"What Color Unicorn Poop Are You?" and Other Mainstream Drivel...
Our middle son turned 32 yesterday, which called for a short visit to Facebook for the usual blah-blah-yadda-yadda that goes with such occasions.
Not that he's actually on Facebook much... but like many folks in the world, we use Facebook for one of the few things it's actually good for: Catching up one the latest "How's your ingrown toenail?" chit-chat and sharing pictures of the grandkids' Easter Egg hunts, new kittens and what have you.
Way Back When...
Just to be crystal clear here, I will confess to being one of the early adopters when "this new thing called Facebook" showed up sometime in... in... when was it? 2005? Something like that.
The attraction was pretty lame really... mainly due to MySpace having become an unparalleled shitshow of profile customization that rendered the site virtually unusable, and the standardized blue/white layout of Facebook was actually slightly intriguing in the sense that it suggested that you actually needed to provide a tiny measure of originality in order to be seen.
Yeah, well... so I was wrong about that. At least in the long term. Believe it or not early Facebook wasn't so bad...
So what's my point here?
Well, for one, I don't miss Facebook in the slightest, even though I recognize that it does have its purpose. I also don't miss a feed filled with "Betty Sue invited you to take the quiz 'What Color Unicorn Poop Are You?' and share the results with your friends!" and similar intellectual offerings.
And no, I'm not revealing what color unicorn poop I am. That's for me to know, and you to never find out...
Anyway, it was a good reminder of why I was very ready to create a Hive account back in early 2017.
But Here's the Thing:
Of course, the other thought running through my mind was this: the more mainstream adoption anything manages to achieve, the more said venue will be populated by... well... the mainstream who adopts it.
At the moment, Hive remains small enough that it still has a measure of weird authenticity going for it. Which all makes me ponder whether — if we actually succeed in drawing in, let's say, 10 million users — substantially growing the community will that also mean that we'll lose a chunk of our uniqueness; our edgy identity?
Maybe not.
Here's the thing, kids... Hive isn't actually all that different from the pre-Facebook social blogging we lost when MySpace and Facebook became a thing. As in, the stuff a fair number of us were doing circa 1999-2005. In fact, Hive is enough like those old formats — which I really enjoyed — that it's substantially why I even made an account here, back in early 2017.
And That Means...
That there are still a lot of people out there who are not brainless morons who'd come and be part of a community like we have here, precisely because they are sick to death of quizzes about Disney Princesses or the color of Unicorn Poop.
Do I have a point here?
Well just that there's a decent place between Facebook-style mass adoption and and being so far off the beaten track that nobody even knows Hive exists.
Just consider this place with maybe five million active users (rather than a few tens of thousands) and what I difference that might make.
Sure, Hive needs to grow. But we can also afford to be somewhat picky about who we invite.
Discernment matters...
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Created at 20210409 16:32 PDT
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10's of thousands? - estimate less than 8,000 of real users...
If you mean people who vote and post and interact daily, then yes.
Facebook is over aggressive with the ads which somewhat ruins the experience. I understand, they are making millions doing that, although I have never shopped or bought anything because of them.
It is a place where people from many parts of my life / past life are connected and I like to see photos and messages from "some" of them. I do have a few that I love that are over zealous about sharing stoopid stuff. LOL !! I know, it's all point of view and all that. I just don't participate.
Hive on the other hand is what you make it I guess. If you spends hours and hours a day and get involved in different clicks you can get a lot out of it. I on the other hand just have too many other things I'd rather do than spend hours and hours here. I do come on multiple times a day, scan through, read and do the occasional post. I use to post more and spent a lot of time doing that and there were folks that have been fun and kind to me, but still.... the rest of the world is waiting and calling for me to come join in !
Each place has it's good purposes (and crap)..... to me.
I'm actually one of those "weird" people who did once buy something off a Facebook ad... a unique piece of art I would otherwise never have seen. But that's pretty rare, and the ads are generally pretty annoying.
I enjoy hive simply because I enjoy writing and working through topics of interest "in writing" and I like the "social blogging" aspects here. That said, I don't spend a lot of time here, although I'm posting most days.
I have work to attend to; the constant process of scraping out a "living."
That is why we ourselves have to be aware of not rewarding content that is neither original nor appropriate for the platform.
I believe the growth of communities will definitely help, in that aspect. It's pretty easy to spot an post about coding in the Foodies tribe and determine that it does NOT belong.
I think the tribes and communities will help categorize the varying degrees of craziness to come! But HIVE is quite nice right now, I won’t lie! Happy bday to your son man!
Thanks! I'm pretty much enjoying Hive as it is at the moment, but a greater buildout in the communities will definitely help with content discovery... AND make it easier to "sell" the idea of Hive on an interest-based level.
Ah, come on! @denmarkguy. Tell us, tell us. For some strange reason, I have the hunch I must be some sort of pinkish unicorn poop myself. :D
Might that be as a result of you being a Pink Wizard, perhaps?
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