You're not the first person to address such concerns.
As an avid observer of human behaviour I have noticed that all crypto is an internal belief system had by a select group which is then projected onto the world. A kind of repeat narcissism of the group - a religion basically.
The Hive religion - which is exposed in the emotion expressed by some of its devotees in these comments, lol - has been an interesting participatory journey for me. I've a history of cults - it's only natural I'm attracted to them... lol
I've used this vessel to express many things and also develop many things including writing, music, video making, investigative journalism and generally thought provoking content. I've found a community of freethinking people dedicated to a censorship resistant platform.
A censorship resistant platform was the primary basis of my presence here on Hive. I can learn these lessons and develop my abilities on any platform - it doesn't need to be Hive and I can also go in hibernation for a while until something else suitable comes up.
Does this mean much to investors who have their chips piled up on the Hive side of the fence? Probably not.
I as a small guy, of whom the only capital I have is my brain, skills, talents and tenacity, am just one person with little stake and therefore little say. I do have a reputation of 69 (please judge me greatly on this, my rep shot up when I put some money in once, then took it out again when I was broke) - lesson 1 from Hive - money buys you a reputation.
That's just it - that's the issue here - you have 'stake' which is carried over from an abusive economy which gives you influence in the 'free world' aka Hive.
That world ain't free folks. Hive is not a 'free' platform.
But to be honest, nothing is. There's always a transaction somewhere. And mummy and daddy weren't to be relied on a long time ago...
I as a content creator and community contributor am a single small piece - but I am also the backbone of what gives the social media platform side of things content which generates interest through attention capital economics then seeping out in the greater world of the now.
If I stand up and walk away - others may as well. Even if they don't, I've been true to myself and that's what matters to me. I could die tomorrow, would anyone miss me? Maybe not - does it matter in the grand scheme of things? Maybe not. (I did not intend this level of morbidity when initiating the writing of this post, I promise... ).
I make a choice, it may lead to others making their choices and that may lead to a free-fall of Hive - or maybe not.
It will retain value through Splinterlands however - but that was not the initial aim of what Hive was meant to represent - as far as I am aware.
Sometimes I like to engage in the circle jerk - I'll post some content like this video here - https://peakd.com/hive-174578/@montycashmusic/qukonfzb
I bought three Go Pros so I can make multi-perspective music videos for an upcoming release - I'm having fun - so what do I do? I post it on my favourite censorship resistant platform of course!
There's a few problems here though - when you look below the surface level - problems that have not resolved themselves over the years I have been involved. Problems I am almost certain will not resolve themselves due to fundamental flaws in the platform.
I received 59 votes. Woohoo! Great for me... on others I receive 500 and I get less of a payout..... ok so 59 people have looked at this post and dedicated a short period of their lives to my carefully crafted content?
No.
Majority of the payout comes from three user accounts - which is great but that seems a bit odd... does that mean those people have looked at the video? Not necessarily...
I've noticed that the 3speak account routinely upvotes videos that get more attention from external links outside of the Hive ecoverse (which is quite a sensible algorithm to have really). I advertised this link a lot externally to all my friends in individual telegram messages - personalized - and got a whopping 30 views (ok being sarcastic)..
(actually can't see how many views now because 3speak seems to be down again... but last time I remember it was about 30 - at least 5 of which are me revisiting the video to check for errors and to admire the wonderful image of myself from many perspectives).
There are also a couple of small voting trails included in the 59 votes as well. This means that one person votes and many votes are attached (you know this but I'm just stating for the sake of making a point). Also, some of those trails are actually auto-votes as I have discovered because I've got a couple of regulars.
You'll also notice that the only user engagement I received was from a user - who does great stuff in the video world in the UK - that I deliberately tagged in the comments.
Does that mean the only way to get engagement is to tag people incessantly like some kind of nagging musician wanting attention (hang on a minute a relevant alternative metaphor was meant to go there... 🙃)
I'll let you in on a secret,
...sometimes
.......when I'm in a dark room alone
I like to pretend that 300 random votes I get from Curie are actually different people looking at my work. It's a kind of false panacea I like to put myself through - makes me feel great for a day - possibly likened to the self-pleasuring habit of old -
then...
later....
I remind myself of REALITY; take a deep breath and get off the fucking computer! (oh, lord Jesus! It feels good to pretend I don't want you when you punish me with such lies!)
It's true, I'm a shit-stirrer and I've certainly got my fair share of avoiders in this world because of my lack of a generally-general-vanilla-societal-palatable-self-promotional skill-set (thus why me the odd ball ends up on Hive with all the other odd balls, banging around our oddness together, believing in a free world and all that (HULLO!? 😲)).
