It is a question that comes up often, but after well ovre three years, I still don't have a definitive answer - what kind of content adds value to the blockchain? Does anyone know for sure?
In my opinion, valuable content is content that generates action, not just a transaction. It is something people who read it can engage and interact personally with in a way that makes them think and potentially changes their behavior in a way that increases their life value in some way. This means that it has to go beyond the topic and connect at a human level with the reader in order for them to consider and then act upon their consideration - potentially, the consideration part is not required - but the action part is.
One clear example might be content which positions information in a way that encourages people to power up some Hive. To do this requires more than saying, "Hey, the price is good, go buy" unless that person is already keen on increasing their investment and hasn't already been watching the markets. For those who are on the fence or currently unwilling, the information and approach needed requires something different.
In just this particular case, it is obvious that depending on the audience, a range of content is required in order to cover all positions, which normally means, multiple posts, multiple authors, multiple approaches and multiple instances. The entry level is a gateway for first actions for one sector of the audience, far too basic for other sectors - while the technical level might be great for those who have a lot of prerequisite history, but totally over the head of a newbie looking for a gateway in.
This means that for example "Hive content" can't all be the same and shouldn't be classed as such. If we use math to illustrate this, simple addition and subtraction is far too basic for quantum physicists - but they had to start somewhere. I wonder, which level of math is more important, the foundation that is required for the later stages, or the later stages that solves problems we face as a society?
It is easy to look at the outcomes and say that the solution to problems is ore valuable than the basics, but there is not even a chicken or egg argument, without the basics, the advanced levels are impossible to accomplish. This doesn't mean that teaching basics is always useful, but blanketing information means that some portion of the recipients will go on to work their way up the informational ladder of discovery - in math, some might become engineers, some might be rocket scientists, some might design the AI that makes us all mentally obsolete.
With content on Hive though, what is it that adds value? I believe that it is ultimately an unanswerable question unless the answer is, it all adds some kind of value. However, this doesn't mean that all content should receive value in return. For example, spam adds value through transaction mass as well as the organization of members of the community to combat it. Reward pool abusers add value for the same reason, as communities form that bring people together to rally against it - in doing so, they move wider in the system and learn a great deal more about how the infrastructure works and, how humans work. This doesn't mean pool abusers should get a cut - but they can try.
We can look at content that gets a lot of engagement and say that it ads value, but that doesn't have to be the case either, as it will only add value to the coin for example if it encourages the buying or locking up of stake - demand and scarcity. Similarly, distribution can be a massive driver of value - if that distribution is going to accounts that are going to use it well, use it to add value. Whatever that means.
I have heard often people talk about how many great content creators have left, without them seeing the problem. Yeah, we need great content creators, but more than that - we need far, far more eyes on what is created. Without eyes on work, there is no value. What Hive needs, is a great audience, people who come in, consume content and share it out to the world - the topic matters less than the reach - which is why initiatives that push out to Twitter, Reddit and similar are great.
Once there are more consumers of content, it will attract more creators - as they will want an audience. This is why the focus should be far less on getting paid to post and far more on getting paid to consume. And yes, the "pay" through curation isn't very much - but that is actually not where the value is, that is a perk. Unlike any other paid content subscription service - what is paid into Hive, stays in Hive. Yes, the value might fluctuate, but the number of coins themselves only continues to grow - even if slowly.
What this means is that in time, a content consumer can add value by locking up stake, sharing content and adding their voice through comments - by adding demand for content. This eventually will drive the demand for the token, supply of content creators and topics and increased value of the ecosystem.
If a person who pays 10 dollars a month for Hive tokens to increase their consumer voice, at the end of the year they would have some number of HIVE which will hold some value, higher or lower than the 120 put in. That same 120 put into Netflix for example will be - gone. The normal subscription model doesn't return anything to the purchaser, but on Hive - that purchase is retained as HIVE and as long as it is powered up, always will be.
That means that a consumer of 10 years on Hive might hold thousands of tokens, but what will they be worth if over the space of those ten years Hive becomes a common content delivery source that powers the internet in all kinds of ways? Because the tokens are held in a private wallet, investing in as a consumer is investing in as an investor also - and it could be far more lucrative over time than many other investment vehicles.
