There are some very strange people on Hive, though, I guess that goes for the entire internet. There are so many people here that seemingly have so many issues, paranoia, depression, social ineptitude, inability to take responsibility and seeing themselves as victims... the list goes on... and on.
However, I have met some of the people from Hive over the years and the ones I have met face to face have for the most part, been pretty normal people. Back in Poland toward the end of 2019 for a Fest, there were heaps of awesome people that I enjoyed having a drink, sharing meals and walking the streets of Krakow with in the we hours of the night - but there is an obvious selection bias here, as these people were able to get there, they were the types of people who generally don't mind being around others, people who have at least some modicum of social skill to their name.
Sometimes I wonder what the real strange people would be like in real life - the ones who are constantly complaining about Hive - yet post religiously like their lives depend on it. The ones who act clever. troll and think they have influence - yet no one is listening to them.
I suspect that a lot of these types are normal people who haven't been able to work out a way to make a mark on their experience in any other way, so they can come here and pretend they are someone more important than they are and even earn a few dollars for it. Or not. Others are the outcasts who have no influence or power in the real world, so they build a persona around themselves that makes them feel powerful.
There have been some epic dummy-spits here over the years and it is pretty amazing how many people rage and "quit forever" only to come back the next day, the next week or next month, as if nothing ever happened. It must be sad to live a life of not being able to fulfil the simplest of personal positions. Many of these people are triggered by downvotes and complain about how unethical it is, yet do not look at their own integrity and behaviors.
On Hive, there are people I trust who I have never seen, and many people I do not trust after observing their behavior over the years. People seem to forget that social interaction is a very big part of the Hive network and act as if it doesn't matter how they act, that they still deserve reward or recognition, still expect people will listen to what they have to say. Most of these people end up in these little fringe groups, talking about how smart they are, in the corner amongst themselves. No one else takes them seriously in any way.
What is cool about Hive is that it represents a very wide cross-section of society. There are rich and poor, intelligent and far less so, different nationalities, religions, sexes, sexual orientations and a million other differentiators that people use to segment themselves away from others and often then use to empower their sense of victimization. This dynamic creates a lot of conflict between people at times, but that is just the way the internet works, especially when there is money involved - or attention.
I reckon attention is one of the major reasons people behave so poorly, with many acting out like petulant children who are rebelling against their mother, whining, complaining throwing tantrums - all while demanding the parent give them attention.
"Look at me, Mother!"
Not enough hugs.
Hive is a strange place and definitely not the kind of media I would have ever thought myself to be part of, let alone enjoy as the most compelling hobby I have ever had. I was talking with a large stakeholder the other day and the said - "I didn't mean to powerup so much HIVE, it just happened". I think this speaks volumes as I am similar, once thinking I would never go about 10,000 and now approaching 250,000.
But, this is also the case for all those freaks out there too, for as much as they complain, they are compelled by whatever personal imbalance they have to stay here, to keep posting, keep whining, keep trying to convince whoever will listen that they should leave this disaster, it will never amount to anything. Again, the same people often talk about the ethics of others - but fail to see the dilemma they are in themselves.
Why not just leave?
Is it so hard? If this place sucks so much, why not just spend your time somewhere that sucks less - the internet is a very big place and constantly expanding - there are other places to rant and rave than Hive, why not just leave it to the people who enjoy being here?
This is the dilemma, because they don't want that, they want to be here. For most, it is all about the money, regardless what they say. How many people have you heard say "I am not here for the money" and then complain about downvotes? Nearly all who have ever been downvoted it seems, even while they claim to not need the money - it is all about the principles.
Lols.
Principles. Yeah, the principles of people who can't bring themselves to leave an opt-in platform they supposedly despise for years.
After all - there is money involved.
But, it takes all types in this world and perhaps it is that these people have always existed, it is just that the internet has allowed to become visible, while still hiding their true-selves away. It is very hard to live a life as a troll in the real world, as there is no screen to protect from getting slapped in the side of the head - hard to hold a job too. Perhaps this is why so many apparently need money from Hive.
It is an interesting place to observe and participate in a relatively transparent social economy and see how people act under the various conditions and especially, over time. A social data scientist is going to have a field day with all of the information eventually and dissect the personalities and cross-reference their posting, commenting, voting and trading behavior. Should make for an interesting read.
I would like to say that with mass-adoption, there would be a normalization of the community to balance the polarization a bit, but that might be wishful thinking in a world that encourages a lack of emotional control and incentives drama for attention.
But, I'd rather be here than anywhere else.
Love or hate it, it seems I am not the only one.
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]
I've watched the rage quitters and then the come backs, It is not just Hive. Back in the days of Art Bell I would visit and interact on a very small Art bell show chat system. maybe 150 people in total. That was back in the early 90's. people would rant and rave and say they are leaving only to be back the next day or day after.
30 years, and nothing has really changed. More people here more rage quitters and returnees. So it is not the money that causes the quit and return syndrome, it is the attention I think. The look at me, see what you made me do? It is virtual suicide that the person can come back from.
I think it is part of the reason for so many suicides in today's society, people have a lot of virtual suicide practice and they were always able to come back, but in the real world it is a one way street and there is no coming back.
Yep - most likely. The money is a handy bonus - it is just that they have nowhere else to go where even a handful of people would listen to them.
Interesting connection to the suicides and I think you are on point there. Suicide is the ultimate polarization in life, people indeed have practiced it virtually a lot.
Well we are no mystery Annabelle and myself, we have well 1000 videos of us being us on the net, no escape 😆
The thing about the community is, it's sooo varied, and what keeps us here is the love and the fact we meet new and interesting people that bring great value to the platform every single day.
On average, the people who are people, tend to do better than the people who are hidden away.
