This is where the magic happens
When you go onto any site in the Hive realm, there is inevitably a "trending page". This is where we see all of the "best" work that our network has to offer. For newcomers, this is the bait and hook to get people to get involved and become one of us.
Curators set the trend
It is the curators, especially the large stakeholders that set the trend and make the front page what it is. Much like a newspaper or a tabloid, you want the front page to have some interesting headlines and some quality writing. If this is not the case, people are going to look at the front page for a minute and then go elsewhere.
In the voting bot days of steem, the trending page was a wasteland of bot-boosted posts, whales at war with each other (or everyone) and large stakeholders trading votes on whatever their thought of the day was. The trending page was not something that looked intentional. If it was intentional, the intentions were not to make the front-page look inviting and interesting. The intention was mining crypto, and it was no secret looking at the trending page.
Less is more
Everyone on the trending page during the vote-bot days was investing in their own account growth, selfishly. Where did it get them? It got them a whole lot of extra steem that plummeted in value. Getting less of a token that grows in value may be a better investment strategy. How do we grow value? By creating good content and allowing the curators to decide what is worth showcasing.
Now, when new users see the front page, they are going to see an interesting and inviting look at an exciting platform with loads of potential. When they see a good post that received decent rewards, they will also see that good work is what gets rewarded. Looking at the old steemit trending page, that was not the story it told. It was evident that some sort of scam was happening and the evidence was the trending page.
People don't want scams, people want a place to invest their time and energy. The rewards are simply the cherry on top. A strong trending page is the best invitation that we can have to make this a reality.
Curation is important
This is a very important job. It sets the trending page and rewards the content creators. This is a lot of responsibility and the larger your stake, the larger the responsibility. The future of the platform relies on consistent, good quality curation. The price of the tokens will be reflected by the quality of the curators. I believe this is where LEO got their big jump. @leo-voter and @onealfa.leo both do very good work to ensure the trending page is top notch. With great power... the whales that take on curation have a huge responsibility.
It is very easy for large stakeholders to just trade votes and grow their stake... very easy. That does not create a healthy ecosystem that is set to grow and flourish. It makes the trending page look shabby and it stunts the growth of content creators that will ultimately take their talents elsewhere. It is large stakeholders that curate that make or break a platform.
Proof of Brain
I mentioned in my last article that the curatorship on POB is really good. If this continues, the growth of the platform will continue its astronomical growth. I look through the trending page and I not only see a wide array of topics from a wide array of writers, I also see a place for me to spend some time reading. I am excited to be here.
This, of course, requires content creators to create, but it really needs the curators to decide what needs to be on the front page. A successful newspaper has a lot of quality staff writers, it is the editor in chief that makes the paper what it is. They decide what the front page articles will be, and decide what is not fit for the paper that day.
Sure, having your work cut from the days paper likely stings, but, if your paper is number one and your work is often featured, I am sure you will get over it and see the big picture.
I said it a few days ago and I will say it again. The curators, especially the large stakeholders, have a heck of a responsibility to keep the trending page looking good. They are doing a great job on Proof of Brain. LEO set the bar on what a good trending page looks like. POB took that bar are ran with it. This is great to see.
Less is More with content too
I have been trying to write everyday on POB. I realized that I do better work if I don't write every day. I think if I write a well thought out post every 2 or 4 days, I will likely end up creating more consistently at a higher level. If I try to write everyday, some days will be better than others and I could lose some readers that way.
Consistency is key. My goal is to be consistent with high quality content, which means I will be writing less moving forward. I hope it also means that I will be writing better. That is the goal. My other goal is to find myself on that trending page from time to time, next week and next year.
Conclusion
In order to grow a platform, it is best to think about the platform before our own gains. If the platform grows, that gain will be much better than squeezing some extra tokens out of a failing platform. Less is more. I would much rather get 5 LEO and 5 POB / post when both of those tokens are worth $50, than get 30 LEO and 100 POB when both of those tokens are worth $0.15. Growing the platform is where the real gains are coming from.
POB saw some real crazy growth in the last week. That was due to the fact that the trending page looked great, the community was coming together with lots of engagement and contests as well as suggestions and idea to improve the platform. People take notice of this and the price of each POB reflects that.
