A Back-To-Basics Hive Meet Up in Chiang Mai, Thailand

My Steem-Hive journey started over great vegan food here in Chiang Mai, Thailand, and thus it continues...

Today I had an AWESOME mini-Hive-lunch-meet-up with two SUPER COOL people. In fact, @kenistyles was the person who patiently explained crypto and then-steemit to me and onboarded me. It was March-April 2018, back in the heady days of $8.00+ for 1 steem, as I recall. And way back then, Keni and his partner, @iamjamie, were just starting their family.

But THEY are the people who sat with me, face to face, over great food and explained decentralization, and crypto to me. Keni was the motivator who started the SMG community long before Communities were ever a 'thing', and who explained to me all about community, commenting, originality, and the need for a censorship-free PLACE to record, report and to be transparent. It's through Keni and the SMG that I met @riverflows, @samstonehill and @karinxxl. 😍

And today, 4 years and 6 months on, there we were again - chatting over a great lunch about blockchain, community, the right to uncensored expression and the need for a stronger commitment to help ensure that Hive thrives.

What was incredibly special? That our values have remained rock solid, even though our posting consistency hasn't always matched that.

We talked a lot today about social media, about the NEED for the decentralized media to evolve and interface more with the non-nerd contingent "out there"... and we talked about Keni's Hive comeback, and what that might look like.

I was in the Netherlands for a month recently, but unfortunately couldn't quite make the #hivefest timing work. And I was really sorry to have missed it. Because I've LEARNED over time that community and connections are the glue that make Hive work on many levels, for many people. It's not about the platform, per se, but about the shared values of the people committed to using and evolving the platform.

I realize how much I've missed that one-to-one, chat about Hive over lunch 'thing'.

Was it a good lunch?? The food part was awesome, as always. A vegetable green curry, red rice and a beetroot-carrot-ginger juice. USD $4.50. from AUM Vegetarian, an old favorite of ours for many years

I realized after I got home that decentralized communities can't evolve easily when people sit in isolated bubbles. And that it's our shared values about the right to transparency, decentralization, community and value exchanges that aren't regulated and taxed which underpin so much of what many people simply see as a 'blogging experience".

Hive isn't a platform - it's an incubator.

How do I know that? When I got home I wasn't thinking nostalgically, but I was thinking forward into new ideas, new expressions and new projects that are about us living differently.

Externally, Keni, Jamie and I couldn't be more different. To start with, they are so much COOLER than I am. 😆 What I've learned in my years on Hive is the strength of diversity and the beauty of learning to allow no-censorship.

I DO BELIEVE we'll see Keni back on Hive very soon. His last post was December 2018! 😱 I REMEMBER distinctly wanting soooo much to have a rep score of over 60. And now mine is 74 and his is still the 'dizzying' (or so it seemed) 63 it was back then. I do really love that although people may not be active for months - or even YEARS - for whatever reason, that they can, and probably will, come back.

If I learned anything today, it's that consistency on Hive and sticking with it, and inviting people back who've been distracted should be part of our growth strategy.