This post is my entry for the Community Celebration Challenge which is due by Friday, February 11th 12:00 hours noon UTC. In this entry, I am celebrating The Terminal Community. The challenge is an activity of the Community Celebration Week 2022, which runs during the following week, from Sunday the 13th of February to Saturday the 19th of February.

Community Celebration: The Terminal.

Introducing The Terminal community.

Let me start with quoting how The Terminal Community introduces themselves to new Hiveans, when they join the Discord server there. I can't word it any better than they already have – anything that I add here pales by comparison. This is a standard welcome message, which is sent manually by any of the server staff, using a Discord Custom Command script from the Accord...

The primary goal of TheTerminal is to answer questions about Hive, cryptocurrency, and Discord. Our team is spread worldwide in many timezones for helping answer questions all day, every day. Founded in December of 2018, we aim to help folks learn the etiquette and workings of the blockchain, grow their accounts, and find communities where they can thrive. We are like a travel terminal for destinations on the blockchain!

That really sums up The Terminal Community nicely. In the real world, you would seldom visit a travel terminal, unless you were en route to another destination, or were buying tickets to go somewhere else later. The analogy fits perfectly for The Terminal Community.

However, as with the eponymous movie, The Terminal, starring Tom Hanks, some people have reason to remain in a travel terminal for longer than just transiting through it. Of course, there are the travel terminal staff, who keep the place running. There are those who just can't find a better place to be, at the time, so they remain where they are, soaking up the atmosphere as travellers come and go. There are the "greeters", who find their joy in welcoming new people, regardless of where they came from originally. There are the independent travel guides, who may be representing another Community or Tribe entirely, but it is convenient for them to direct the vast amount of foot traffic traversing through the travel terminal, towards their specific destination, by lurking here. Then there are the Hare Krishna's, whose only purpose in the travel terminal is to hand out free flowers and wish the travellers well. A real world travel terminal has all of these people and more, visiting regularly. So it is with The Terminal Community here on the HIVE social blockchain.

Why I love The Terminal community.

The Terminal Community is a vibrant, active place, where you can always get solid, dependable answers to your questions about the HIVE social blockchain, about cryptocurrency trading in general, and about using Discord for instant messaging with other Hiveans.

There is plenty of general banter here, some good-natured ribbing, and long-term friendships are often forged here. After finding the main HIVE Discord server, the next place that many new Hiveans are often pointed to is The Terminal Community. That is definitely how it went for me, when I returned to the social blockchain after a long absence of about three years.

While many other Communities and Tribes are trying their hardest to attract more members, to bolster their ranks, The Terminal Community expends a lot of their effort in actively pointing new Hiveans onwards to other Communities and Tribes. The atmosphere here is very different to most other Communities and Tribes on the social blockchain. The staff are welcoming to everyone, no matter their experience level on the social blockchain. Their greatest achievements come from seeing new Hiveans settled on the HIVE social blockchain, in a Community or Tribe that best suits their needs, and most of the time that isn't The Terminal Community itself. However, with such a pleasant and welcoming attitude here, many such new Hiveans will return often to The Terminal Community to visit, again and again, even once they are fully established in another Community or Tribe, and they are welcomed warmly. There is a real sense of "family" here, with the regulars, and those who drop in every now and then to say "hi!"

This is why I love The Terminal Community so much. It is easy-going, casual, and yet it is very well run and organised. There are community guidelines that everyone is expected to abide by, and they are very straightforward and sensible. The main thing that may sometimes catch new Hiveans unawares is that, if you promote your post in the server, you must also support another, previously submitted post from the same Discord channel.

How you can join The Terminal community.

Make sure that you are logged in to Discord, then click on the invite here, to the left. At first you will only be able to see a few channels, such as the "Welcome" channel, where you can introduce yourself to The Terminal staff. You will also see the "Introductions" channel, where you can introduce yourself to the rest of The Terminal Community, and send a link to your most recent post, or to your original #introduceyourself post, on the social blockchain. Once those simple steps are complete, a staff member will allow you in to the rest of the server, and you can chat in the "General Chat" channel, and interact in many of the other channels as well.

To be able to access the post promotion channels, so that you can send links to promote posts on the social blockchain (whether they be your own or someone else's post), you will first need to get permission from a staff member of The Terminal. They will make sure first that you understand the policy here, that you must support one other post that was sent by someone else in the same channel, before you can send a link yourself. Such support generally includes upvoting and, preferably, commenting on the content of the post that you are supporting. Also, to retain your post promotion privileges, you will need to chat occasionally in the "General Chat" channel. There is a **Discord** bot which checks your activity level, and if you haven't posted in the "General Chat" channel for a while, you will lose your post promotion privileges automatically. You can always become active in the server again later, and ask a staff member for your post promotion privileges to be reinstated. Remember, every link you drop in a post promotion channel in the server must be paired with your support for another person's post that is already linked to in the channel.

There are lots of fun activities happening in The Terminal Community's server. There are contests to enter, bot games to play, and a Meeting Room where the staff will sometimes run an airdrop or some other instant-prize giveaway. Get some tasty Hive Pizza, or other such level 2 tokens.

Acknowledgements.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank @melinda010100 and the team in the main HIVE Discord server, for pointing me towards The Terminal Community. I have grown substantially in my understanding of this new social blockchain, and the changes from the legacy blockchain, since arriving here.

I would also like to thank the staff of The Terminal Community, including @thekittygirl, @jamerussell, @wesphilbin, @brittandjosie, @stayten, @justclickindiva, who have all contributed in various ways to my growth within the community, and on the wider social blockchain, since my return this year.

Furthermore, there are many "regulars" of the community who I also would like to thank, for their input into my growth here on HIVE and within this fabulous community. They include such figures as @pravesh0, @be-alysha, @drabs587, @khoola, @beeber, @queenstarr, @zakludick, @bambukah, @jerrytsuseer, @mhel, @yaziris, @trippymane, @blitzzzz, @piratethanos, @mythcrusher, @khaleesii, @adalger, @sketchygamerguy, mondoshawan (who doesn't like to be pinged), and many others. You have all contributed to my experience so far in The Terminal Community, and I appreciate each and every one of you.