Image taken from HivePH Discord

Happy 3^rd Anniversary, HivePH! I joined the community fairly recently and want to share some initial impressions on my short but enlightening stay so far.

I come from a Splinterlands background (Hive-based game) and didn't really touch the blogging space until roughly 2 to 3 weeks ago. I got to join the TeamPH Community and I felt happy and proud that there was a strong Filipino community being represented. I tried looking into similar communities of our brethren to see how we can collaborate and help support each other to be even more united and show the world how amazing a Pinoy community is!

The Good

I'm very happy that there is a long standing community dedicated for Pinoys in the Hive space. Being 3 years running in the space and still going strong, it showcases that the community has longevity and I see that there is a lot of active participation in the group all the time and lots of various events to keep people engaged. I also see a lot of posts and activities especially from our Female Pinoys which makes doubly happy because having a lot of women in our community is great. In the gaming scene, its a lot more scarce so I'm happy we have a lot of representation here.

I also got to get in touch with a few nice members of the community who have been helpful especially with sharing ideas/suggestions/graphics like the dividers I'm using here. Shoutout to Mebu!

The Bad

Unfortunately, my experience with joining HivePH wasn't all that well to be honest. I experienced a lot vagueness when I joined. I wanted to understand a bit more about how to become a member, how to get specific roles and things like that but the base answer was: be active.

While I understand that and I'm all for not being a value extractor, I think that it would be helpful if there were clearer guidelines so I know what to follow, what to not do and what to avoid. Maybe I was in the wrong place or channel for the answers I was looking for or maybe got bad timing when asking specific people who didn't provide the answers I was expecting, but it didn't feel as welcoming.

I was also introduced into the community by a friend and an existing member of the group and I saw that I automatically got downvotes (I don't see it now so it probably got changed at some point) which I couldn't make heads or tails of because I literally just got in and started asking questions as any curious and keen-to-learn member would be.

What really got me upset though was when I was asking questions about Charmaine the turtle bot. I found it fascinating that the bot would post messages without any prompts like asking: "kain na bes para tumaba ka" which roughly translates to: go eat some food so you get fat. The language was localized and included lingo that I thought was really fun. I asked if there was an option for, say a mod, to go in and override the bot and plug in those types of comments which I think is a valid question. I then get totally floored when someone belittled my intelligence by saying I might not understand what the word 'sentient' means.

I think that in no way promotes good communication and is extremely toxic behavior. Filipinos are already attached with a stigma of being toxic and comments like those don't help our cause of being a beacon of light for the community.

One of the other members I was talking to privately mentioned to me that it's more like a joke by other members but I told him that if you put yourself in the shoes of someone new you'd ask questions like:

• How do you think they would feel?
• Was it a welcoming experience?
• Do you feel happy to be part of a community where you are being belittled for your intelligence, or lack of vocabulary, or even gasp! wrong grammar?!

We, as a community, have that duty to be the ones to change the negative and toxic stigma that is being attached to Filipinos and that not having a wide enough vocabulary or not having perfect grammar is completely okay because we are here to support each other and help each other grow.

The Hopeful

While that particular experience left a bad taste in my mouth, I want to look past it and see the bigger picture. One person being like that doesn't represent the whole community but it also shows that there needs to be some changes that should be addressed to become a more conducive and welcoming community.

As I mentioned earlier, I am part of the TeamPH Community and we don't stand for any belittlement and bullying. It is our ethos to stand up for our fellow Filipinos and be a beacon of light in our community. We want to get rid of the stigma of Pinoys being "value extractors" and having toxic behaviors and TeamPH is the big brother that will help enforce that.

I see that a lot of the values that HivePH stands for aligns with what we want to achieve in TeamPH. I saw that both HivePH and TeamPH want Pinoys to hold long term assets, grow their portfolio and earn at the same time. Educating members about blogging and navigating the Hive space is also something that both parties are keen to help the members with.

I want to give it another shot and see how we can collaborate a lot more to rally together and become a helpful and valuable kapamilya towards each other. I don't want one negative experience to become the focal point to determine my overall experience and impression of HivePH and I hope constructive feedback like these are taken without hate because I genuinely want this to work because I see so much potential that both communities can come together and help each other.

These are just a couple of examples of the strengths of each community and there is definitely a lot more but even with just these things, we can have so much things we can help each other with.

For example, knowing we have a lot of members in HivePH who don't necessarily play games, we could provide an avenue for them to get into Splinterlands and create a different source of diversification in terms of earning to further their assets. Leaders of both communities can also come together to find way to make sure that toxic and negative behavior is not tolerated so we are able to uphold our core values.

We should be the first to help our fellow Pinoys out and grow together. I don't want to give up on our fellow Pinoys. Teamwork makes the dream work!

"Together we Thrive Kapamilya"