69 As In "Rep 69" - Honestly... 🙄
I'm handing over the keys to the Hiveboy mansion to those of you still 69ing away though, who wants them? 🤣
Anyway, I like having goals to aim for as it keeps me focused and motivated. When I started on Hive/Steem, one goal was to get to the hallowed ground of rep 70!
I checked on my 
Come on... 0.001... can someone please push it over the edge? (I mean the rep of course, you filthy animals!)
Up stepped a few badasses during the day and I obsessively checked my beeme page to see this beautiful round number:
Does Rep Actually Mean Anything? 🤔
For most, the reputation system may have lost its meaning because for a couple of years, it was possible to buy upvotes for your posts, which meant you could go from your starting rep of 25 up to 70 and beyond in the blink of an eye! Anyone who knows me knows that I wasn't a fan of them at all!
Thankfully though, a set of improvements came along last year where users could counteract the effects of buying upvotes and we have since seen the demise of this practice, at least on Hive, and I really hope it stays that way going forward.
Seems the bid bots have started up again on Steem - they can keep them, lol!
Earned Rep The Proper Way 💪
First 4 Months 👶
From memory, when I first got into the platform at the beginning of March 2018 (thanks to 
I still made the effort to change the content of the blogs for the tracks I shared but sure enough, post payouts (other than my intro post), suddenly plummeted with my 3rd one reaching an incredible $0.02 and the comments also started dropping off - rep was still very much in high 40s, low 50s at this point.
So yeah, a bit of a disappointment and was getting the feeling that this didn't seem to be much better than using Facebook - I left FB because their algorithms are notoriously bad for artist pages. Those who follow you or like your page often don't have your posts show up in their news feed unless you pay for ads! WHAT!
Bluffer's Guide 📔
The 3rd post I mentioned above was the introduction of the Bluffer's Guide to Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency to share my noobish experiences after being burned with getting in at the all time high in Dec 2017 - Feb 2018 (oops)!
I thought it may have been well received over here and although I did get a couple more comments (thanks to those that did), I think the best this series did (until the "Upvotes, Downvotes and Rewards Pool" guide in Oct 2018) was a post that took 10 hours to write, netted me $0.45 and had 3 comments on!
My rep slowly climbed to 52-53 with these but I had fun writing them as it helped my understanding if nothing else!
Changing Tactics - Travel Blogs 💡
6 months after joining, I had an idea! I thought I'd change tactics and this proved to be a good decision!
I joined the 
This incredible surprise felt like a breakthrough as my following went up and really gave me inspiration and motivation - truly grateful, everyone remembers their first curie!
This definitely changed the way I set myself up online and I rebranded as a liquid drum & bass music producer and travel blogger, combining two of my favourite things, along with the occasional Bluffer's Guide to Hive!
Advice To Newcomers 🗣
I would say that the key takeaway to grow your rep and account is to network with various communities.
It doesn't always work out in some and that's fine, as long as both sides are graceful and professional about it. You'll find you gravitate towards the people you're supposed to gravitate to and that makes everything fun - how it should be!
Other tidbits of experience include being consistent, don't spam, interact with others but make your content as best as you can make it and you'll do well here!
Nicky's Rep 70 Stats 🤓
A little look at the numbers then for you stats freaks (I'm one of them haha):
- Account started = 2nd March 2018
- Age = 28 moons (sounds cool but is ~770 days!)
- Blog Posts = 587 (1 post every 1.3 days average)
- Comments = 10005 (13 comments per day average)
- Author Rewards = 4,944 HP
- Bid Bot votes purchase = 0 (rep still matters 😁)
Other Hive Goals? 🐋
My main one now is to become and Orca which is about 50k HP so just another 19k to go but with the Steem that's getting powered down, I'll be looking to make the most of that on the move to Hive. 11 more weeks though... dull!
What are your goals or milestones you want to achieve on Hive? Do you still think the rep system has its merit? Who is still 69ing?! Haha
As always, take it easy and stay safe!
Nicky