Tomorrow is a day off in Finland, as it is the Epiphany. I don't know what that means in religious context, but having an epiphany is essentially having an "Aha" moment, where there is the sudden understanding or meaning of something that was hidden earlier. Ever had one?
These photos are from the same day, 5 years ago and my wife was just over a month pregnant with our daughter, so it wasn't a discovery. However, it was a beautiful day out and very cold. As you can see, we were walking on the lake with the now late Viski and the same lake isn't close to freezing over yet - nor was it at this time last year, where it hardly froze at all and it wasn't safe to walk on.
There is a needle tower on the other side of the lake and normally, we would walk the three or four kilometers across the ice to it a couple times a season and eat sausages at a little lighthouse in the middle of the lake, but we haven't been able to for a couple years. Hopefully this year we can, as I think that Smallsteps will get a kick out of it. She was a baby in a pram the last time we went.
Speaking of babies. I have all my tokens on a "baby" account, which generally follows my votes and a couple other trails. It is a really lazy set up, but it votes something like 700 times a week and while the Hive Voting power is hammered, the tokens are getting distributed as they fall on so much content. I just added more HIVE delegation, as it needs some to fire.
This has all my LEO stake sitting on it also and I am thinking that I should get it to trail on comments too, as a way to distribute a little more widely, since not everyone posts to LEO, even if they are interested in the content. I am trying to use 
I think that it is important to encourage engagement and while I do not think that long term comment voting is likely the best way, I do think that early on, it isn't bad. One of the good things about LEO is that it doesn't suffer from a voting penalty period, nor is there a curve to trim it. This means voting on LEO comments doesn't "cost" me, as it does on Hive. I vote a lot of comments, which is terrible for my curation returns, but I believe that there is more value in not maximizing for me. the value being the enjoyment I get out of engagement with other users.
Of course, the best way to encourage engagement is to actually engage with people. I know that while some people only comment in the hope for some votes, the people who actually get the most value out of it are the ones in it for the discussion. While posts are great for information, the real value is in the conversations, as it becomes a far more personal connection as well as builds up a network of trusted relationships. Content and stake don't build social trust.
Often, people seem to maximize their stake earnings without considering the costs that they may wear because of it. While there can be a decent ROI for delegating for example, it likely affects the way people perceive the account. When I see large accounts posting and voting but all of their stake is delegated out for a passive ROI, it doesn't make me want to vote their content up. Again, there may be nothing wrong with this, but it is my preference. I think that it is a good path for users to think about what they add to the community also - no one is forced to do this of course, being a valuable part of a community is opt-in. There are many ways to add value, they aren't necessarily hard to do.
I think that the most interesting and sticky part about the Hive blockchain for me is the interaction between people. Yes, I want to realize some financial value at some point too, but I don't think I would be nearly as interested in Hive as a token if there wasn't the opportunity to use it to socially. This capability makes it more of a game, while still being a place where normal social platform interactions can take place.
As someone interested in the way people behave under various conditions, Hive is the best MMPORG there is. The field of play is unbounded and the real estate can be created by the users themselves, the rules of the game can be changed by the users, players can take on a host of characters, the tokens earned have real-world value with massive potential and - it is all adding to a discussion toward an improved economy and the future of society as we know it.
Due to its relevance to and reflection of, as well as the impact it can have on our lives in various way, it is a brilliant way to investigate and discover strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats to our personal experience. Used well, it can be life changing in a multitude of ways, not just financially, and it can open us up to possibilities and the growth of our potential that we might have been unlikely to find otherwise.
Over the space of 4 years, I have had many moments of epiphany on Hive that have fundamentally changed my outlook on life. I think that over this time, I have become a better person, better father, better member of society and have learned a great deal about myself and people that help me better navigate and manage my personal experience. Not many games out there can offer that kind of return, with most costing us skills, relationships and our ability to participate effectively in a community.
I think that when people start playing the game here "seriously", they will see that the financial benefit side of it is not actually where they will find the most enjoyment, it is more of a byproduct of building a robust, diverse and talented community. Perhaps for some, discovering this would come as an epiphany - and things would start to click into place. For many, this might be the most important game they ever play.
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]