"Stayed For The Community"
I am not really known around here for being quiet, and even though I can be vocal at times about certain things, I usually don't point any fingers. I also stay away from drama and focus more on my own thing because nothing good comes out of drama. I realized that a long time ago.
However, I am focused on the community. I have always been eager to help others around me and I have a bunch of initiatives and projects behind me to back those words. I am also speaking the truth and I was honest when I officially told everyone on this blockchain years ago that I joined for the money.
I cashed out everything I could because it felt awesome to earn extra money. Content I had been sharing for years, free of charge, was suddenly rewarded when I stumbled upon this blockchain. It was a game changer and it still holds the potential to be a life changer for a lot of people. That is why I am still here. I see the potential and even though I came here for the money, I stayed for the community.
I have proved that over the years I have been here. We do things in different ways and I know that some of the things I have done over the years, like how I pushed people into minnow-hood or how I gave away tokens for engagement or other things was not liked by some. Some users disagreed with my methods and even though they was not supportive of that specific method, most of the people I have talked with throughout all this time have still been thankful and they have appreciated the efforts.
So, I am basically doing what I believe is the best for the community and I always think about what I can do to improve things, how we can benefit from the things I do and if this- or that is good for us in the long haul. I want Hive to succeed and I want the world to see the opportunity we have.
- I am here for the community.
However, we have a lot of people here, even though it can feel very lonely at times. People with various wallet-sizes. We have anything from the smallest seaweed/fish- or cub to the biggest dolphin, whale or Toruk. The title depends on which community you are active in, but my point is that we have a lot of people who claims to be here for the community..
I remember back in the days how a bunch of people where extremely active and in more or less every single post or comment they made, they tried to convince people to stay for the community, just like they claimed to have done..
It's a long time ago, and even though many of those users are still here, they are inactive and collect tokens rapidly through curation or delegations while not caring about the community at all. This obviously leads me to believe that they where never here for the community. It was just a bunch of fancy words they spit out here and there to lure people in. Those fancy words was sticky like glue and it literally forced people to stay. They got stuck.
If you claim to care about- and be here for the community, you should be able to make a couple of comments every now and then. I won't talk about a certain amount of comments, but if you can't even manage to make a handful of comments per week, you're just a troll.
This place is supposed to be social. Hive is a social platform. We want the masses, people who are used to Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to come here instead.. - But why should they?
I have said this many times but the "Average Joe's" doesn't care about decentralization or to truly own the content they share. They don't care because they have never had to care about it. Most people doesn't know that Hive exists because they don't have to know. They are fine with Facebook and all the other shitty traditional platforms out there..
We also know that pitching Hive as a cash-cow where people can earn money for sharing content doesn't work in the long haul. It's a superb pitch to bring people here and to get bursts of traffic, but we can't keep them here. We have retention issues. We've had those issues for years.
So, if we don't even have engagement, what do we have?
- We are like the opposite from a social platform.
We're like the asocial social platform, and we're setting new standards with a place to not socialize. People claim to be here for the community but that's just a bunch of fancy words people think we want to hear. I don't buy it at all. It's nothing but bullshit.
You have probably seen people talking about what Hive needs to thrive. What Hive needs to be truly successful and finally show the world the amazing opportunity they would have to change their lives.
Within those posts and within the comment sections you will most likely see people talking about various things like smart contracts, shorter powerdown periods and marketing.
You can debate and argue about that being good or bad forever, but do you truly believe that a short powerdown period will bring the masses? Do you think smart contracts will take Hive to new heights?
You are also likely to see people talk about "more users" in those posts. We need more users. And you will see awesome explanations to why more users will benefit Hive a lot and how more users are the missing piece of the puzzle..
Sure, I had a brand building business for years and I have worked with dozens and dozens of both individuals and companies but even the most foolish person should be able to understand that the main problem is not to bring people here, even though I still admit that it's a problem.
- The biggest issue is to keep people here.
You are talking with your neighbour, your aunt or the cashier at the nearest grocery store. They've been using Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for years. None of them have experienced any issues with these traditional social medias. They've been sharing photos and stories for years and in return received likes, shares, comments and messages from people.
They have zero interest in blockchain technology and they've never cared much about bitcoin or cryptocurrencies. How are you supposed to get them onboard Hive when we don't even have engagement to offer them? A marketing campaign where you basically tell people how awesome it is with web 3.0 and how cool it is to be the owner of your own content?
Instead of being stubborn and trying to come up with an awesome elevator-pitch to convince people to be part of something revolutionary.. Focus on the real problem.
Focus on engagement because that is what will attract people. That is what makes or breaks a social platform. If you claim to be here "for the community", it's about time to show that.