Everyone, meet Snowpea's new friend Mary!! They just met this week and Snowpea was so happy when she saw Mary as they are the perfect twins with matching red and white outfits and woolly hats. Mary came all the way from Ukraine with a toadstool, and was sent to me by the lovely @zirochka.
I'm not good at writing what I call fluffy posts, yet Christmas seems to have this effect on me. Especially this year. So much has happened, both personally and around the world. At the beginning of the year, my life was still in limbo. Half of it was here, the other half half way around the world, not knowing when I can piece them back together. Things became clearer last month, that was a big relief. Now I can finally plan to put my life back on track, and look forward to some stability and certainty next year.
Hive has been one of the few stability in my life irrespective where I am in the world. I'm fortunate that I don't have to treat it as a 'job' hence don't have the pressure of churning out content every day for the sake of my autovtes for which I am grateful for. I enjoy lurking around on the chain coz it's fun, but it can also get very frustrated and at times tiring. The line between real vs fake, real vs virtual, fake vs virtual sometimes gets so blurred that I don't know who is who, what is what. Who's real? Who's fake? What's real? What's fake?
Sometimes, things seems to be going perfect on the chain, and then suddenly you doubt everything that you thought was real. And I'm not talking about how Hive can drop over 20% in a few days. That I can live with. What I'm referring to is how much of everything or everyone that exists on Hive is real. Sometimes you think you know a friend on the chain, endless conversations and banter dominate the virtual relationship. You share fun, silly and naughty things（no, I'm not talking about nuke pic or sexting）and build a close rapport. Then suddenly things go cold. Did I over estimate our virtual relationship or does virtual relationship work different from real life？ I don't know what's real anymore.
On a less personal side, the rise of fake news and fake content is another thing I can't deal with. It's starting on Hive and I know abusers will grab this opportunity and milk it to the max. I foresee this to be a big problem next year. How much real content will we see, and do we have to resort to supporting our own trusted circle of friends only? Call me paranoid now. We shall know next year.
I'm not terrific at human interaction, those who have met me IRL will know, but at least I know where you and I stand face to face. And this brings me to the original objective of this post before I wandered off rambling about real vs fake vs virtual. When so much of everything is fake/virtual, and so difficult to grasp, there comes a slither of reality. The Ukrainian war is real, people living without power, heating, water is real. Families torn apart due to the war and death is real. Friends living in a war zone but still sends you their love over Christmas is real.
Thank you to everyone who has made things real for me this year, and have a great Christmas wherever you are, real or fake or vitual.
I know this is going to be a big problem for us in the future and hopefully we will find a way to deal with it. You are not alone in the face of people trying to farm the platform with AI. My 100% downvote is always with you hahaha.
The gift is really cool. I hope this war nonsense ends soon. It's incredibly hard to understand their situation.
I don't think anyone can understand why Putin is doing this, and giving all the nonsensical reasons to justify his barbaric behaviour. He has certainly joined the hall of shame along with some other leaders from the past
This is so heartful and sincere post! What a long year... I remember your moving adventures, and how did you spent holidays in hotel. Then I first saw a picture of a Snowpea.
Sometimes we just need some time, or a distance maybe, to find out what is real. Actually, we have a popular sayings here about losses and needs, but I wish with all my heart that you will find a better way to find it out.
I feel you because I hate uncertainty. Glad to know you can move forward now. And thank you so much for being you ❤
Thanks so much @zirochka for your kind words. You have more than enough of your own issues to deal with at the moment and I guess mine are so minute compared to yours. Let's hope things will clear up for everyone especially Ukraine in 2023 ✌️💪
I have a feeling people would find me much different in social situations than they do here. I am not great in real life, but I am pretty witty and friendly behind a keyboard! Honestly, that's probably the actual me when you strip away all of the fear and nervousness. You folks should feel special that you get to see a side of my only my wife and close friends do! That is too bad about things going cold on that friendship. I hope that things find a away to work themselves out. I've been pretty worried lately too about the whole AI chat thing. Some of the content that puts out is just scary in how good and unrecognizable it is! I hope you have a great holiday season!
It's funny how people are on the chain versus IRL when you meet them, and thats why the meetups particularly Hivefest was so good. Some 'names' I encountered on the chain actually was a decent human being when I met them.
You look like such a friendly guy in your profile pic, guess we'll have to find out the real Bozz whenever we get to meet IRL 😄
Have a great Christmas!
I'd like to think I am a friendly guy once you get to know me. I suck at small talk and I have ADHD, so I usually look disinterested, but that isn't the case!
Snow pea must be excited about meeting her new twin:)
I’m hoping that by some miracle, people for the love of the chain still make real content. That is all we can hope for.