Perhaps what is valuable content is what either attracts new viewers in to the ecosystem or, what serves them when they arrive. I think that applications should be working very hard to bring in new consumer eyes and when hey arrive, there should be content worth consuming - but, nothing is easy. As individuals, I think that we should perhaps be inviting people in as viewers of content rather than pushing with the creator aspect to begin with. This way, they can get in and enjoy the content, get accustomed to the ecosystem and culture and then, if they want, start posting. Of course, they might want to post straight away also, but that is up to them. Most people who use YouTube have never posted a video - yet still use it often.
While I still have no idea definitively what kind of content adds value to the blockchain, I think that it has to be something that people enjoy consuming or, offers them something that improves their life. It is no wonder that crypto news can do well as people see it as a way to increase their wealth - and similarly, it is no wonder platform content does well because this is where people are invested and therefore, interested in.
When you are interested in something, it makes that thing much more enjoyable and therefore consumable -it isn't rocket science. But, this is why a great deal more consumers are needed as with more consumers, there are more people interested in things with much of it laying outside crypto and platform. The more the audience grows, the more variation in preference and content creators will be able to segment for the audience. But, if the emphasis is placed on earning and that is the main focus, being an audience member isn't the best way for most to go - content creator is.
A conundrum for many and part of the reason that so few make it long-term in the system, as they spend a lot of time creating for a potentially non-present audience or one that is already spread thin, and not much time consuming for their own enjoyment. I wonder how many work out that creation isn't for them and instead spend their time consuming and engaging on the platform, because they like it.
Well, that is a long post with no satisfactory answer, but if you made it this far, I guess it was good enough to at least skim. Is it valuable for the blockchain? Well, that is going to depend on what people do after reading it, do thoughts change in any way, do actions adjust slightly, are the decisions made tomorrow in any way different? The vote value the post might receive adds value to me, it adds value to the held stake (as I power up most of what I get) and it adds value to those who vote on it through curation - but hopefully, it might also improve life a little in some way - although that kind of outcome is impossible to track as it takes time.
And perhaps this is the thing with valuable content; it isn't a list of bullet points, it isn't advice on trading or a photograph and fiction story - it isn't one post. The valuable content is not at the post level, it is at the content level where through attraction and consistent delivery, the audience keeps coming back for more and, keeps buying into it. A favorite writer will sell books to their audience on their past deliveries, same with actors and sporting stars. Consistency is valuable - whether you write, act, kick a ball or deliver on Hive.
The most valuable content is the audience in the seats watching.
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]
At the end of Feb I had almost 2900 steem, so when Hive started I had about 2900 HIVE and on April 1st I had 3054 HIVE. Today I have 3515 HP, with 260 hive waiting for me to decide what to do with it. Almost all of it is from steem, but some of it is coming from curation, from consuming content. And that curation number is getting bigger with every HIVE I earn, buy or get from a trade.
I still earn more through the few post I put out to share a few meaningless things, (no earth shattering post), but most of it is because I am a consumer. I like reading, looking at and commenting on post. I also vote on the post, and get a little back in return.
I am primarily a consumer of the content. I like Movies, that does not make me an actor, but not being an actor would not stop me from making a home movie if I desired. HIVE does allow one to consume and to play at the same time.
I love the possibility to have a "one stop entertainment shop" where i can invest myself as consumer, creator and societal member. It is a great place to be for many things, which is why I spend so much time here.
It is fantastic that you are consuming so much and I wish others would too. I think everyone should post, but do it for the fun, not the monetary return.
I think I need to clone myself on some days.There is so much to see on here, and I only see a little of it. So far for me there is no monetary return, I may have learned how to make steem into hive, but not how to make any of it into fiat, just not time for that yet. I agree posting for consumers should just be for the fun of it or to share something.
You discussed a nice topic here. Well, value depends solely on perspectives. What you see as value might not be the same for me, however, you made some cool points on what valuable content should be. For me, valuable contents are those that I can learn something from. We all publish basic random posts about our lives and still get rewards for them. Are those post really valuable? Are people learning from our lives? There are communities here that reward users for just sharing what they do through the day, are they also creating value on the chain?
Yes and no, depending on what we say about our lives. I hope people learn something along the way of what I write, which is all from my life.
Instagram makes some money?
That explains all.
Content is important, but not as much as the people who generate it.
My answer is that the most important content is the first 5-10 articles of new users who are just starting to learn information about blockchains.
Try to ask this question in the communit #askhive.
People make the world go round - our world at least :)
The ones that they write, or read?
