The News

I usually include a price chart on these posts, but there is not much to report there. The $HIVE price is pretty stable. The 'blue coin' somehow manages to keep some value, but in both cases the Korean traders are having an influence and they may not care so much about utility.

I heard that The Site Formerly Known as Twitter is looking at a small yearly charge for new accounts to discourage spam. I have no inclination to give them money when the current owner is wrecking what people valued it for. I hardly post there any more.

I heard about a couple of projects this week via @slobberchops. Holozing is a new Hive game with some elements of Pokémon. A team of established Hivers is behind this, so it has a good chance of going somewhere.

There are various libraries for accessing Hive from code. beem is good, but it is not being developed lately. Lighthive is a promising alternative that I need to look at.

Friday Follows

• I have to mention @buzzparty again as they announced the result of their recent contest and I was sponsoring a prize in that. You should follow them for news of meetups. There are a lot of those going on.
• @epodcaster is again organising NaPodPoMo (National Podcast Post Month). I have done this before, but will see if I have time to do it again. There are lots of posting challenges out there. Anything that motivates you to post is good.
• @bobbyb58 got some photos of the new U2 show in Las Vegas. It looks spectacular.
• @normie.fitness is always good for some busting some fitness myths.

These people get a share of the post rewards.

The Dog House

There was yet another case this week of someone saying they will quit Hive due to getting downvoted. This user was posting many times each day and some consider that to be 'farming' rewards. From what I can see they were not making much from this. Anyway, they now say they are quitting, but will donate their rewards to some charities. We had a little discussion and it was quite civil.

I have seen this pattern many times. Complaining about the downvotes can lead of more of them. Some people really get pissed off by this and start attacking members of the community. There have even been examples of doxing. Some people get vindictive against others who they have never met.

I just wish people could be civilised about this. Behind most (maybe now all) Hive accounts is a person with feelings and online discourse may not be the best way to appreciate what they are feeling. We should still be able to talk out our differences. Hive does not have actual rules about what we can do, but there are some (mostly) accepted norms.

If people want to post ten times each day then there are places for that. This person has been using @reverio, which is a Q&A platform. There is also @dbuzz for short posts. You can use Inleo Threads or Ecency Waves which post into comments. Those tend to avoid the issues with automatic votes. Some of the others let you set a limit on the rewards.

We have to be realistic about all this. Some people have a lot of time on their hands and may choose to use it posting on Hive. Maybe they make a few dollars, but others can post once a week and make far more just because they get some big automatic votes. If they drive some genuine engagement then either can be valid.

We may have bigger challenges ahead. The issue of 'AI'-generated posts is growing and if thousands of desperate people sign up then the job of sorting out what is genuine will get a lot harder.

I just hate to see people leave Hive when they could be part of the community. It is not like we are growing fast and those who leave will discourage others from joining.

The End

I needed to get that out, but I am sure others will disagree with me on some things. That is fine. Hive should have diverse opinions.

Hive is a mostly positive experience for me and that is what keeps me coming back. Around the world it is changing lives and we need to celebrate that. We have freedom and that includes the freedom to be a troll. We have to cope with that as best we can.

Enjoy your weekend and Hive five!

The man behind:

@tenkminnows: Helping good Hivers level up @proofofbrian: A bot that checks for tag typos #BritList: A monthly list of Hivers in the UK