Oops. It was me. I did it. After almost 8 years on this blockchain you'd think I would know better. To be brutally honest I've never been a big fan of the "Community Feature" of Hive because to me it is just another centralized power function, but I do generally support the idea of communities. Building them, networking them and even supporting from the outside if I see they are doing good things. But still, that is no excuse for my latest screw up...
Source
In recent times I've thrown a few posts around and put them in various communities without much consideration because I thought my post might be relevant or interesting to that community and I saw it as a kind of cross-pollination type of exercise. Not just exposing some of my content to a new community, but exposing my more regular readers to promote that community too. Whether I am guilty of hubris, complacency or maybe even disrespect - I'll let you decide.
This week I posted the 4th in a series of posts about the Spur Winged Plovers (a.k.a Vanellus Miles or Masked Lapwings) in my neighborhood and the interesting challenges / difficulties I've been having with them. I'd put my posts in the Nature Observers community because they were (in essence) some observations of nature. However, I am just a layman and I hadn't considered the specific guidelines and requirements of that community....so my post got Mod Hammered and now shows up on my blog as an eyesore like I've been flagged as an abuser.
Honestly, it's my own fault but I am kind of a little bit pissed off because I didn't get any warning, engagement or any kind of communication about my first 3 posts in that community which go back over the previous 18 months. I'm kind of used to the whole Shoot First and Fuck Anyone Who Complains attitude that a lot of whales have on Hive, but I thought a community that I was trying (admittedly poorly) to engage with and even promote to my regular readers...might have been a bit more forgiving or even diplomatic...and given me a heads up?
So the message I have received is - Stay in your lane. Throwing posts around in other communities you aren't familiar with and who don't want you there is not a good idea. It hasn't cost me anything except a dirty black (actually grey) mark on my blog, but for someone like me who believes in reputation it does have a price. Lesson learned and I'll be staying well clear of the Nature Observers community from now on.
I haven't really participated in communities much. I think I'm subscribed to several but 99% of the time, I just post straight to my blog.
But just to play devil's advocate here, the whole reason you start a community is so that only certain types of posts show up there. Otherwise, what's the point? As far as I can tell, the post you are referring to was simply muted in that community so that it does not show up there. This has nothing to do with whether this was an insignificant honest mistake (which it pretty clearly was) or blatant abuse. This is simply done because the content is not what the creators of the community want in the community...again, the whole point of a community is to have only certain types of content there. What you did was the equivalent of an off-topic post on a message board and muting it equivalent to removing it. It's not like banning so there was nothing to warn you about really.
I might say that they could have at least told you what you did wrong but the briefest glance at their guidelines should make it obvious. Admittedly, the default "you have been muted" language comes across as a little harsh sounding but I don't think that is the intent. You weren't muted because they hate you and everything you stand for. Also, it doesn't seem downvotes were involved...at least the pending payout still looked pretty high. I also don't really see how it affects your reputation. It certainly doesn't affect your score (at least as far as I know) and after a few days somebody would have to hunt pretty hard to find that you had a post that was muted somewhere...and I kind of doubt they are going to pick that one thing to judge you on.
I guess bottom line is I think you are viewing this whole being muted thing far more harshly than what is intended.
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😂😂😂 I've had that experience before with the Black and White community.
The idea was simply looks like a good spot for my occasional monochrome images yet the two times that I've posted there, they claim it's different things but essentially not good enough to not be muted.
Which has me shocked and stumped cause it says right there on your rules that amateur photographers are welcome.
I am an amateur and maybe the image isn't as good as the professionals that take pictures with their $300+ camera's.
But nothing is worse than a muted post on your feed when you didn't even do anything wrong😂😂
Anyways... Once Bitten, Twice shy.
Sometimes these community mods are on a whole different power trip depending on how they wake up in the morning 😂😂
I have been muted in communities in the past, or at least told me content is unsuitable. It's not a big deal, and you have to respect their rules. You didn't get flagged, so I would just move on with it.
*human nature observers. Gotta read the fine print :)
Dam brother that’s harsh. Sorry
People on Hive can be "fragile". Even when you have the best intentions some people will always come out to put it down
It's better to read a community rules every time posting, you never know the level of craziness of people with the rules
I have also been working on this platform for the last three or four years. Last week, one of my posts was hidden, so I will have to be a little more careful now. Now I am trying to make posts about the same thing in the same community.
Yeah that's happened to me before. And it always feels like the gut check. I don't think these mods realize what they're doing sometimes. Like there's a few communities I refuse to post in because of the way they reacted. I even had one who acted hostile towards my post. Meanwhile the post was promoting their community. Whenever that stuff happens I always just think well.... "Human". Just kind of encompasses everything.