I had a conversation with my wife today about Her Non Participation over here. I told Her....
"You should be at least pimping my stuff over on those sites You spend all Your time on."
You are Soooo right. We need eyes on. It is disturbing how many Lemmings do not seem to care that the content they put up, the personal info they share is being profited from, sold, pillaged, censored, manipulated.
My wife says She spends time over on the FecesBook site, cuz everyone else is there...... SMFH
My fathers fave phrase when I was a kid, pleading my case.
"If Your friend SHITS HIS PANTS..... Are You Gonna SHIT YOURS TOO...?"
Maybe that is why I do my own thing and hate to follow the
CrowdLemmings....?For sure!
Yep, it is a common reason to be there, without realizing that if people move to a better platform - now everyone is there.
i am in the period where i stopped thinking about value, engagement... because for this 2 years that i was posting here, absolutely nothing had sense. Some cool stuff no one seen, some shit got decent amount of engagement...
So i am currently in the "i made this (thought about this) today, here you go hive do what ever with it.
I realized some time ago (few years) that i will never have an audience on youtube because i am all over the place. and i am all over the place because it is not my job and it will most probably never be. youtube for me will always be 300-600 views from people that know me (small town everybody knows everybody) and few random people, and that random people will not be there because next video could be something that they are absolutely not interested in.
Think the same thing is on Hive.
So my work will not bring people to Hive, not make people stay on Hive, so there is no value :D
I think this might be a good approach, on the fly design :)
Well, " youtube for me will always be 300-600 views from people that know me (small town everybody knows everybody) and few random people"
If you consider that each real account brought in 200 users on average just to check them out, there would be 40 million users here, and if there is 40M, there will be 100M :)
If there are consumers, creators will come. It's just so eay to earn rewards posting uninteresting, low effort and low quality conent.
Yeah, low effort and low quality is fine, if it also gets some eyes on it :)
Hello @tarazkp,
Curiously, despite being following you on Hive, I consider that you have interesting thoughts, this time I got here via Twitter.
The final sentence is very eloquent.
Many times I ask myself, what drives me to be here? Just the yearning for rewards or the need to be heard. Probably both.
I think that on platforms like Hive, there is valuable content for people like us. In the short time that I have been here, Steem - Hive, I have come to understand that it is we who give value to the chain and that there is room for many genres, you just have to constantly work on building it. We are creators and audience at the same time in a process that will advance to where we want.
I think this is the case for most - the earnings complement the being heard.
That's a great point. @runicar made a post about SEO-ying our posts to improve the domain authorities of the front ends as well as improving the page rank of our posts.
We also need to start rewarding people for looking for new people to onboard, onboarding them successfully and helping them get a good start. Account creation is a natural sink. And someone new powering up most of their initial earnings is a sign of them looking to grow. Rewards based on Proof-of-Onboarding, if you will.
Yep, the problem with the onboarding is that it generally encourages earning from the pool, not consumption of the content. The pool keeps getting split, but there are less consumers per creator
Wow! You have laid it out well here and thankfully I can read very fast.
You are totally correct that the value lies in the audiences,
I say audiences because of the huge variety of content in the posts here.
But then again simplicity is also a big value creator.
Take Facebook for instance, one can click on the link, open it immediately and talk to your friends and family. No need to jump through a few hoops to get in and no need to decipher anything. Money of course is the game changer, as security is an issue and sets of keys need to be generated.
Usually greed is a big drawcard, but eventually it levels out, especially where consistency is required. When Papillon launched in 2002, we had about 30 volunteers raring to go. After 2 years we had 9 left and eventually ended up with 6. Nothing was wrong with the content and we had great successes, but the consistent factor was missing.
People want things easy and quick my friend. Two professional friends that I invited to steem lasted for a few weeks and then gave up.
I will be here 4 years next June.
Just my 2 cents here!
Yes, there are all kinds of audiences out there that consume from different types of medias also.
And yep, for the most part, Hive doesn't have to reinvent the wheel, just integrate what the other platforms have already learned. An in app chat is a must in my opinion, and it can be kept off chain.
I think it might be hardest on professionals, as normally they can focus on their area and are surrounded by other professionals to do other tasks.
4 years - an original, original :)
Surely you can motivate for an "in app chat" system?
I have learned that professionals live in their own worlds Lol.
Take care!
