Warning: This might be a rant.
At least, it isn't likely to be a super thoughtful post that looks at the nuances of interaction on Hive, or the various implications of one behaviour over another and whatnot. It is shaping up just to be more of a ranty observation of a conversation that is old as time (the chain) and much older as well - because it involved human behaviour.
Essentially, people work on incentives, and when there is "money" involved, the incentive is to take advantage of whatever loopholes there are to get as much of the "money" as possible. And, since this is a crypto-driven platform that allows a high degree of anonymity, there are plenty of maximisers out there willing to come up with all kinds of schemes to make themselves as much as possible.
A few years ago, probably before many of you can remember and on another chain, there was a massive problem with bidbots on the platform, where people were paying to get upvoted. I am not going to go into the specifics, but suffice to say, they were terrible for the community, for real users, but the blockchain could be used to do it, so people did it. The only counter for this was to downvote, to make the cost of buying the vote more expensive than the value gained from the vote, and that only really became possible because the "price" of downvoting was taken away and stake could downvote 2.5x a day without losing voting power.
The bidbots soon disappeared.
Well, in some form. But they have returned in many ways also, which has been highlighted recently by a few, like @acidyo and @pharesim, so I am not going to get into that much either. But, what I will say is,
What the fuck is wrong with people?
I get it - people want to make money, but what the hell happened to understanding that the trade for money is by adding something of value, which generally takes effort, but also requires demand. If people are buying their votes through delegating to some "initiative" or another, they must think their own work shitty enough that it doesn't deserve to earn. Or, they are just too lazy to produce something and then engage with the audience to build up a follower base over time. I get it, it is difficult, and I get it, English might not be a first or even second language, and I get it, times are hard, and I get it, it is difficult to draw attention here, and I get it, it takes a lot of work and time, and I get it, people want and perhaps need to earn something pretty fast...
But Hive is not a bank.
The other day I came across someone who has earned a massive amount of HIVE over the years and has a high reputation, but has around 2000 HIVE POWER and a one cent vote. I am the last one to tell people what to do with their HIVE once it is in their wallet, but if a person who is earning well is selling pretty much everything they get, it means they don't give enough of a fuck about the community to give anything back. They are unwilling to leave their stake powered up and distribute it to others on the platform who are trying to build a presence here too. They are extractors only - and no matter how good their content is, they will never invest themselves into the community to give anything back. They will never grow their stake to support people like themselves, let alone anyone else on the platform.
They are leeches.
Again, like selling and buying votes, leeches are nothing new on Hive, nor in the world. But also again, what the fuck is wrong with people? Yeah - do what you want with your stake, sell what you want of it, but when these same people who have been selling get downvoted by people who actually kept stake powered up, distribute it, and give a shit about the platform provide a few downvotes, they are the first to complain about it being unfair.
If someone is earning well and selling all they get, they are a cost to stakeholders, not a benefit. Personally, I don't give a shit how good their content is or how many people like them, if they are not staking up a chunk of their earnings, if they are not spending their time being part of the community, and the only thing they are doing is posting so they can extract their earnings, they don't deserve to be earning.
Hive doesn't provide social security.
Social security on Hive comes from being part of the community, and just like any tribe, if a member is not providing adequate value in return for the value they use, they are a cost to the tribe. At some point, they have to learn how to be valuable, or they need to be cut away - like a cancerous growth.
We all like to earn. We all dream about a future where we can sell use Hive to live a better life. We all want to improve our financial position, or have more opportunity. But, the way many people are going about it is exactly why the world is in such a shitty condition now. Jut because you can be a dick, doesn't mean you have to be a dick.
And if you don't know you are acting like a dick by selling and buying votes, if you don't know you have been acting like a dick by extracting everything you earn and not supporting others - well, it proves you are a dick - especially if you have been here for a long time. It shows you are a thoughtless maximiser who only looks at what you can get now, without thinking about what that means for others, or what it even means for yourself long term.
So, are you a dick, or just supremely ignorant?
I think that might qualify as a rant...
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]