Today, January 29th, marks the 7th anniversary of my creating an account in this community — or rather, back on the "old" chain, as people now call it — and choosing to resume blogging after an almost 10 year hiatus from the Blogosphere.
I'm proud to say that also makes this one of the longest lived writing endeavors I have stuck with, in my adult life! That's actually pretty significant, as I typically have a short little span of attention!
But it's also testament to Hive's "durability" since most blogging and content venues I have been part of have typically folded up their tents and shut down after just a few years. And that's particularly true of any that offered rewards/incentives for creating content.
As most of those who have been here for a while are well aware, it has definitely been a bumpy road!
Looking back, it's amazing to think that the token — at least back on the "old" chain — has ranged in price from a low of $0.071 to a high of $8.19 during the years I have been part of this. That's a price differential of 115 times between the low and the high!
Like many, I'm not "just here for the money."
Wait, let me put the emphasis in the right place before you call me full of shyte: "I'm not JUST here for the money."
I'm truly grateful for Hive as a community, and as a venue. We're sometimes given to wonder why "things haven't gone better" and think part of the answer can be found in the very statement I just made: Too many people became part of this gig ONLY for the money... and that has never been much of a building block for a venture, in the long run.
When something is built up around a dubious core motivation, loyalty tends to become a bit thin.
But enough about that!
A Quick Snapshot:
As much for my own edification and benchmarking as for anyone else's, this represents my 2,320th post here... and since seven years equates to 2,556 days, that's actually pretty close to a blog post a day for seven years.
But community isn't just abut creating content, it's also about engaging with content... other people's content; other people..
Just rounded 17,000 comments... so that works out to about 7.3 comments for each actual blog post. And I think that matters as much as anything. I have a vague ambition to bring that closer to a 10-to-1 ratio... we'll see how that goes!
For the record, this morning I was at 4,500 Hive Power... which might not sound like much, BUT...
Heroic "Hail Marys" That Saved the Day!
As I said, I have much gratitude for Hive. Sometimes, I do wish I'd been able to just reinvest every bit of reward earned over the years... but sadly there have been a couple of substantial powerdowns along the way:
Once, had to power down a lot to fund a new set of tires for our truck, because the old tires had reached the point of not being safe anymore... they were basically round and black and very little else. At the time, we were out of money and "upside down" because we were paying off medical bills, in that lovely and "special" way people in the USA often have to.
Second, Hive saved our home from property tax foreclosure early last year... had to go almost all the way back to nothing on the Hive power... but on the upside, we still have a place to live!
Sadly, both of those powerdowns took place near the bottom of longer-term price lows.
Such is life when you don't have a reliable source of income, and you live close to the poverty line!
Looking Forward...
Don't really have any great ambitions for the coming year... other than "sticking to it" and forging on ahead. It's my sincere hope that this community will continue to be here for many years to come... and that we might be lifted again by a rising Crypto market.
My immediate — and rather modest — goal is to just get back above 10,000 Hive Power, making it a little more feasible to upvote worthy comments and encourage engagement. Will it happen this year? Who knows...
It's also my hope that at some point, one — or several — more dApps being developed here on Hive will gain the sort of traction and popularity we have seen with Splinterlands, and hopefully that would help lift the entire community. When that happens, I believe it will also bring more life into the social blogging end of things.
And that's really about all I have to offer... since I am purely a blogger/creator, I don't really have my toes in the technical end of Hive.
Lastly, a shoutout to @tarazkp who's also at the 7 year mark today! If you don't follow him, you really ought to... he's living proof that you didn't have to be part of the original "ninjamine" in order to be a Whale!
Comments, feedback and other interaction is invited and welcomed! Because — after all — SOCIAL content is about interacting, right? Leave a comment — share your experiences — be part of the conversation! I do my best to answer comments, even if it sometimes takes a few days!
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(As usual, all text and images by the author, unless otherwise credited. This is original content, created expressly and uniquely for this platform — NOT posted anywhere else!)
Created at 2024-01-29 12:27 PST
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