All those silly inconvenient TRUTHS you are citing are the real big deal. When you turn on the lights, there is barely anybody here, and the ones that are, divide themselves into so many camps and cults that it's certainly not a going to be a "popular opinion" to remind some of these same camps and cults of people that most of the content is pretty uncompelling and very niche even when it is compelling.
Niches, per se aren't bad, photography equipment is a niche, but a huge market on the YouTube channels, or some niche hobby thing or niche topic, all fine, for example but the very specific niches of this hive camp or cult of personality or opinion versus the other tiny camps and cults here are counterproductive, even as the cult leaders exclaim how important their nonsense often is to all 3000 users who even bother to listen, when we should be trying to attract 3,000,000 users just to be a tiny little startup size social network, crypto based or not. 3M users for any software is sort of just barely getting started to any kind of sizeable success and we are only at like .01 percent of that.
We aren't yet giving the masses of consumers in the world a very good reason to come here, then to figure out the hurdles of the technology and blockchains and all that come with them, just to face having to participate in the kind of politics this post is even about and worry about being cancelled because of trying to exercise their personal freedoms or personal finance choices or personal expressions.
It's so damn irritating knowing everybody here is likely of advanced intelligence to even get as far as being able to see this comment, and yet I see some of the dumbest stuff happening. Like this recent "shun the people who choose to spend their earnings" tirade a few are on. Sorry but calling a spade a spade, that's counter to everything this chain is purported to be about and to general common sense, consideration of others and it's fucking stupid.
We need consumers. You are right every single time you say it again over and over all over and as much as you can.
Working on making things to expand the reasons they might come, but building it and they will come won't be enough. It's part of the package and it's a part I can work on and make stuff for, but the bigger picture is, if nobody uses my stuff to make the next Mr Beast type of mass attraction, welp, I at least practiced my code debugging skills so I can get real jobs if this doesn't work out.
Meh.
A market of 3000, maybe, and most are absent in some way.
That's nothing to be proud of after eight years.
Plenty of us have more "followers" than that. Right under everyone's nose is proof going in the same direction is a lost cause. Too busy looking at shiny trinkets to be able to notice that's a list of dead followers and even their own brands are feeling the pain.
I feel bad in a way for anyone working on projects here. The "community" might not be mentally prepared to handle growth. Maybe even fearful. Holding people back.
And of course consumers wouldn't be interested in joining a club, of sorts. That's commonsense. They want the information or entertainment of their choosing, and that's it.
Only a cult would have a problem with individuals reaching outside to get their own support. Because then they lose "control."
I've been around long enough to know it's most likely the inability to achieve greatness is what's holding people back. And rather than accepting that and working towards a productive future, keeping things the same way is good enough for some.
Certainly hard to watch though. And I doubt anyone wants to work with me so there's not much I can really do to help, which is something that really bugs me. Don't want to be forced to give up entirely.
If it turned into a place where I have a future again, I'd enjoy that.
I've got enough wind in my sails to try again, and enough time right now in my personal life to do so and so trying to make something happen here again I am, but this past month or so, I will say, the frustration at finding what seems to be a ghost town to try things in has not been as exciting a feeling as I was feeling when I arrived here after a sabbatical in better health and positioning to do things this time.
I'm on your side, I'm just going to ignore the potential for lack of future for a moment and focus on doing what seems like the next things that need doing. Maybe I'll get lucky and somehow we will get what they used to call "Oprahed" or "SlashDotted" where suddenly the world becomes aware of something all at once and shows up to crash it all on the same day. Like a super bowl commercial could do. For example.
Yeah dude. A solid product attracting consumers steadily is all it takes. Can be treated like a fresh start. Make a splash and turn it into a tsunami.
8 years of experience studying this and I can tell you one of the biggest mistakes people make when building here is building it for the "Hive Community."
It's too small. The world outside is bigger. Hive is just a set of tools.
That one stung a little, because you know I've been positioning and even NAMING my product for the Hive community, but, I certainly intend to treat HiveStreams.Live as an entry point to and not a wall around the Hive community.
It's just not there yet, as a product, not ready for primetime. It's good for a cable channel level audience but its not ready for the limelight of the masses. Working on that every single day. But I am a one man team doing all the programming on it. I can't really afford anybody else, or I'd certainly get them,
I spent 35+ years building software and building software teams at places ranging from tiny startups to NASA. I build really good teams and with their expertise on tap can architect really complex systems, and my career was made from that skill.
This one though, I have this particular vision and zero budget so for now, I am a one-man-band on it. I do have business input from my trusted witness partner, Mr. Witty, who is far more a financial wizard than I am when it comes to making things make money. I just make things actually work. Well, I might add, when given the time, resources and space to do so in.
For me, starting "Hive Community" targeted gives me that time and space. Not so much the money because I haven't asked for any directly, or planned to do anything other than build a solid business model in, so I don't end up being "that guy who failed and needs socialism to prop up his company now via the DHF proposals".
I have said repeatedly if I went to the DHF, I'd be beholden to the very same Hive community I am fed by in that context. NO BUENO. The Hive Community whom I love as individuals, has not collectively demonstrated much more than being able to remain afloat for seven years. But you can literally float forever. If you choose to all SWIM however, exert a little effort, you will get somewhere. To a destination. Or at least go on a journey. If you just float, you stay in one place and drift and slowly wither away. Which is kind of what it seems like is mostly the case with my unique deep insight, then gap with only glimpses into it over 2 years, then a return to deep into it. We drifted, into shallow water and it's withering away.
The goal Witty and I set for our witness was to try and rejuvenate some enthusiasm. Get that buzz going in the Hive again. That heady, world is our oyster 2018-2019 buzz. When things were happening...
When the outside saw us swimming and thought the water looked inviting too.
My project aside, my real meta is trying to figure out how to get this place of life support and back into being excited to be alive.
People like to watch excited people, and they want to be a part of the excitement.
Pontiac had a slogan back in like the 90s, "We Build Excitement!" - It worked. They sold cars. Cars some people still see as exciting even though the brand itself is dead. For the younger crowd, think Mr. Beast. He builds excitement in very visceral ways too.
We need to build excitement.
THEN "they" will come.