Enjoyed pretty much this post, and I 100% agree with that, I trust more many hive members (who struggled to build their own reputation) rather than people in real life.
I always say to newcomers (specially people irl when talking about hive) that this isn't a 'blog to earn', is more about a 'real social network' where connections come first, and monetary reward (if any), always later.
Ps. Hivefest?
Won't make it this year unfortunately. :( Would've been fun but will have to watch the streams instead!
Sad news, would have been great to put a face on you (lol how it sounds).
That's the value we need in terms of utility on Hive. We also need good developers but...social value is very important.