UPVOTES MAY BE DOING MORE HARM THAN GOOD FOR YOU.

Earlier today, I came across a thread by an acquaintance who was complaining about not receiving upvotes. My brother, who is also on Hive, complained about this person's attitude on the platform some days ago. The funny thing about this whole situation is that this individual has been going against community guidelines, and received several warnings, but continued in this manner. Now, he is claiming to be the victim.

Most Hive communities warn against AI-generated content or recycling content (even if you own it). In the case of recycling old content, some argue that it is bad for SEO. Now, I don't make the rules, and you have the right to question rules (I don't believe rules are absolute). However, if you go against them, you should not be surprised if or when you get punished.

Now, for this post, I want to discuss something else besides Hive guidelines and rules, and that's the dependency on upvotes. I believe it does more harm than good, especially to those in third-world countries, and I would explain why by sharing my experience.

I got into Web 3 content creation in 2018. It was the first real money I made as a young adult still in college, and I thought this was the path for me (I still do). I got so comfortable earning a few dollars for my posts that I never really tried to develop new skill sets or improve the ones I had. It took me about three years to realize that I was stuck on the same level.

When I eventually tried something new, I realized that I could make much more than I was making on Hive as a creator. So, if making money was my sole aim, I wouldn't be here; that's just the truth. Hive is offering more than just upvotes. What I am getting here in the short run is relative stability; the ability to network and plan towards my long-term goals, and that has nothing to do with Hive going up in value or getting upvotes.

I am not speculating on the price of Hive, although it would be great to see it rise. I am using it from the standpoint of a creator. I am investing and gaining social capital with the hope that someday this will be a platform of 500,000 active users. When that happens, I will be among the top creators on the platform and that creates more opportunities for me than any upvote would ever do. If that doesn't happen, at least I can build my Web 2 presence, making money off my craft to invest in my craft to get to the point I want to reach.

I understand that most people do not have lofty dreams of becoming high-value content creators and are fine making a couple of bucks off Hive. The issue I have with such people is that they become overly dependent on the upvotes they get. Desperation doesn't look good on anyone; it devalues your value proposition but that is what happens when you become overly reliant on the upvote you get which often are not based on any meaningful metric that helps the platform grow.

Also, if you know you're just about the money/upvote (and there is nothing wrong with that), there are so many other things you can do on Hive besides creating content to earn. There is the Hive Zealy campaign that pays you to promote and support Hive; there is the CTTpodcast sharing initiative that upvotes you for sharing their content on Web 2. You can run a Node or become a curator or a community manager. There is no excuse to become desperate for upvotes. You can provide value in different ways on or off-chain to get rewarded.

I hope this helps someone on Hive. Cheers!

Check out this short thread on projects with potential airdrops.

Images Source

creator: @ahmadmanga

Posted Using InLeo Alpha