RN I know of two Hive users that have, or are, leaving the platform and they say it's because you downvoted them. I understand this is not the effect you have intended to have. I have pointed out in an extensive comment here why that is happening, and that it's not a recent thing particular to you, but to repeated DV's taxing the earnings of Hive users indefinitely. I know of another long time user and dev who announced today they are leaving for the same reason, although blaming a different account. In the less than ~1 month I have known you that is the effect that is demonstrable from the taxation that DV's cause. It is not because someone indicated disagreement with their views or acts with a thumbs down icon under their post. It is from the taxation of their earnings DV's effect.
Please give this demonstration of the harm that taxation does to Hive the consideration it deserves. If you want to onboard users, you certainly want to keep them once they're here, and Hive has the worst user retention of any surviving platform I am aware of because of this unrestrained taxation exclusively.
I do not agree with the taxation description.
If there is a disagreement of how the reward pool is allocated and that causes people to leave that is a bummer. I don’t think people should only be here for the rewards.
Well, I think I can change your mind if we undertake a forthright discussion. I'm willing to have that conversation with you at your convenience. Another issue is that I understand taxation as racketeering, basically theft of money under threat of violence as employed by government, little different than paying protection money to mobsters so they won't burn down your store, or to muggers so they don't stab you in a dark alley. Many people see DV's as theft, and it isn't the threat of violence, because online platforms aren't potential of physical interactions. It is the theft of rewards that angers people, not disagreement or a thumbs down icon below their post.
I don't know how else to characterize DV's, quite honestly.
I could not more agree with you. I am here for the ferment of ideas in a community that values free speech highly. However, Hive presents a basic premise of communities so intent being able to directly pay authors for their work, that then is potential to utterly leave centralized platforms and the advertising propaganda machine in the dust of decentralized discussion of policy. I saw hundreds of successful content creators come here after April 2017 (before the fork) and was aghast when that massive influx of folks seeking to make this new model of social media succeed was ubiquitously flagged off the platform with myriad insipid excuses.
These events were fundamental to the formation of my understand of DV's as both censorship and taxation, and I would be happy to provide references you could consult to ascertain why these influencers left the platform. When you have the time and interest I will be glad to see if we can't find ways to make Hive the success it should be. I'd love nothing more than to shuffle off this mortal coil knowing Hive was taking over the world as millions and billions of ordinary people dumped censorious financially greedy web2 social media platforms and came here to take control of their words, and their governments.
Ok this statement here is helping me connect a lot of dots when we are talking. Like we have really good talks but when we talk about downvotes it just feels really dark compared to our other conversations.
Whether we are agree on the taxation description is mostly semantics. Like I don't believe it is taxation but I believe it removes rewards people were hoping to get. Downvotes do reduce reach so in that context it is a form of censorship.
I am more interested in finding pragmatic solutions for the problems you noticed downvotes have as opposed to debating if it is taxation or not.
Also, you are not alone in your disdain for downvotes. I don't like them. I kind of wish they didn't exist so people could find something else to talk about 😅
Fair enough.
Me too.
LOL
I just wish there were algorithms that changed how they were applied, but then we'd have to argue about the algorithms.
Tomorrow I'd like to share some observations I feel could help grow Hive. Maybe you'll like them and want to see how they work out. I know we both want that, and I'd rather talk about solutions than problems. TTYS
We have like way too many conversations happening at the same time XD
Which comment was the observations?
Side Note - Use your upvotes for people you want to succeed. Don't feel like you need to use it on me. I appreciated the gesture of letting me know you read it with an upvote but you usually comment back anyways.
You want to reduce centralization of stake. I think that is a good idea. Don't use upvotes on me seems like a good trade.
But at the same time, you do you. Use the platform in a way that makes you happy.
If supporting people I am downvoting is one way you do that I am all for it.
Balance is a good thing. I do not think is reasonable for us to agree on downvotes. I think it is reasonable for me to be fine with you supporting people I downvote.
Probably the longest and most tedious. LOL
I just have always had the courtesy to upvote folks I engage with. I have never blown out my VP like this since I changed my upvote to 25% when a HF cut the number of 100% votes we could cast a day to 10 from 40. Now HF28 has made that even not enough, and the low price of Hive forced me to increase the value of my upvote to 80% to exceed the dust limit. Hive keeps making it less rewarding for new users (or users with limited stake, like me, although I was stunned to learn I am one of the top 1500 accounts. I consider that a good demonstration that Hive has too few users) and more rewarding for whales. This trend is killing Hive, IMHO. It needs to be reversed, but the extant oligarchy is fixed on their cash is king course, I fear.
If they do kill the goose laying golden eggs, at least we might be able to fork up a new platform out of the ashes and try to rectify some of the inbuilt flaws that so misaligned incentives.
It is always my practice to try to encourage users not to ragequit, because we need users more than we need low KE's, IMHO. I deeply appreciate you have demonstrated an extraordinary dedication to reason, and to your deeply held principles. We may never agree on DV's. That's actually good in a way, because both of us will always have an opportunity to learn something we don't know from the other.
I'd really like to test some different ways to manage downvotes, curation rewards, evergreen content, and other aspects of Hive I think have misaligned incentives that are causing Hive to lose users and the token to lose value. I bend nails for a living, so forking off some new platforms isn't something I can undertake (also, I can't code my way out of a wet sack). I had really hoped for the communities Ned proposed, because that would enable Hive to adopt the most successful metrics for managing these incentives, which I guess is obvious because I keep lamenting it LOL.