Hi fellow Hiveians,
Today I wanted to talk about how I think change matters, and it starts in the middle.
Change Matters
There have been some fairly positive changes that have been happening on Hive in the last few months, I think.
The thing with change is that it is often difficult at times. It can be a hassle to try and bring about change but the important thing is that it is often a good thing and sticking to it can be very beneficial. Nothing that has been a good thing is likely to be an easy thing to accomplish. Building the first anything is a real pain in the ass. It can be exhilarating for sure but it also comes with a lot of work. A really big part of that work as well is refining and making changes as we go.
With Hive, I think there have been some really nice and promising things that have unfolded recently.
The recent focus and attention that the Return Proposal for the DHF has gotten has been a wonderful thing. The DHF is a really important part of the ecosystem but there are quite frankly quite a few people who just abuse the shit out of it and simply assume they are going to be getting money out of it. By us making it HARDER to get that money out, we make it much more resilient and less vulnerable to poor actors who want to extract things from us.
As well, there has been a noticeable and positive shift and change in terms of people who are at a moderate stake and certainly some who are lower. A lot of us have been focusing on rewarding content creators who are invested in the platform instead of those who constantly extract everything from it. This is an important mindset shift because it removes the incentive for shitty people to just constantly drain the resources from here that we have all worked so hard for.
Then there is the recent adjustments I've highlighted to potentially how the Downvote process works. The suggestion is certainly not perfect and has a lot of room for improvement but it's a good start.
At the end of the day, what's so important about these above highlighted things is that they all started somewhere, and that is in conversation! When people discuss with each other what is going on, and identify things that we see that we dislike but at the same time, make steps and suggestions for how to improve that and make changes. That's where the rubber meets the road! When people are able to not only see a problem such as the shitty users who just withdraw all their stake, and then dozens of us make it a point NOT to distribute any rewards to them, or if we do very nominal ones like a dust vote, then we can enact change.
I think these are all so important because it shows that the people in the middle, the middle class of the platform, are the ones who can really work towards making systemic changes in the platform. When the people in the middle who outnumber those in the top tiers are able to band together, we are able to really make some important moves in the right direction. These are just a few examples of such actions!
What about you, have you seen other things here on Hive that make you hopeful for the future? Let me know in the comments!
-CmplXty. Real human written content, never AI. All pictures are mine unless otherwise stated
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As I read this I'm realising how much I haven't been aware of what's been happening in the background of Hive. That said, I too have started to become a bit more discerning in who I curate. Apart from constantly cashing out, are they just posting and not even interacting in any way? Some use communities where they know they will be likely to get curated, do a post regularly then barely even respond to others commenting on their on their post, never mind visiting others posts.
Yeah that's very annoying for sure. I'm guilty of not visiting other posts in the community myself but I try to make sure I don't do that too often.
I get really disappointed when I see someone posting but not replying to comments on their own posts.
Someone I interacted with months ago got really mad for some childish reason and ended up quitting because they were so bent out of shape I told them they needed to respond to comments or I would down vote their stuff. It was funny but also really sad and pathetic. They tried using excuses like mental health or something stupid but it's apparent they were just a lazy user and we might be bette off without them.
Hive is a busy place that's for sure! It's very easy to miss something lol I missed the drama with the Splinterlands DHF proposal for a few months.
Lol! The only reason I knew about the drama with Splinterlands was because I spend a bit of time on there and am in a guild. I'm sure I'd have missed it entirely otherwise. I don't bother with the Splinterlands discord. Sounds like too much drama anyway, so I just ask others about it, usually Matt Clarke.
I think it's fuckin crazy a buncha virtual strangers encouraging and persuading a buncha virtual strangers what to do with their virtual stake as though it holds value anywhere other than a virtual world where nothing matters.
Hahaha well we could say similar things about the money in a bank account. It's largely virtual now unless we are holding cash, and people fight over that. Currency is an interesting thing that humans do! I guess it's better than sea shells because I'm not very good at finding good ones.
My sentiments exactly. I've seen several of these virtual holdings handouts now and it's just not a good look, in my real eyes. Because I'm real. I already said what I think, it's nothing personal dude.
I don't know how many other ways I can put it in perspective. Like, let's pretend real life diaries are valuable cuz, essentially, majority of users treat this place like a diary. Proof—how many Hive authors friends' in real life know they even exist here? Yet they think it's acceptable to treat another virtual strangers virtual diary earnings as credit.
I'll try another way. If I can't muster even the slightest fraction of concern about any of my real life neighbors (across the street, next to me on both sides, behind me, et cetera) real life checking account, why would I consider doing the same for a virtual strangers Monopoly money?
Well I think it's a little different for some of us in western countries where we do this for fun, and a bit of a hobby. People in India and Phillipines do this for a living so they tell lots of people about it. They also use it a lot in terms of the funds more than we do.
I treat it like a 401k where I am building it for the future. I put stuff in it now and have been for years, but don't touch it, similar to here.
I don't love the fact that we've gone away from the physical nature of money but it is evolving quite a bit and we are trying to evolve with it and see how we can make it work.
In terms of neighbors, I've talked to some and in a gentle way asked them why they made a dumb purchase instead of saving the money. It's a decent thing without getting too nosy.
Dude, I can't seem to care about my neighbors' purchases. Even right now, I'm trying this very second and I truly can't. They could be pushing one out on a gold toilet or in a 5 gallon bucket right now and I can't even fake concern.
Hahaha hopefully the gold toilets got a good view.
I think it's always a good incentive to collectively emphasize what we want to see more of and discourage what we don't want to see. Change is hard definitely, but over time, a positive loop can created that elevates the ecosystem as a whole. It's important to have standards :)
Yeah that's for sure! I think it's really important to also get in the mindset of doing what we can to bring about change we are passionate about. There is a limit to that such as refusing to change ourselves to new information but when people don't give any thought to changes, then we end up in a bad situation!
Power to the middle class 💪💪💪
Fight the power! ✊
If there is one thing hopeful about Hive, it would be the number of projects on it. There's always so much going on, and the amount of passionate people starting projects and new Layer 2 tokens amazes me. I mean, there are some projects who didn't do well and there are many Layer 2 tokens that went probably almost zero, but there are still many people trying out new stuff and coming up with new ideas. Always on the lookout to support interesting and good projects myself.
Absolutely! For the Amazon's of the world, there were thousands of ones who attempted it. Eventually the cream rises to the top!
I've seen some hopeful things about things around here especially with that return proposal thingy. I hope it filters out people from making unfeasible proposal without any projection or collateral. I have pretty extreme approach when it comes to things but honestly, it should be a motivation to get things done work by any means since it's not really their money that is being used to fund things.
Another thing is, people start reading book again and that's a hopeful sign for me 🤣 & most people around hive book club are also engaging to each other which is something great to see. It also makes me more motivated to do so and keep the community going. I know you do that kind of approach with this community as well and you're such a motivation for me too!