I've had this account since the STEEM days... Or should I say, "The chain that shalt not be named." It took a long time but I finally hit 2000 followers the other day. A lot of people have come and gone, I really wonder how many of the 2K are still active.
When we were back on that other chain and everything was new, people were a lot more active. I shouldn't say more active, it was just new, and there was a little more excitement community wide. You'd get to know people, then over time, they'd slowly fade away. Posting less. Less comments. Until suddenly, they just stop showing up. I always found that sad. I've been on a lot of social networks over the years. I've managed to keep in touch with 
That's the thing with social networks, you make lots of online friends but will lose touch with a huge majority of them. At least, that's been my experience. Hive has proven different for me. At least for the number of users I remain in contact with.
I always knew I'd be on this platform for as long as people are using it. There's something about being someplace since close to the start. You just want to see how it all plays out. Does it live and flourish or does our fruit die slowly on the vine or in this case the blockchain. 🤣
Hive isn't perfect, and there are lots of improvements that could be made. However, I've always felt that this is or at least should be the future of social networks. This is how it should be. While mainstream social media harvests your data and sells it off to the highest bidder. Hive figured out a way to reward the users. We literally pay people to do what they're already doing. To me, it almost seems like a no brainer. I can't believe we don't have a thousand social media competitors in this space. There are a few, but I'm not sure if there are any as robust as Hive.
We have community. We have numbers. I know sometimes we get discouraged or want to see more growth, but we also have each other. I think with time, we should see a huge rise in crypto based social media and hopefully in Hive use as well.
This is kind of what I was talking about the other day with usecase and altcoins. There are so many coins out there that really do nothing. The only purpose is speculation for traders. Sure we can go with the "store of value" ideology. Hive is so much more. The community is so much more. We have usecase. A proven concept that works. A dedicated community. I guess this is the reason I still hang around.
@the-bitcoin-dood/whats-up-with-shitcoins-and-alt-season-is-this-it
I've seen a lot of crypto projects come and go over the years. Most fizzle out because investors lose interest. They know there is nothing there. Without community you have nothing. Or with most crypto projects, that's all they have is community with limited usecase. In more cases than not they have a concept of an idea with nobody using it. With Hive the community is the value and our content is the usecase. The concept of an idea is alive and well and being used on sites like PEAKD, 3Speak, and others.
Crypto prices will always fluctuate and swing wildly from low to high. However, whenever you start to doubt Hive all you have to do is load up your feed and see all the great content people use the Hive Blockchain for. As long as people continue to use this platform, Hive will always have a respectable value. A few more exchanges would be nice too. You get my point though. Just look around, Hive is already succeeding regardless of price action.
Anyway, happy to still be kicking around the Hive blockchain after all these years. If you are one of my 2000 followers and reading this, thank you for sticking around and tolerating me in your feed all these years. You are appreciated.
Image credit: ChatGpt AI prompt "The Dude celebrates 2000 followers on the hive blockchain."