There are major flaws in the way Hive accumulates attention points. It hasn't changed and it won't change. The system is broken.
Even if I appease the witness masters and post only sanitary content devoid of all conspiracy and slowly build up a community like many have done and dedicated their lives to - engagement is a dead end here - majority of engagements are reward focused and not genuine participation for the sake of... well.. living.
That's where you the whale has the power to upvote someone's comment in Venezuela and effectively buy them food for the day.... this is where Hive flourishes in making the world more equal..... it's simply removed government and tax restrictions from the countries government and put it in the hands of the witnesses.
Yes, I've seen great posts with great engagement (over yonder, o'er the hilltop) - I've also seen terrible circle jerk mastabatory excrement masking as 'great writing' by large stake holders which then a loyal bunch of worshippers come and pay their respects with a 'thoughtful comment' to which they receive a crumb off the kings table - I've then seen these posts cause the writer to believe they are indeed AMAZING! and continue to write such trollop and continue to get rewarded for it. It's a degeneracy of the intellect likened to incest - it's why echo chambers are a no go zone for a free thinker and someone truly dedicated to develop any skill.
There is no difference between the system here and the system in the world.
The core of it is human behaviour and conditioning. Regardless of the system that is setup, regardless of how fool proof it is - the innate conditioning of the humans using the system will inevitably create the same conditions they exist in, within.
And now we go all meta - to fix the system - to fix Hive even - you have to fix yourself. Really, you have to start with yourself and the way you handle yourself in a group.
Know thyself.
ps. also another messianic wannabe, trying to change the world.... one Hive comment at a time... someone will read this comment... someone will be saved... if only just one... then one is enough... (I'm big on parody, it's hard to tell with solid text, honestly some people take me seriously, like sarcasm on the facebewk of old, it's one big fuckup, lol).
It's so, so good to get away from the computer from time to time.... now working at a dairy - pushing cows... well really they push themselves. haha
Say hi to Pus Pus - he non-consentually jumps on people's shoulders while they're milking a herd of cows... also likes to drink milk, kill mice and meow into empty fields.
This probably should have been its own post - considering how long it is and it may receive downvotes for being so brandishly vulgar toward the Hive religion - but little fucks are given. Please censor me with your downvote oh dragon who sits on his gold.
I will enjoy the validation.
In the meantime, I will continue posting fun musical posts for myself to view on the possibly working hive infrastructure in the near future.
Thanks Hive for being so supremely human.
You know, I looked at your comment and was almost TL;DR. Thank the Pond Gods I did read it! It seems like I've discovered a kindred spirit. To expand on your comment:
This is one of the dangers of 'Building a Following', especially on a platform that's sole draw is Money.
I saw the same thing in the Open Source community. (FOSS) it seems to draw in all the zealots who, in their irrational excitement, elevate the movement, in this case, Hive, to some exalted position whereby anyone who dares to question anything is accused of being a heretic or a Troll. Have a look at some of the comments, and you'll see those types: "You're wrong." umm? any chance of an explanation why? Any evidence or hard facts to demonstrate why it's wrong? How about expanding on why it's wrong? No! All they know is you attacked their beloved Hive. 🤦♂️
Everyone cites the bogeyman Justin Sun when they talk about STEEM, but some of us remember the early days when STEEM was fun and a system-wide community with lots of support groups trying to get folks accounts into a healthy state. These days on Hive, it seems to me that the Clan system has taken over. Try tagging a post about cows in splinterlands or maybe leofinance and watch the hounds rip you to pieces. Getting your post under as many noses as possible is almost becoming impossible unless you are in at least one of the Clans. It reminds me of school and my school house. I was in Faraday, but all the successful kids were in Chaucer. Sadly, I don't do Splinterlands (Don't get me started on that.) I know naff all about Crypto, so LeoFinance is off the cards for me, and these are the two major players on Hive. 😢HaHa, I find a lot of humour in your comment. Like you, I have one foot in the virtual world and the other in the tangible world. There is a gulf between the two, probably a love-hate relationship. As I get older, I am feeding off the memories of my offline life. In comparison, I hardly remember anything of significance in my online world. So the blockchain serves as a memory diary where I can always check when I said what to whom. It's good when I don't have to be ashamed of it. Without my real body, which has to move around in real space from time to time, this would be a place of despair for me. LOL.
But this way I still have what keeps me balanced, Like you your music I think. Do you play in front of real audiences?