Focusing on platform growth as opposed to individual account growth will be better for everyone. Curators and creators alike will do much better if they focus on quality and growing the platform. We all have a job to do, I for one, plan on doing the best I can with it.
Growth in numbers of authors and curators, good.
Growth in token price, meh. There is not enough liquidity for the token price to be all that meaningful at the moment.
A week or so ago, on a whim, I decided to sell rather than stake my POB curation rewards for the day, just to see what would happen to the token price, and it dropped by about 10%. Last I checked, 1 or 2 buyers represent the lion's share of the purchasing.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying the token is not worth the current price. I'm just saying don't get too caught up tracking that; look deeper.
Focusing too much on the token price might leave everybody deflated if someone dumps a significant number of tokens in short order.
Slightly off topic, but the three biggest 'structural' needs at the moment (imho):
100% with you on this one.
You should coment this post https://www.proofofbrain.io/hive-150329/@proofofbrainio/pob-update-should-i-inject-liquidity-into-the-pob-market-to-raise-funds-for-front-end-development and write this needs there.
I agree with you. The token price is going to be fairly volatile this early on and could be nice to see (if you didn't have a ton of buy orders that are now buried deep.) The far more important thing is the growth (in the right direction) of the platform.
I think a LP with a bridge would be one of the best things for POB in order to stabilize price and give buyers and sellers a bit more to work with.
Working in this direction is what led me to realize how NOT decentralized the DHF is. I'll post more on this later ...
I love the idea of a liquidity pool but I don't think there's enough liquid POB in circulaton right now to make that an effective solution. The liquidity pool would be too small. POB is super young. We are early adopters so there's still some waiting to be done. New POB is being printed every day but most people are just staking it. I do think a Tribaldex LP for POB in the future would be awesome though.
Great blognand love the history , as a newbie its great to know how we have failed in the past
Awesome, I am glad you got some new info about the old blockchain.
I spent a few hours a couple days ago browsing the early posting history of the steem founders and early whales, observing some of the hateful rhetoric and self-voting and generally distasteful behaviors. It almost felt like Twitter. (I event left a comment, to a post from like 4 years ago -- doubtful the OP is even still around, maybe doesn't even know where his private keys are, anymore. Kinda felt like I was wandering around somewhere in the realm of Ghostbusters ... ).
No doubt Hive has come a long way since those early days.
You have nailed it here. The growth needs to be in value (not just token price). We need to follow LeoFinance's example. A skyrocketing market price with no development to the front-end and no liquidity could lead to a scaleability problem, followed by a dump, leading to a price crash, followed by a mass exodus, leaving an ash heap behind.
Remember, the token itself is just a collection of bits in the ether -- value is derived from utility, which means satisfying the subjective needs, wants, and desires of the 'consumers' (which, in this case, is all of us, plus newcomers, plus eventually would-be external investors).
You are definitely right....
I look back at that and shake my head. Of course everyone was abusing the system, just look to the trending page to see the largest abusers. It was ridiculous. I am interested to see if you get a reply... I too have my doubts.
I wasn't expecting a reply. It was more like writing my name on the wall of a cave. Kinda my way of saying, "I was here", even if it was 4 years after-the-fact.
Maybe a bit like the movie Time Trap where a group of kids are exploring a cave where time moves thousands of times more slowly than it does outside the cave.
Ya, this blockchain is weird like that. Time moves super fast and then transforms into this ooze of ... time trap.
What will keep determining the success of POB are the curators and the authors and that is why good contents are key and also been able to discover those good contents and curate them is also important,that is why a good "tag" system needs to be created to ensure visibility of contents and prevent good contents from getting hidden...
It is a long road ahead. Things are looking good so far. With a few key developments and creators and curators continuation of their good work... it should be great!
I'm so with you there! I've always thought that it would be more profitable long term to grow the community instead of my acc. This is what will increase the value of our tokens eventually, and we all have the power to make it happen.
This is also the reason why I'm trying to engage more with my comments, and this is also why I love going on the "new" tab and encourage minnows.
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You nailed it with this statement: "Curators and creators alike will do much better if they focus on quality and growing the platform." Numerous platforms whether decentralized or centralized have experienced this "phenomenon", it's not unique to POB. I'm new to the ecosystem and this fairly new project caught my attention bc of the quality posts published here. I see a lot of great content creators migrating over from FAAMG, if this trend continues.