Or it funnels available curation into specific places, away from others. For example, people like myself, who don't bother with "communities" are unable to get curated because we don't jump through hoops or play games. Some people think good content should speak for itself and not need gimmicks. It seems that "communities" (what the hell is alien art supposed to mean?) are just ways to ensure curation retains people who tow the line and do as they're told, and gets rid of independent thought.
Helps retention? Retention of what, people who use the right hashtags and apps? Or people with talent, skill, and effort to put into real content?
not constructive & fruitful note. yes, we are all content creators here, and making your content more visible and payable is a common problem for all of us. communities is a good way to aggregate stuff thru the dedicated intrests, a good way to make YOUR good content more visible. I really cant understand what objections one may have against the dedicated groups... jealoucy? envy? or your content is so unique that do not fit to any group and maybe nobody is intrested in it except of yourself?
@drutter, nothing personal. I just look at it this way.
If we still used the OCD community actively I'd tag you as troll by now, but just FYI OCD curators will still be focusing on posts outside of communities but empowering communities and encouraging users to post in them is nothing wrong. Without subreddits reddit would have never gotten to where it is today and they are and will be a massively great tool for more focused curation and users being able to connect better with people that share the same interests.
Truth.
Hive is a forum more or less and needs communities of like minded people to grow.
I doubt that fella rembers how hellish it was positing to the void on steemit.
very well noted, 'posting to the void on steemit' with abs no feedback is the eccence of it.
I'm not sure why posting in a community is jumping through hoops (it's very easy and takes one extra click) but personally I have found it a nice way to look at content in a specific niche, your garden looks nice by the way!