Ramblings on Content and Shitposting

I forgot the prompt I was working on when I started this post. There was one cohesive phrase I was trying to fill in until I got lost in my thoughts and just went on writing whatever comes into mind. When I say prompt, it does not mean I typed in something for an AI writer to write for me.

There will be a time when you compliment someone "Your work is so good, it looked like it was made by an AI" will generate mixed feelings of satisfaction and contempt. Moving on to the actual topic I started with:

What is valuable content?

Content that entertains or contain information people can find some use.

If your content can't entertain or give people relevant information they need (or find useful), you'll do a community service if you didn't post it in the first place.

I'm not active in the curation gig but when I was, I had an algorithm that helped me separate a shitposter like me from those who have a mission in their posts.

What is the purpose of the post? Is it to entertain or to provide information? depending on which category it belongs, the follow up is "does it accomplish its purpose?" If content creators were mindful about the posts they put out, the post will speak for itself. It's going to answer the what, when, where, how and most importantly, the post would tell you its why?

Why is the post relevant? is it for a contest? for sharing something important to the author? is the post only for generating some autovotes? I'd pay attention to the personality of the post if it has one. These small details are what separates mediocre content creators from those that pursue bettering themselves with each content they put out, on Hive at least.

The post's "why" answers a need. There is a need for entertainment, information, or novel trivia because there are content consumers that want to splurge their valuable time on these types of content provided the posts actually fulfills the need they exist for.

I always have one staple objective when it comes to my shitposting and that's to provide small bits of novel information that people can reflect on. There's no grand content or eye candy of a post to expect from me, just one slice of update that I thought is interesting.

When I posted Philippines Being a Major Source of Plastic in the Pacific Ocean, Yeah We Number One., the why of the post was sharing a piece of information circulating and what challenged that information. It wasn't a post to entertain but to share a trivia a lot of people may not be even aware of.

My audience in mind for that post were Filipinos that were conscious about the environment or just want to splurge their time learning a new trivia. I have a low bar when it comes to my shitposting objectives. So if the post manages to reach those outside my target audience, then that's already a bonus secondary benefit.

I made a Guide to Hive containing all the stuff I found useful for thriving in the platform. And to this date, it still gets some sporadic views on peakd analytics. Beyond the 7 day payout, I want to produce something that new users on the platform can help set some realistic expectations about their blogging rewards. My target audience were newcomers that time and the newcomers in months to years time.

That's more valuable than blogging about an anime I find interesting, or telling you how my day was and where I went which will not matter after the next 24 hours it was posted (probably).

To this day, most of the guidelines mentioned there are still relevant for newcomers if they ever want to start playing the social network game for votes and getting along with the other kids on the block. And along with the other Guides posted about how to Hive, I think those are more valuable the more than 9.5/10 posts posted on Hive where these are mostly meant to generate autovotes or less than 24 hours spotlight.

There would be newcomers interested to know more about Hive but there won't be a lot of people checking your post out mentioning what sandwich you ate last Tuesday. If you understood my point about valuable content on Hive, you can already end the reading here. I've already dragged the prompt long but for those that want to read ramblings, proceed and regret later.

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I often use the word shitposting to my own posting habits because that's what it just means to me whenever I attempt to be a content creator doing fancy formatted blogs, sharing information, or do content that tries to entertain. I'd be lying if I told people I didn't start posting for the sake of votes.

My perspective broadened and I just grew out of the post to earn routine and now shifted to blog the hell I want because I'm not sure if impressing curators for topics and posting styles they want to see was the right route to grow as a content creator.

Let's just mention here that I wanted to go full time Youtuber more than a decade ago back when PewDiePie just hit a million subs. Back when being an influencer wasn't a thing, and people just enjoyed sharing what stuff they found interesting for kicks and giggles. What would have happened if I just continued my music video parody channel? nothing, cause I suck at video editing but it was fun having that secret hobby while being the quiet kid in class.

The pressure to become a content creator wasn't as bad as it is today because you didn't have to mind algorithms that shadowban or have silly metrics of followers to matter.

I consume content that's been uploaded for more than decades now and to this day, that music, guide, or page that contains the specific information I need is still getting some viewership. Because years after, there are still people out there looking for the exact content and it's relevant today.

Does anybody recall a time where you spent looking up on a celebrity going to this trip doing x what and this that years after the content went online? There are probably some devout followers that like to know about those details and perpetuated by random algorithm recommendations but most of the time, those side stories about your favorites artist's isn't the content you're looking for. It's their music, what they contributed that got you entertained, and that's what mattered more than what they ate for lunch 5 years ago.

So I think users on Hive could try once in a while to reflect on what content they put out and what objectives they want to accomplish with that content they bring. Is this content just for a 24 hour spotlight? is this post meant to be a sticky for a week for some community activity? or is this post going to serve as a landing page for new eyes checking your blog months or years after you have a portfolio?

Do people even blog knowing that each post can be their impromptu introduction post from a stranger's perspective?

Because people can confuse their large post payout as valuable content depending on the number of digits when it isn't. Do you really think your review on some show, dinner story, or gaming clip is worth all the votes it's getting?

What if by some twist, you wake up as a stranger and saw your own posts, would your perception on your post's value change? did that travel blog you published was meant to be 1500$ worth but the silly people of Hive valued in at 10$, they know no quality, how dare they?!

We never ask for the support but these are given freely by the grace of the community. It's really rare to hear someone complain about their Hive experience if someone gave them a lot of votes and they never ask what did they do to even deserve the votes? is because of putting out content that people will eventually forget in the next few days? It's hard to find someone that will organically ask, hey why are you giving me big votes?

But it's easier to get a reaction when they get -0.001$ downvote. It's like their entire effort or existence has been questioned by that small disapproval.

Would be nice if people learned to zoom out for a while and figure out that no matter how big they are on the platform, they're still just a big fish in a small pond. 7 billion people in the world and not even 0.1% of that number reads your content or probably knows Hive exists. The good news is that you'll likely never have that many haters if you messed up your reputation here. Even 0.0001% of that number will never know how good your content is and how it deserves more praise and recognition.

I'm not trying to burst your bubble if you've convinced yourself your posts are great (they probably are, who knows?), what I'm trying to say is keep yourself grounded despite how much of a success you think you've been on the platform.

I still want to be a content creator doing art things and get my @artofadamada fly but it's been a struggle to just pick up a pencil and draft. I got some sketches going here and there but not "post worthy" enough.

I think of it as a pause than giving up on the things I want to do because these of the circumstance I'm in. But for people that still have plenty of time to spare doing their shitposting, I think it would be doing everyone a great service if they considered improving the quality of their posts and maybe twerk their posts off the platform to get Hive out there.

Because there's no need to go down the route of making post praising how great Hive is, the people you need to convince Hive is worth a try are actually outside Hive.

And in some way you can't find it a habit to market Hive out there, then find a way to be useful to the community by making it better than when you found it. We can all find a niche where we can make the platform better by committing to an extra 1% more effort.

Did you know that you can make people smile by dropping a complement or telling them you read their blog? It's a low cost public relations move and you may even get to meet a new person valuable to your network. And if you're not the type to go out of your way to be sociable, you can still find task like curation or being a source of information for other users.

I started writing this post with several prompts in mind that got lost in my headspace. Rereading the entire post again and realized how things ended up into a self-absorbed rambling of this and that. But that's the essence of my shitposting (I don't think my post are that important to be taken seriously), just sharing stuff that comes to mind.

Sometimes I wonder if I could just shitpost less than 300 words. Give me validation or give me Hive.

If you made it this far reading, thank you for your time.