just carry on. Apply whatever is informative and helpful, and maybe come back to some of this in the future if/when you think it will interest you.

~ Some Final Thoughts ~

_Duhhhh.....

Just some final thoughts and tips before we wrap this post up. I wanted to thank everyone for all your support. Thank you for your time reading my content and commenting. It's my hope that the last post, and this one as well, were helpful to you all in one way or another.

I know i probably missed a ton of stuff so feel free to ask your questions in the comments or mention what was helpful to you. I will try my best to answer and/or address your questions and concerns to the best of my ability.

I wanted to offer a special thank you to all the non-native English speakers here from all over the world. I think it often goes overlooked how much extra effort and time it takes you all to read and comprehend, write, and translate in order to get the most out of your journies here on Hive.

Many bilingual people do make their posts in their native language and then add English translations to supplement the post. Just an idea if that makes your experience creating content a more comfortable one. Also, you may want to seek to find out if your native country or language has a community of fellow comrades.

_{We Salute You}

It is a fact that learning how things go here on Hive can be a pretty intimidating and overwhelming endeavor. However, with a little help, we can all go a long way together. It's cool to consider that people from all over the world are here, building the future we want together on this new technology and all of its platforms.

This new social construct is bringing together like-minded people and having them reward each other for sharing common goals and interests. I am thankful to be a part of this revolution and glad to be helpful to anyone else that wants to join this party along the way. I am thankful for all of you who make this journey the experience of a lifetime.

_{I don't like Ketchup}

Thanks Again For Being Here

_{Bob Ross}