Man, the happy, painful, nostalgic trip down memory lane I took is beyond words, which is probably why I decided to make a post about this topic, to try and put it the feelings I had unfollowing more than 400 dead accounts from my Hive Following list.
It's funny how we try to explain how Hive is to new people we introduce to the platform, but the way we see Hive is nothing like it was a couple of months ago, let alone three or four years ago. Hive is nothing like it was and that's the beauty of it, how it evolves and how much it changes for the good and the bad. If people don't keep themselves updated, after a few months you're a total stranger and everything you built over the years or months you spent here building. Look at me, I'm practically a stranger to everyone except a handful of accounts that are here since the beginning.
Luzcypher who introduced me to the platform and damn, how lucky I consider myself to have run into him during that time of my life, he ended up leaving due to some misunderstandings about his open-mic project, probably the longest til this day; Dreemit who was always there to give me a heartwarming comment in most if not all of my posts, and happened to have around 10k SP which meant her vote boosted my posts a bit; voronoi and hansikhouse from sndbox who mentored me and encouraged me to keep creating great content, even before I became part of their project; mindhunter who I believe got into some sort of flag war and left the platform, but he was the first dolphin who liked my content and voted frequently on it; donkeypong who never voted directly on my posts but he was a Hive guru back in the day, everyone knew him and everyone followed him, if iirc it was him and instructor who started with all the curation styled accounts that later drifted into some sort of scheme, but at the beginning donkey was the guy to follow; heiditravels, the girl who made thousands of dollars from her travel posts and followed the votge of several curation guilds with the Steem Power she made from them, she left due to some flagging but at least she was doing some positive curation; yoganarchista had a lot of VP and used to post amazing drawings and art, she used to vote in most of my posts and damn, what a great girl she was until she left; margaretwise used to comment a lot on my posts and deeply encouraged me, both direct and indirectly to keep creating amazing travel posts.
How can you forget about those Hiveans who made a killing with their posts. Who cares if they did it by creating amazing content, or received all those rewards because they were pretty, or maybe they were friends with the big people of Hive... in the end, seeing them in the Trending page and living the Dream of creating content that gets rewarded the way we all expect it to be, made me and I guess many others to strive to create high quality and unique content. People like karensuestudios with her travel and yoga posts, always with a smile and a unique way of replying to comments; acromott and his acro yoga content who was probably the first one to post about this topic and damn how much people liked him; then you have girls like alphasteem who became a dtube's favorite with her cooking recipees; jayjes16 who was part of a voting scheme from the spanish community with some delegated VP, but who created good content and always made you want to be in her place, encouraging you to keep creating great posts; I remember heart-to-heart and her nature and spiritual kind of posts who always got rewarded and at some point it was normal to see her on the trending page; surfermarly left because she didn't believe in Steem anymore but it was routine to see her on top of the reward pyramid every week; then comes roxane, the french tutorials creator who grew her account faster than any other person I've heard of on Hive and still left after not getting what she expected the platform to give her. All of them are gone. It's kind of sad to know these people made a killing from Hive, got their fair share and then left, but that's how life is. In the end, they were part of the Hive showbiz and many, many OGs know about them. I wonder where they are right now and if they're still creating content.
Then it comes to the people you met in person, probably the ones that hurt the most that they are not here being part of the Hiveverse anymore. First comes guyfawkes4-20 not because he is more important but because he is probably my best mate from Hive's real life that is not here anymore. We spent a whole week in Krakow for Steem Fest 3 and I'd be lying if I said I don't remember those days with a smile in my face; then comes meanmommy33 who, despite us not being close, we meet in Poland after being both part of OCD's curation team, we had a few drinks together and some times I wonder what happened to her; you may not remember lafona but if you are a true OG, you know who that is. I met him in Lisbon in 2017. Great dev and OG witness who is now a dust account on Hive; I met evecab and el-cr in Poland in 2018 and we had already hit it off incredibly on Hive thanks to daily interaction and preparing for Hive Fest, I guess the married life took a toll on them and they can't be active here anymore. She lives in Panama and we keep in touch through instagram, I wonder why she's not on Hive anymore; theaustrianguy was an OCD german curator and he fixed my lip in Poland after I got my ass kicked in a bar, I know why he left Hive but it still hurts to know that such a committed guy to the Hiververse decided to leave; wolfcat and lovejoy are probably the coolest Hive couple that I was lucky to meet in Lisbon three years ago. One day they stopped creating content but I know they are still part of the cryptoverse, we might stumble upon each other again; I met Maryjaney and Steemcafe in the Steem Creators Conference in Toronto back in 2018 and hit it off with them from second one, we hit some bars and had a great Hive time, but I haven't heard of them in ages, their accounts are all dusty; last but not least, it pains me to see nomadicsoul's account like I found it. She was sick when she left and sometimes I wonder if this girl who took me to the hospital in Poland and with whom I hit it off incredibly is alright. The people that you met in real life, made a bond and had a connection with and somehow are not on Hive anymore are probably the ones that hurt the most for us, superficial and shallow beings.
