A month ago I saw a post in which the user was asking where is the engagement on Hive those days. It was a good question, however, the answer is not so simple.
Engagement has always been a hot topic on Hive. We all know why engagement is important but not everyone has the same view about it.
The number of active users is changing all the time on the blockchain and the price of HIVE has a huge role in it. When HIVE is on its way to a new ATH, you see old users coming back, then at a retrace they are the first to leave. This is not new and will never change. If you've been on Hive for a few years, you may have seen a few phases of these. Some find it annoying but in fact this is a normal thing because you can't force anyone to be active on Hive for years. It's a free blockchain.
The other aspect that needs to be taken into consideration is that people have a life and don't always have the same amount of free time at their disposal, thus the volume of comments are always fluctuating. I don't see why anyone would mind.
You can measure your engagement rate by dividing the total number of comments made on Hive by the number of posts and get the ratio. The higher the number you get, the better for you but that is just in theory and I'll explain it to you why. (You can check your stats by accessing https://hivebuzz.me by the way.)
The key here in my opinion (and not only my opinion) is quality. If you have something to comment, then do it. Otherwise save your time and energy. There's nothing worse than a bad comment. I am getting a few comments every week from users who have no idea what my post is about as they have never read it. The other mistake you can do is comment on posts just to talk about yourself. We have a few of these on Hive. Well, this is definitely not the way to get people's attention.
There are users who are not commenting almost at all. It is their right to do so. Posting and not commenting is frowned upon on Hive as it is considered milking, so you may not get curated by the curation projects, but again, no one can force you to comment, it's up to you.
So where is the key hidden? There's no hidden key to success. Try to be yourself. Try to find like minded people and connect with them. If you have a common topic, commenting will go smoothly, there will be no need to force yourself to comment.
Focus on quality, not quantity. A well known user once said to a spammer, Hive is to use it, not to abuse it.
You can decide for yourself in which category this nice comment fits in. Also remember, once it is posed, it is there to stay forever. You can edit it, delete it, but will be always retrievable.
Last, but not least, do it for the right reason. Commenting and hoping to get an upvote can lead to disappointment, which can lead to childinsh tantrums, as we've seen so many times, as we live in the era of entitlement.
