Today is a furlough day, which means I am not getting paid to work, but work I am doing gets paid --- hmmm. Well, I am not working that hard, so I have some time to look at a few other things of interest - for example Hive onboarded its first true celebrity who has already been making moves in the market place with his as expected unusual introduction post.
Hi, I'm Batman
While he had to dump to complete the ear, Bruce and Wayne Enterprises should soon be pumping the markets up and since he is pretty fond of creating gadgets, he is hopefully looking to create some nifty Dapps. Unfortunately, his first app attempt, "Grapplr" was mistaken for a dating app and overrun by people who are "too handsy" at staff Christmas parties.
The underrepresented majority
That aside, 
This is mine as of a little while ago
"How terrible! You should be voting small accounts! Minnows are people too!"
Maybe......
However, upon request and a reference letter from Batman, Asher gave me another set of number.
These are my comment votes.
There are approximately 10x the number of active Orcas than Whales, 5x the number of active Dolphins than Orcas, 3x the number of active Minnows than Dolphins, and 5x the number of active Red Fish (and lower) than Minnows. - Stolen from Asher
I can't speak for the whole network, but stealing from my own comment to Asher,
As you can see, the vote weight is pretty much distributed evenly no matter the class (as I don't check or care), but there is something more interesting in that. I vote a lot of comments and pretty much most of the ones I get (within reason) however, where are the redfish and minnows?
There are 3x more minnows than dolphins, but they don't appear to be commenting much on my posts at least - and I vote on comments.... At least for me, the most active groups for comments considering the distribution, are the dolphins and orcas. Dolphins seem to be the most active engagers, and minnows are very unimpressive considering their numbers.
I think that this last part is important.
Is it possible that the engagement is a part of the reason that the dolphins are dolphins at all? They have taken an interest, made a home, create content and build a network.
Engagement builds network
Engagement matters for several reasons and one of the major might be, Out of sight, out of mind. Which perhaps could translate in the future to be - Out of mind, out of site. Retention seems more correlated to engagement, than earnings. Not many can be retained by the current levels earned, but there are plenty here because they enjoy the discussion regardless.
Attention is a limited resource and while everyone seems to expect to be found, "getting found" is generally less up to chance and more up to whether one wants to be found. If you put out content expecting an algorithm to push it into eyeline, you are shit out of luck. But even if it did, your content would be competing for algorithm attention in the same way it competes for organic eyes to view it, except that you wouldn't be able to do much personally to affect the outcomes.
Engagement is personal.
When people comment on my posts I see them, I read them, I vote them, I might even give a follow if the comments are consistently good. One comment is rarely good enough to warrant a follow unless the account looks interesting in other ways, something I might want to keep an eye on. This depends on my interests, not yours.
I would predict that a lot of the dolphins are dolphins because they have started from zero and then got involved with the community, started commenting, creating and building a network. I would also predict that a lot of the dolphins and orcas I have supported, are the ones who have worked for the community as well as bought into the token over time. To buy-in, one first has to have at least some belief that there is future value and that belief is generally built upon experience on the platform, through interaction with people who are on the platform creating and commenting.
Hive has a working economy and the Hive token is one of the goods that can be bought, but people only buy it because they see it as something that will appreciate in value in the future. Once they buy it, they can then use it in various ways to add to that potential for appreciation, which many do - by supporting people who they believe are adding value to the community - people like Abh12345 with the reports, Meesterboom for the dark humor, my brother Galenkp for his life views or Nonameslefttouse, for what is one of the sharpest observing perspectives on and of the platform and life, even though he doesn't like to write about the platform. There is a reason that they get support and you will find that in general, they don't mind adding the odd comment to the blockchain, they engage.
And they've been doing it for years.
Thick and thin, up and down, through bidbots, curves and clusterfuck forks - they have been here participating in the community, getting involved, adding their voice as well as - drawing and maintaining attention. Yeah, they get some votes, but you won't see them resting on their laurels and autovotes. They are consistently producing and as a result, generating value through the type of content and engagement that keeps people here because it is fun, interesting, unique and valuable to humans.
Engagement is engaging.
Engagement matters in this world even more now as so many are connection starved, disconnected from real communities and instead searching for a digital home. Where many of the other platform provide a space for polarized argument discussion, Hive incorporates the sense of community and friendship, which is also why those who participate in the discussions are more likely going to attract the support of consumers.
I am a creator on Hive, I am also a consumer of Hive content - and if I don't see you, how do I know where to find you? I am guessing the same way I was found when I started and for a very long time - and it wasn't in Trending. Through comments and producing content that when seen, generated some interest, some discussion and I added comments to that too. Thousands upon thousands of comments.
Between Abh1234, Meesterboom, Nonameslefttouse, Galenkp and myself, there are ~176,000 authored posts and comments. How much discussion and engagement do you think it has generated? What value has it held for the community that is here? How many people stayed a little longer or bought a little more, because one of those names above encouraged engagement and helped someone feel at home in a community of strangers?
I don't know, I will have to leave that one for Asher to answer.
Waiting, waiting, waiting
Asher came through:
That is just over 200,000 replies spread between 5 accounts and while I am sure there are some "Nice post" comments in that mix, I am quite confident the depth of commentary is pretty good compared to the average on the platform. Does it matter? Well, while not everyone is going to find interest or value in everything that is produced, the economy on Hive benefits from diversity of content and levels of real engagement as it supports people.
Transactions can be automated, but they don't build a community.
Perhaps Batman can help.
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]