You know how you start following some accounts because you hit it off with them, or maybe because you loved one of their posts, or perhaps just because you just enjoy reading their posts from time to time but, you don't really interact with these people more than voting for their great content and some times leaving a comment on their posts or receiving one from them; those people that conform your Hive Feed but you're not really friends, you just enjoy reading them, maybe they enjoy reading you, you give them votes every once in a while and receive some at other times... Well, I used to have a lot of those in my following list and to be honest, I remember them dearly even though I can't say anything about their content or our interaction. I think these people are crucial for Hive, those who are not your friends or your friends' friends, but they are friends with other people with which you also aren't friends. That's how ecosystems work and thrive, by having completely unrelated people who are related to other completely unrealted people between them. But hey, those were the ones I followed at the beginning and maybe we drifted apart after a while. But I remember them, I remember you, people who welcomed me to Hive. People like azfix, lordoftruth, reconnectnature, crissysworld, juvyjabian, antonchanning, codypanama, assus, gavvet, kafkanarchy84, tinypaleokitchen, yusaymon, aaronleang, eurogee
Oh, I almost forgot, how could I forget about probably the most important part of the Hive Ecosystem: The Online friends that we made along the way. Bilbop (RIP) was always there in my posts until the point he wasn't here anymore and I remember him fondly, I hope you are happy wherever you are man; the guy with the Almost Famous themed username, stillwater, a friend I made don't know how or why but we used to chat a lot online; my OCD co-curators ma1neevent, gniksivart or Travis King, gmuxx with whom I spent several online evenings talking with on discord, maybe not p2p but in channels we had in common. It makes you wonder how - or why - someone who was so involved with Hive decided to leave altogether and, it really makes you question your own reasons;
Of course not everything is pink and full of happiness, not here on Hive and not anywhere else. I never really connected with surfyogi but I remember I always wanted his huge vote and I could see how much he voted and encouraged other content creators to keep coming up with incredible and amazing post material; ahh how could you forget about walden and how much he fought - in a bizarre way - against plagiarism with a sense of honor few have; twinner ended up having issues with my online persona and I didn't like his real self much, but he was an essential part of the German curation community and it is sad he ended up leaving; teamsteem's curation strategy and witness offering wasn't much of my liking but in the end he supported many people and made Hive a better place for some of them, that kind of people is key to support niche groups inside a huge community such as Hive; when it came to drama beanz was most likely involved in it, but not in a bad way, just in an extremely passional way. It was fun to see her stand up for the little guy and some other times just try to piss off the big guy, I guess everyone gets tired of that and she left, but she was quite the character who overall brought positive vibes to Hive. IF you think about it, those people with who you never hit it off, make up part of the Hive universe and not having them here anymore can only be negative for the community because we need all kinds of people here, it is with pain to unfollow them because I saw they were inactive for quite a while.
It is with amusement and a little bit of pain to see all of them, each and every one of the with a 70~ reputation and at least some several hundreds if not thousands of dollars generated from this amazing website/social media/blockchain, and all of them gone after years of activity, all of them with less than a few HP and a lot of memories left behind.
I was able to see the last posts of every person I unfollowed and most of them had zero rewards or very little, but some others had rewards wandering the double digits, so I can't help but wonder why did they leave?
I went from 600~ following to around 160. I didn't stop following those that are still active despite that I don't remember the reason I followed them, but you gotta stay true, you followed them because of something and since I'm going to be more attentive to my feed, I might as well keep them there.
So I was thinking when I was going through the list of my following and I couldn't stop myself from thinking... What do you do with these people that are no longer here but they were still a part of your life for so long?
Do you move on? Feels like treason to unfollow them when they pretty much built your reputation here by giving you votes in your amazing and your not so amazing content, by engaging with you whether it was by leaving you comments or by replying to your comments, people who interacted with you on discord or steem chat (back then) and gave you words of wisdom, encouragement, tips, or simply some laughs.
At one point I could have been deemed a dead account because I was barely active here, sometimes a post every two weeks or something... we all need some space, but I never powered down everything (and I do have HP in a couple of alt accounts) and I never left, but still, some people could have thought that I was no longer interested in being part of this community that has been a huge part of my life over the past 4 years.
Luckily, the Hive community has still a lot of OGs, and as I've noticed over the years, there are always new people that become the new OGs over time, and their compromise to the community plays in place of those who left. There will always be a Hive core community and it is up to us to encourage these new people to keep committing and putting in the hours to build Hive.
Most of the people I am going to mention are my friends, or were, and some of them saw me grow while I watched some of them grow from minnows. I grew my account more than some, some others are huge dolphins now and I look up to them but, in the end, the reason I mention them is some sort of recognition to them for staying true to Hive for so long and also for being my friends (I'm not gonna mention every Hive loyal person, just those who I deem friends, or online friends at least, or perhaps Hive acquaintances, but we have some sort of bond or link none the less) but also to encourage you, in case you are reading this post, to go follow them, they are the ones that deserve your online friendship.
So, from first followed to last to not hurt anyone, thank you 
I have been following you guys for more than two years, perhaps more - that's why I didn't mention those who are a key part of Hive but I started following you recently or we didn't really interacted during my first years here.
I followed you when I was a mere minnow and was growing day by day here, and I thank you for everything you did for me and how much you encouraged me one way or another to be committed to Hive for 4 years now.
You are still here and still rocking and I appreciate you and thank you for it.