It has been spoken about many times, but none of the interfaces have integrated a simple DM system as far as I know
So strange as one would think that they can benefit from the input.
This:
...and along with a lot of stuff you said under that:
Did I write this post? LOL!
There's far more 'value' in a department store than a fruit stand that only sells apples. Content is a simple product and yes, finding ways to attract paying consumers is important. You know I could talk about this for days.
I cut and pasted pieces of your old posts together to make a frankenpost
It's alive!
I did spend a lot of time talking about this stuff though. I should have just got you to write it.
Yeah you have for sure. Me too for that matter - one day, people will act on it - one day.
Creating awareness of an important element often overlooked or misunderstood is people acting on it.
The platform needed to attract creators of a product but I believe the way that was executed attracted a market of amateurs wanting to get paid for writing status messages. Of course that made it easier for those producing a wide range of actual content to succeed, but meant far too many felt like failures. I think it's impossible to 'fail' as a consumer and firmly believe that market would stick around enjoying the 'product' while more determined creators show up, since they typically follow the money and require eyes.
When I see content I don't enjoy attracting attention, I'm happy, because in this arena, we're all on the same team, provided we somehow attract paying/invested consumers.
This business model is quite new and innovative. A lot of folks don't get it. Attracting those who do get it can be as simple as an honest advertisement.
Perhaps this is why passive entertainment is so popular.
I think that there should be an SPS proposal that is used for at least some level of professional advertising people to see what they can do. It is great that we can all have a go, but a coordinated attempt by those in the know might be a kick in the right direction.
I agree. Not many will take the artist often trying to write jokes seriously. If I bring it up, the ideas gather momentum for about a day or two and then society's short attention span kicks in, plus by the next day I'm already focusing on my own work. It'll take a dedicated team of qualified experts to bring this all to light.
Offering consumers perks is quite common, yet not so much in the entertainment industry. It's all about burning your money as a consumer in this world, until the potential here is realized. Creating high demand for a cryptocurrency is often what most tokens fail at doing. They depend on hype, tricks, and gimmicks. Tap into those billions the entertainment world generates and it's a game changer for crypto as well.
There's so much more here than blog posts. The games and damn near everything else benefit from attracting consumers. The consumers become the small investors but as a group they're massive. Even this tiny handful of active investors now would benefit, plus future large investors who would want in on the action. So much potential there.
I told you. I could talk about this all day.
Great post with several very interesting points.
100% agree.
Interesting approach. But then a problem occurs when many users focus exclusively on creating content, and forget about those who interact with the content they have created. Do most of the comments that are written receive a response? Are few or many comments receiving votes? Does the content creator read the comments or ignore them? Are consumer comments good or bad? They are questions that need answers to solve that.
I think that would be the best definition of value.
Thanks for sharing.
Depends on the creator and if they want to be successful. I don't see many who ignore their audience do well. Comments/replies are part of the creative mass.
So much this.
For years now, I've had the same piece of advice for newcomers.
Find good content, make insightful comments; don't post until you have at least 200 followers.
Trying to build a following by posting is like doing excellent stand-up comedy in your front yard.
I like how you've taken it one step further. No need to post, just come for the info and slowly build stake with curation rewards. One could make the argument that there isn't enough non-Hive content -
to make it worth visiting, but it's the chicken-egg thing, isn't it?
We need to remember that our comments, our upvotes, our engagement is what keeps the creators creating.
This is one of many reasons I post so sparingly. If in the 2 hours I would've spent writing the post, I can encourage and engage with 10 different authors, that's much better for my investment in the long run.
Definitely not enough non-Hive content... that gets rewarded equitably.
Insert rambling about when someone sees a reward that's 100 but its about Hive, but sees a reward that's at 20 that is not about Hive, but is a compelling, heart wrenching story of someone's life, or journalism that twists the paradigm of the world... it creates an echo chamber with a dash of confirmation bias that makes people think, if they write about HIve, they can see a reward of 100 too.
My new neighbours think I am hilarious- but they don't speak much English.
And the replies and comments on the comments help people keep engaging too. I like it when people are replying to the comments on my own posts. It happens more on the "general" accounts than the "private" accounts, but it is nice to see relationships build between consumers.
For other's eyes only
That's the beauty.
Content will find it's real value in a decentralized environment.
Hello pal I hope you can mentor and help me on this new platform.
Not really my gig mate.
Why not??
Why??
You do you - I am not your guru.