If Splinterlands had built a culture of supporting quality Splinterlands content created by Splinterlands players, that engaged and developed the Splinterlands community, it would be reason to create. And then, if those creators actually built their Hive stake to support other player-creators, it would be a vibrant community on the chain that compounds value for all. But, for most of the Splinterlands players, Hive was a way to earn to invest more into Splinterlands for individual gain, not community.
Starting this season, I started taking the weekly SPS rewards from my two alt accounts and swapped them for HIVE to powerup my main account. I'm ready to step boldly into more Hive communities and decided it was time to start moving in on a weekly basis.
As you said, over my first year of creating on Hive, I was mostly supporting the HIVE:VOUCHER LP with whatever extra Hive I earned from writing, and occasionally I would swap for DEC to buy a new shiny thing. Now the tables have turned and I'm looking forward to seeing my connections and communities grow. I'm working on daily content (I think I missed my monthly writer badge by one day in August) through Actifit and Splinterlands, plus I'm excited about sharing with the StreetArt community.
It isn't a corporation that lives off ad revenue
But I think InLeo has a nice revenue share model with its advertising on its short-form platform and uses part of the proceeds to buyback its own token. I think it is a cool model and have thought about paying the HBD for the premium service and more reach on the threads platform. But I don't think I have the reach or the Splinterlands crowd on InLeo to make that worth the tokens and effort.
What would that community look like?
I think it is some combination of TikTok, Reddit, and Google Maps.