I was annoyed by all the photos of flowers in the post interrupting the text. I mostly ignored them because I was much more interested in the content and context of what it was you were saying. Pictures to break up text is great, but sometimes, I just wanna absorb the brain bits, and that isn't always pictures. Anyway, that's just a personal complaint, before I start to agree with you entirely on so many of your other points.
Hello. Hive is still a great place. A place that needs to very much be about the content. And yes, comments are content too. If I cast my mind back to the old "Internet" PHPBB forums that I used to hang out on (that sadly, many of which do not exist anymore) - you found a community, a niche, and you stuck with it. We had tens of thousands of posts, conversations with the same people on a myriad of different issues, and grew old(er) together.
I met many great people from that time in my life, friends, people who would be a link into employment and played a lot of games with them (because the forum was centred around video games) - but Hive, hive is different.
A lot of people are here for their own selfish, financial enrichment, and to think that they can fool others with superficial texts and not propelling their true persona and characters into the place.
This is part of the reason why, on every opportunity I have, I have to say that this place must absolutely be about content. When you think about why people go to tiktok or reddit - it is because of the content. It is because of the trend, it is because of the community, it is because those places have vibrant comment sections that are at least a little bit like the old Internet.
A free gathering place, which is something that we have lost. There is much of it on hive, but it must still be approached with caution and genuine enthusiasm, or we're just another part of the the machine.
I was really happy that my web-host rolled out a new feature that enables me to block AI-crawlers from accessing content on my domains where I publish other bits and pieces. I'll write a post about how important that is for creative sovereignty at some point, but like all things, its a double edged sword. Perhaps with many more edges.
We have to also realise, that content not on hive is worth a lot more than content on hive. For instance, the standard rate for a long-form editorial in traditional media would be about ~$800-1000 here in Australia, and if I publish the same thing on HIVE, I'd be lucky to get $30AUD or so on a good day.
But there's important distinctions along the way - the content isn't behind a paywall, it is immutable (meaning it can't be edited away at a later date) - and ... sadly, it gets devalued by being published here, because if I were to submit it to other publications, they wouldn't want something their subscribers could find for free somewhere else, because it gives people... no reason to give them money.
Not entirely sure where I went with this rant, but I agree with you, people need to be more genuinely genuine on HIVE. It is too easy to see through people's bullshit. I hate it when people aren't genuine about what they want or what they bring to the platform.