It is a catch-22 until the community is large enough to both have diversity and support niche. At the moment, there is diversity, but a lot of niche will not get economic support. Some niches may get social support, but the pool is distributed by stake.
I was going to squeeze that phrase into the text, but how many people really remember these days? :D
The rage quits are funny to see, I’m quitting unless I get x value on the next post because I can’t afford to keep going!!!!!11 with a subsequent post two hours later. It’s been the way of the internet, it happened all the time in gaming when I was into that with online RPG games and it was the crowd of people you’d expect. Need to be the center of attention, always in the mix even if they don’t belong in it.
The people who are constantly bashing hive are tedious and when they get their negativity silenced via downvotes and mutes they are irate. You hate the place so much, see yourself out since you are now blacklisted and leave the rest of us alone. A new account is made and they keep trying the same crap all over again. It’s only going to increase unfortunately. Thankfully we have some consistent people who balance out that stuff in my opinion, at least in the group that I spend time on.
As the days go on and I ramble here and there, the hive power is slowly increasing! I aspire to be at 100k one of these days, so good for you for making a hobby like this turn into something that nets you a decent profit if it came to it one day, though we all hope never to need it, it’s comforting that it’s there if necessary!
This is the thing of it is, isn't it? "at least in the groups I am in" - most of the toxic types spend their time together and make themselves feel relevant. Emotional circlejerking :D
The HP sneaks up I think. I remember some current orca accounts when they started and they asked me for advice. The advice hasn't changed.
Yeah thankfully they tend to wallow in their own misery, much like people do in real life lol. I'd rather be happy and have friends, thanks!
Engagement is key, I think! Consistency is important but without engagement you can be as consistent as you want to an empty room.
Hi Taraz, I rarely read long post till finish but I do read yours, so right and spot on. Thank you. The ranters who lack love and attention are using their keyboards to rant as they like so that they can get the attention they are desperate for. I guess so, what else right... spreading negativity and that is all that they are trying to do, so pathetic.
Some people think that being negative makes them interesting or intellectual - it doesn't.
Oh, boy. Wouldn't that be great? Let's hope that wishful thinking becomes not a 100% reality but that it serves as a common denominator to get things to a better place. It is an idea that would benefit the environment on HIVE greatly.
About the other things. I've seen how low interaction affects posts and you overall experience. And my take on it is that if you get bored about what you see, then try something different. That's how it is supposed to work. HIVE has a lot of communities and content ranges to the specific to broad subjects.
In regards to complaining for money and praising oneself on the use of brains, I think it is bound to happen because we like to be the highlight of everything we do. When there was this change of confession from the church to social media, people started to feel entitled to greatness even when they might not have any great things to show.
To finish with this I have just a comment about this thoughtful rant: it shows a kind of serenity not only is compatible with the purpose of ranting. It gives it a different kind of strength.
Ain't this the truth. The "confessions" today are not about sins, it is about signaling virtues - real or not. Perhaps it is like confessions in reverse.
It works like a deconstruction of confessions. Lacking depth and all the repent. A true marvel of the modern society.
It's kind of a double edged sword. We are tiptoeing towards a token economy with web3.0 and we currently live in an attention economy. Tokenized attention is going to bring some people out of the woodwork, people willing to "peacock" to garner as much attention as they can.
How do we progress from where we are to a space where people are rewarded for engagement and attention, without promoting some of the worst personality traits humanity has to offer?
This is a very good point you make. Have you considered what happens when the people who are used to get attention, no longer get tokens?
The only way to reduce the worst, is to promote the best and disincentivize the bottom rungs of behavior.
Very wonderful rant. A lot of people want relevance and some try to be controversial about it. For a fact I might be angry about being downvoted because somehow I put in effort to create something on the network however it doesn't mean I am here for the money. It just meant that my effort and the time I invested in creating quality content was disregarded by certain group of people who did so because they had more influence than I did.
Although, I don't get why people complain about hive and still post consistently. For me, hive has done so well and it is really saddening that a set of people say hive is trash and still take rewards. I mean hive is just a year old and the social network feeling is palpable.
On this note anyone who is complaining about hive can as well leave the network and go to the other chains or go back to Facebook for all I care.
Controversy is the lowest point in the fence and people are largely untalented at much of value in this kind of space.
They are even less relevant on other platforms - as the algorithms filter them out, not in.
Perhaps they are just people who have their own social circle and see Hive differently than you?
I have no idea, as I'm not sure who you are speaking of.
This is pretty obvious.
You probably know plenty of them.
Yeah, I guess I just don't feel so sure that my position is right and anyone making suggestions or trying to change something that is clearly struggling is wrong and or seeking attention.
Perhaps their ideas should be considered on merit and current thoughts should be challenged.
I think when you see the same people doing the same thing over and over, it is a pretty good predictor of what they are like. They might be quite different in real life of course.
I think that you yourself have probably heavily questioned some of the thoughts of these people in the past.
I try to question everything repeatedly. Times change.
No doubts about this..., and I don't deny it!
lol - It is funny. I came across a post recently who has been saying, "I make so much I don't care about Hive money" - complaining about losing a few dollars from downvotes.
I hope I will meet someone on Hive, too.
Who would you want to meet?
Anyone who is close to me
I get your points here and the basis behind, but why so judgmental and bringing-their-Moms-into-it here? It almost feels like this a direct shaming and projection of some sort to backhand strangers who may not be stable during tough times, and are frustrated for not being able to succeed as others seem to consistently do with the nod from large stakeholders.
Yes, someone should leave if it’s not healthy for them, but the “don’t let the door hit you on the way out” and “why haven’t you left yet” vibes aren’t exactly the best way to go about it when you’ve be made here. Stay on that high road!!