First and Foremost: You're A Hiveian When You're In Hive

In that article, crypto platforms were likened to virtual countries. Conventional countries often rule with violence, but virtual countries rule with code and consensus. Also, unlike traditional countries where citizenship is often designated by birth, virtual countries' citizenship is voluntary in nature. If you don't like the governance of one crypto platform, you can choose not to participate in that platform. The case of Steem and the birth of Hive is one test case of this idea. In case your living under a rock, Hive was a product of a community rallying against centralized control. This means that the citizens of one virtual country can simply choose to move away from that country if they don't like how they were governed. No need for unnecessary spilling of blood.

Another reason why I wanted to post this now was because of a conversation in Discord about one country where people are plagiarizing. To be fair, all countries have serial plagiarists and I'm not proud to share that even our own elected Philippine senator was caught "plagiarizing" his privilege speech, not just once but many times I've heard. It's not an accusation, you can look that up in the internet and you'll be the judge. If you'll ask where's my nationalism and stuff in sharing these things, I'll say that only when we accept and confront these things head on will help us move forward.

Now I'm just stating the obvious, but you should not be tied back to your own country when you're participating in Hive. What I mean is that there are certain behaviors that are exhibited by the citizens of any traditional country that are not in tune with the consensus in Hive and you should go beyond that. First and foremost, you're a Hiveian when you're in Hive. It doesn't mean you don't have a sense of nationalism; it means you're trying to live by the basic principles Hive symbolized. Saying otherwise means you're just here for the money and that's not sustainable.

Hiveian, Hiver, whatever you call yourself, when you voluntarily participate in Hive, you should live to the ethical standards by the community. Of course you have the freedom to do whatever you want, but don't expect others to like you if you exhibit trashy behavior, especially if you don't have a significant stake. Having a significant stake is not an excuse to be trashy either as you have the whole community to be against you.

There are a lot of communities in Hive and some of them represents the Hiveians that are living in a particular country. For example, we have the Hive PH community which aims to onboard more Filipino users to the platform. That's noble and I totally support that. For new users, it's a comfort zone where they are incubated to learn more about Hive. It's good that you have this sense familiarity as you speak the same language with them. It's good that you learn from the people who came before you in a manner that you're sheltered. You will also be having support by default.

It's not always the case, but the problem will start to emerge when you're sheltered for a long time that you picked up a habit of your community that are deemed inappropriate by the rest of the people in Hive. You might be thinking that you can just get away with it because there's your community that's backing you up.

In my years of observing conversations in different Discord channels, there's a pattern that emerged especially in plagiarism. In the US and Europe, they have a strong sense that plagiarism is theft and there should be consequences when you commit such crime. In other parts of the world, however, plagiarism is a gray area. They might have known it's bad, but they have an idea that they can just lie to get away with it. And they still have their communities that may continue to support them regardless of what they've done.

_{Disclaimer: I'm not pointing out any community in particular. It's just that there's a pattern that I observed when it comes to plagiarism. Some serial plagiarists are often too good at what they're doing that they fooled curators for a long time. It happened that curators are now very wary of excuses. When caught, because they will eventually get caught, they have some of the lamest excuses like they're not the one who posted, but their cousins, aunt, friends, or brother. No one in their right mind shares their password to anyone, at least for me.}

Here in the Philippines, we have the Intellectual Property Law and we had seminars about it in college. We were taught about proper attribution of work, but not everyone will follow because of a very few cases where people are actually punished. That's why I always warn newbies here to never put work that's not your own without the permission of the rightful owner and without proper attribution. I will also not condone to any plagiarism committed by a Filipino. I will be the first to condemn the act. As I've said in one of the conversations, it's the job of those who knew to hold their countrymen accountable to their actions.

There's what we call as displaced nationalism. You thought you're doing service to your countrymen, but you're just actually sheltering them from the possible consequences of their actions and that makes you an accessory to the crime.

Another grave mistake that newbies commit is the idea that Hive is just an earning opportunity. While it's true that you can earn from posting or commenting, you have to work for it. Because they are sheltered and supported by the community they're in, they often became complacent and just post anything without regard of quality. Unless the stake of your community is large enough to give significant upvote value, it won't work. Even if your community has a large stake to support, if they just upvote without certain criteria, they will not get away with it. Downvotes are created to combat these kinds of behavior.

Instead of an earning opportunity, I think of Hive as a networking opportunity. It's a good way to connect with like-minded individuals from all around the world. It's a good way to gain friends even if you haven't meet in person yet. While still in support with your community, go out from your comfort zone. Learn to network with people who have the same interests. Earning will follow once you have done your networks.

I always blabber about quality because I really value quality, but it's not everything there is in order for your posts to gain value. Sometimes the value of your post is determined by the value of your network. Some people hopped in Discord channels claiming that they post quality content, but no one sees them. That's not shocking because some curators include your engagement to the community as one of the criteria in upvoting. If you lack in engagement, they might pass by your content and give their upvotes to those with the same quality as yours, but with impeccable engagement in Hive.

When you're in Hive, leave your nationality behind and be a true Hiveian. Be a global citizen and strip yourself of any negative behavior that's associated with your own people. That's not something to be regarded as less nationalistic, but an opportunity to improve. I hope no one will accuse me of being less Filipino because I will definitely expose negative behaviors that we have, but good thing there's no major exposé yet.

P.S. I felt I am compelled to share this here once and for all. If you have admired me for my work and for the causes I stand up for, I really appreciate it. Thank you! However, please don't think too highly of me. I'm not an influencer nor I demanded to be one. All I know is that I am here in Hive and not anywhere else because I believed in Hive to be a place where I can share and amplify my voice. That's why I'm a fully devoted Hiveian.

Also, saying "mataas pa naman ang tingin ko sayo (I see you with high regard)" will not invalidate my points nor deter me from speaking up for the issues I engaged myself with. Again, I'm not an "influencer" who might bend to your idea that we should sweep hard topics under the rug. It doesn't matter what you think about me. What matters is my work and the causes I believed in. Also, smart shaming me will not work. I have been smart shamed countless of times just because I happened to have a wider perspective on things. I am a pragmatist, that's why.

The problem with us Filipinos is when we are presented with facts and valid arguments, we invalidate those arguments by smart shaming the person who presented them instead of scrutinizing the argument or verifying the authenticity of the presented facts just because it goes against what were taught. I'm not a saint on this either as I have been guilty of attacking the person instead of tackling the real issue at hand.

You might wonder why I added those issues here and what's the relation with this post. Let me tell you that as true Hiveians, we should strive to be global citizens. With Hive it is possible that we can coexist and work together even if we don't agree on all things.

Or everything I'm saying is pure BS. Maybe I should stick my travel blog. What do you think? Comment down below.

Kim Ybañez

_{Welcome to Kim's small corner in Hive. He is a chemical engineer by profession, but a blogger by passion. He is a wanderlust and an adventure seeker. Join his quests as he visits secluded destinations, climbs mountains, tries new and exotic dishes, and explores his country (The Philippines) and the rest of the world even if he's still a poor corporate slave with tons of bills to pay and two siblings to support in college.}

_{If you like his content, don't forget to upvote and leave a comment to show some love. You can also reblog if you want to. Also, don't forget to follow him to be updated with his latest posts.}