Since the first minute we get onboarded to Hive, we're told that High Quality content is key. We are not told what exactly is high quality, and we're also pointed to some guidelines or advice publications and whatnot.
The reason for this whole quality narrative is because back in 2016 the goals of the whales was to have a nice, flooded with quality - and cute chicks - front page. That way any potential new user who stumbled upon steemit would definitely stick around. I mean, look at all this amazing content and these huge payouts! I will stick around and make content as good as these and get big paydays as well!
And thus, steemit, and by extension Hive, was doomed from inception.
This is what happens when you get developer minds to come up with game theory and business decisions. That's why Dan Larimer makes for a great CTO and not a CEO.
This is the same reason why so many Cryptocurrency projects and endeavors fail miserably. Because the way most crypto projects work is High stake or Tech knowledge = influence in governance.
And that's how you end up with unstable clowns like Bernie Sanders or business illiterates like Transisto having so much influence in the platform. I also want to mention a bunch of dev minded people who have way too much influence in governance but that do not know anything about how to run a successful business, but I would turn this informative, opinionated post into a rant.
Doomed from inception
High quality content doesn't attract Traffic. SEO content, marketing and promotion attracts traffic either organically or synthetically. If the whole purpose of curating quality content has been so engraved on the social media side of Hive, then why hasn't there been any real attempts at monetizing that traffic?
High quality content on Hive is King.
But we have been praying to the wrong altar, frens.
High quality content will never make people come to Hive. It might make some of the outcasts who like reading something for 15 minutes - which is a species almost extinct - stick around and come back, but if we really want traffic and adoption we have to cater to the masses.
I get it, trends can either be set or followed, and instead of running with the flow we could be the resistance, and become the oasis of long, tedious, quality content for that 1% of the population, or we could adapt and try to attack both worlds.
I've had some conversations with some Hive OGs about this whole microblogging vs long form content issue on Hive and of course there's some mixed opinions, but most of them understand and see the value of microblogging.
Elon sees the value in long form content, which is why they recently allowed long posts to premium accounts - monetizing their platform in the process by the way.
I'm not gonna mention names, it's pointless, but this whole attitude from some OGs against the current trend of content creation seems narrow minded at minimum, man.
Quality content is king, but it is the Jesters, the entertainers, who have any chance at making the social side of Hive go mainstream. We don't need a 1500 word post on how your day was, what you learned and how it translates into the current state of Hive, we more nice faced content creators that upload puppy videos and go viral.
Long form content will not make people come
But it might encourage them to stay.
Think of it in supermarket terms: The first necessity items are always at the back of the warehouse, and you have to go through all the unnecessary but alluring items before you can get to what you actually need. Then at the checkout you have a small section of highly attractive quick grab and get endorphins items. This is not a coincidence, it's meant to work this way to make the average ticket have a higher expense amount.
Supermarkets use low profit margin articles like toilet paper, meat and beans to lure you into the store, and then try to sell you high margin products like toys and candy while you are inside. You will never step into into a huge Walmart knowing you will spend one hour in there because you need a beer, that's why the convenience stores exists, and that's exactly why their profit margins are higher, because you are exchanging price vs speed.
Right now we are treating long form quality content as our meat and beans, when in reality we should be treating short form content like the attraction point, and then try to sell new users the long form content side of Hive.
Sure, it sounds counterintuitive. It sounds more reasonable to have amazing content as our main attraction point and then make users stick around because we have cute cat pics on Threads, but the reality is that the current generation will never fall in love with in a platform that is only long form content, at least not as a first interaction step.
You have to lure them in with small effort interactions and make them love it so much that they explore the other options, and then stay in the platform because of these high quality posts and interactions.
But let's face it, nobody under 30 years old will come to the front page of Hive and see ten long ass posts and say Oh, I love it here, I can spend 2 hours reading miscellaneous stuff!.
The statement above comes once they are already hooked, not as a first reaction.