Me aul'd buddy @holoz0r with the 0 mentioned the other day that he did a cull on who he followed and unfollowed some users who were not active anymore on Hive . I had a look at my own profile and I was following 1700 people . Considering around a group of 5-10 reply to my posts every day I thought it was about time I did my own cull. So I set out with a rule . Anyone who didn't post since 2024 was cut. I started with the “a”s naturally and I was surprised at the amount of people who were not active anymore. Now these followers go all the way back to the Steem days so some of them did not get on the Marie Celestial boat even @celestial didn't get on to Hive which was fine. But some names who I thought would be still active were long since gone.
There was some long inactive names that I could not find my way to delete . Some old friends that started me along my way on Steem. The most famous of them was my old pal @janton who the OG's remember as posting about cowboys and the wild west every day and being on top of Ashers Engagement League every week for around 2 years. The bollocks would comment on every post on Steem. I don't know where he got the time but @janton was everyone's favourite , a nice man who always had something nice to say about your post. I think I look back smiling at the old git because when I read his posts I read in his voice. Well, the voice I think he has. And @janton's voice to me was Yosemite Sam. The famous lil cowboy who used to have beef with Bugs Bunny. Remember the Texan oil barron with the guns.
Ohhhhhhhhhh I can't wait to shoot that rabbit. [shoots guns in air]
Yep him. I do that alot with all my Hive friends. I have a little accent for them. So whenever I read a @janton comment I used to start it with OOOhhhhhhhhh . Anyway I miss him about the place and hope he comes back. I gave him my Netflix password once for the Ballad of Buster Scruggs . And the fecker watched about 100 films which messed with my Netflix algorithm and started showing me all these weird shows I should like.
There were more names too that were strong personalities but had fallen away for whatever reason they fell out of love with the place. These were not fly by nights. They were daily posters. They could be brown bread as well. I am not to know.
The people who have been around a while know the names of the regulars. Even if they have not conversed or made friends yet but I set about trying to make an effort with the “originals” who have been on the blockchain a while but they are not in my circle. It was quite a nice exercise actually and I will keep trying to build a relationship with them so that every one knows I'm a nice bastard.
Another thing that surprised me was that there were still plenty of the users I follow that are very much active on Hive so this filled me with hope for the future. Many posted within 3 months. You can tell the ones who haven't posted but curate instead because you see them around in comments which is fine.
I spent a good hour whittling down my 1700 to 600. Some non 2025 posters like @janton and another old friend @akiroq , @brittandjosie @beautifulbullies in case they came back. I also didn't touch the likes of appreciator or curie in case it gets me struck off the nice list (if I am still on it). It's funny who upvotes my posts . I could be unfollowing a whale and they could be upvoting my posts with other accounts for the past 2 years.. I very much doubt it but I will find out soon enough. 😳
I also did a bit of thinking about my place on Hive . I never wanted to be the Coffeezilla of Hive making posts about how the Hive Marketing arm is funding projects but nobody else making people aware at the massive outgoing of HBD to some questionable projects so I got the ball rolling in a way. I find the whole thing naïve and too trusting of some Hive users who have little stake in Hive and I find this strange coming from the users with the most stake voting to fund Valueplan. I think a user needs to have at least 20,000 Hive powered up before they are even considered for funding. It is just too easy at the minute. If you want 20,000 HBD to do your conference , you need to have skin in the game. Put your money where your mouth is you sponger . If you love Hive that much you would have more than 100 HP in your account. I don't care about hard times you hit. Don't be applying to do conferences then. I try to see the good in people myself but over the years in crypto I have become socially aware around scams and hustles. I find some intelligent people can also be very socially unaware. That's the only thing I can pin it down to if there are not backhanders involved. Maybe another option is the larger stakeholders don't understand poverty so well because they never had it and the fact that you can get your granny knocked off in South America for $100. I'm drifting again.
I do prefer my more comical posts that slag off Hive but in a fun way so I may retire from publicly heckling people in the posts as the outgoings to the users being funded and the ROI speak for themselves. I get more upvotes from the normal bloody posts anyway so what's the point on putting a target on my back? I do wish to go to a Hivefest at some stage as well and I would not like to be beaten up at it by the conference squad, the rally car dude or the wells mob who will most likely all be going to Hivefest. So I am scaling back the Valueplan posts to twice a year seeing that spiritsurge is being paid to update their figures which are correct and there is a website now to be more transparent.
Sometimes it is good to take a break from Hive because you can become stale easy enough and it is good to live life and have proper stories for when you get back. I would love to see the return of some of the people who left . It would be easier to get these guys back posting than onboard new users as most don't have a pot to piss in and retention is terrible. Maybe re-boarding should be an initiative where I apply for funding and I fly to Texas to get @janton back. I am sure quite a few people would vote for that. Kidnap @janton. Wouldn't that be fun?? After @janton I can fly to the Netherlands (first class) and get the Block Brothers and get @brittandjosie back killing 2 birds with one stone. My next stop would be somewhere in Asia to follow the sun. Someone like @eonwarped. To Britain then for @quillfire. For balance I would try and convince @haejin and @berniesanders back for a bit of drama. Might rough them up a bit before we take them back. Also what ever happened to the most popular guy on Steem, @nathanmars? He was like a cool looking Idris Elba. Way cooler than our current uppercrusts. Also @fulltimegeek was fairly sound as far as I could remember and @pensiv used to serenade us with that radio voice on MS waves. The list is endless. Get him back as well.
I am sure many of you would like to have your own friends in your own circles back. Who would you look to have back? Answer in the comments. Considering Hive has funded an entire rally car for the Rally Community and by last count has 6 active users. If I was to get 20 Hive users back for 100,000 HBD I would be 4 times more successful than the rally car with 10 times less funding. 😂. So how about it , will I put in a proposal?
I will plan the logistics on how I will carry out this mission based on the comments section. If the user is no longer of this world , I will finally make use of one of those Conference stickers and leave it on their gravestone and take a picture. It's what they would have wanted. I will add them to the Brown Bread London slang Community with their epitaph and will get in contact with the person who upvoted them the most for a little story about them. It can't just end with one day they are posting and next day nothing. That's just sad. Anyway former users that you would like to see back in the comments please.