Despite the specific title, this will be a more free-flowing post discussing certain thoughts I had about Hive ever since I joined over five years ago. I hope you all read this.
A few days ago, I had noticed this post talking about how we need to build a community to share their stories and get support. I had left a comment opting to create one if no one has created it but without an answer. Partly because the post turned into a strange discussion about the war itself in some comments and because it had too many comments.
Now, you may rightly wonder "Why don't you go ahead and do it anyway?". Well, aside from the fact that it wasn't originally my idea therefore I don't think it is ethical to go ahead and do it. But, either way, I will come back to this later.
Hive Doesn't Have Remotely Enough Communities
At first sight, you might think otherwise. Yes, we do have a lot of communities in numbers. But, not in specificity. Like, we have a few for photography, one for black and white photography, which is something I like. The more specific you are, the better.
However, the issue seems to be about certain types of communities. Like, much like the post about Ukrainians surviving the war, throughout my stay on this site I was often thinking about whether there should be a community about trauma survivors in general.
Instead, I see those posts of people aiming to share their stories or seek guidance disappear, often along with their authors, of Hive entirely. The problem is that those posts are scattered around Hive, making them harder to see. Especially in general-topic communities where people have many posts but don't seem like many eyes go. Now to the questions
Why Don't You Go Ahead And Do It Yourself?
I think there's a misunderstanding of terms when it comes to Hive in general. I don't want to dive into this subject too much, but one term I keep hearing about communities or anything is "Natural growth". Honestly, I have no clue what that means. Not in terms of meaning itself, but in terms of applicability.
I think "natural growth" as an applicable term doesn't exist. Hive has been growing in popularity not because we have been doing nothing, but because people on this chain took it upon themselves to promote it on all different social media sites and different appearances. OCD's onboarders program is a great example of the amount of work and effort it takes.
The same thing I believe applies to communities, well not exactly.
Let Me Explain
If we look at Hive community creators as people in one building, the higher your floor the more you're seen. So for example, if someone who's popular on the platform and has big vote communities in his contact creates a community, that community will have "Natural growth". As people will see that community more often.
On lower levels, that experience is 180 degrees different. Especially, now that community has served as a sort of replacement for the follow button. So, there's just a small room for "Natural growth", and it is not even natural growth as it fully depends on people from the higher floors of the building spotting you.
I know everyone can come up with an example of a community that grew naturally, and I am open to that, provided it comes with a definition of what "Natural growth" means for you. And I know some examples exist, but for everyone that worked, I could name 10 that hadn't.
This takes me back to the point I made about the trauma survivors community as it connects both points and opens room for a new complicated, seemingly contradicting problem.
Why Would Anyone Post In A New Community?
You must have seen those posts in certain communities that don't really belong in that community but had mental gymnastics applied to them to make them look otherwise even though there were communities that are more suited topic-wise but not reward/interaction-wise. There are also communities encouraging posts that don't really belong in those communities.
So, if you had a post idea and the community for that had like 27 people with 5 actives, would you post it there or just do your own mental gymnastics and post it under the guise of another topic? Or simply in general-topic posts? I mean with the latter two at least you have the chance of more eyes.
I know the purest among us would say they'd post it in the right community, but really? And I am not talking to people who come in with their auto votes ready. I am talking about people who joined Hive for rewards or interactions, or a mixture of both.
Words don't spread on their own, the idea of minnow to minnow spreading the word doesn't apply 90% of the time. I have seen way too many come and go because there's always something that feels missing. And I honestly think everyone feels that as well. Like there's something missing, something we can do but is unable to do or even conceive it. This leads me to my final point and I promise this long post will be over.
Are We Stunting Our Own Growth?
For the number of different people and communities on this platform, doesn't it feel like we could do SO MUCH MORE? We see many accounts like Curangle, OCD, Curie, Tribalsteemup, and many more showing support to communities once they become visible enough. Why isn't there a way to start the initiative from there? And most importantly, why isn't there a community for people to share their projects and ideas?
I am talking about a community where one could talk about "Hey, I have this idea about starting a short educational series". I know there are probably places or people where you can suggest these somewhere. But I am talking about a community where you might see like-minded, ambitious people who could even help out.
Another question is why don't we have a collaboration community? Like there are countless graphic designers, sketch artists, and writers. How come we don't have more collaborative ideas, like a Hive comic book where different writers write different stories with digital artists adding a visual aspect to them?
I feel like we all have those ideas but seem to lack a place where they are shared or supported. I mean wouldn't it be cool having something like a Hive Comic Book? Or A Hive show, a Hive podcast, digital art, or any of those things to show outsiders why they should join Hive.
I know some of those ideas already exist in a form, others seem way too ambitious, but the way I see it we do need to be more connected and collaborative. Something beautiful was built here and I think we have great values beyond just being Web3 and decentralized.
I think there's a great untapped potential we aren't really tapping into as we seem to be each floating in different directions.
The End
There's just so much to say and I tried to keep this as short as possible so some ideas might seem incomplete. If you have made it this far, thank you for reading.