A simple way to be sure of whether or not people are real or not will be watch how much of their personal life they share. This might not work most of the time though, as there are people who would rather not talk that much about their lives. Anonymous blogging it whatever.
Another thing might be to watch people’s energies in their posts. People show personality in different ways in their writing and I’m sure this could be something to use to tell who’s real and who’s not. But then energy can’t be so accurate as energies switch up sometimes.
Let’s not worry about that now though. Let’s all enjoy Christmas for now and deal with next year’s problems next year:)
Merry Christmas to Snowpea and Mary:)
Snowpea is very happy she has a new friend and is treating Mary as her little sister!
It will have to be a big community effort to combat AI next year, but yes, let's enjoy Christmas first and deal with it next year
First this two little dolls looks to much beautiful. This gift is best for Christmas. There are two faces to some people who are with you on the face but then they continue to harm you. One should stay away from such people. One should learn from one's mistakes and have relationships with good people.
It's not about harming other people really, but more about how to judge people and relationship in the virtual world, always tricky
Im happy that things cleared up a little bit for you. Stress and fear of the unknown can really eat one up!
Regarding the fake and real... Well that's a somewhat "sensitive" subject.. If sensitive is the right word..
For example take a look at my display picture on HIVE. Well the thing is I've stopped smoking about three years ago.. I've just never changed the display pic. But what I'm trying to say is one can always and very easily pretend to be something you are not... Which can be good and bad at the same time... More than often entales bad.
You mention somewhere, grabbing an opportunity and milking it... Well I decided to write a post about my everyday adventures while I'm on holiday.. So I take photos of everytjing interisting and at the end of the day I write something about it... But I decided not to post it on that very day. Id rather share one post every week in pinmapple, like ive done these last few weeks. Rather than flooding the pinmapple community for a straight 3 week period.. I dunno does this make sense?
Because if I have to be honest my pinmapple posts have been my best performing posts.. But no need to milk the system🥛👆
I've seen some users post prolifically every day few months in a row during their travels, some at better quality than others, then they just disappear off the radar complely. It's very difficult, to get very good support for those post every day, so really it's much better to do one strong post once or twice a week than many daily meh posts. That way you earn a reputation as a quality author and people switch on automatically when they see your name. Quite a few people on Hive have achieved that. So your strategy is a good one 👍
aw, beautiful dolls, it is a nice gift, how beautiful to see how you appreciate a gift. I'm glad to read that many things became clearer for you, tranquility and peace of mind are always a priority, I send you my best wishes this Christmas! <3
from a real person haha :D
Hello real person @rosylisboa 😉 and a late welcome to Hive.
Hive can be a beautiful place full of support and friendship, you just have to grab it with your hands and make it into whatever you want. Hope you enjoy being part of this community and wish you and your family tla wonderful Christmas!
Hi @livinguktaiwan,
Thank you for participating in the #teamuk curated tag. We have upvoted your quality content.
For more information visit our discord https://discord.gg/8CVx2Am
I hope that the friendship you mention has not cooled down, maybe the other person is going through a difficult time in life, who knows...
The AI issue is worrying indeed, we will have to be very careful shortly, and with other sites like Read.cash shutting down tips there could be an avalanche of fake users coming to Hive.
Mary is lovely and I'm sure she will be a great companion to Snowpea:)
Have a Merry Christmas and best wishes to you for the holidays and next year.
Thank you @coquicoin I wish you health and happiness with your family over the festive season and all the best for next year
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There is absolutely going to be a big attempted change on hive to favor AI generated, and in my opinion, fake content. How can someone be rewarded on the blockchain based on proof of brain and human, if they just plug a few words into an AI bot and expect it to put out a post for them, to then say they should be rewarded for that minimal effort? Sorry but I think that’s horse shit.
I wonder how this is going to end up for new users on the chain. People who have been here for a long time or even for a few months now before this stuff started to kick up, have a bit of an advantage if they’ve established themselves a little following or niche and are legit human content. The new users though I think are going to have a struggle trying to convince someone to believe they’re legit which is both good and bad.
I haven’t been able to branch out too much in the communities like I was in the past but I do look for new people here and there in hopes of finding something worth while!
I would certainly dislike it if someone I talked to quite a bit over the years suddenly ghosted me on the friendship side without really providing a reason. That would suck!
Actually. the fake news has been on Hive since the beginning and on our 'legacy chain' before that. It makes me cringe when folks talk about the "free speech" aspect of the blockchains, because that usually means they're ready to start spewing some untruths. All we can do is live our best lives and lead what is "real" by our examples. ~sigh~
anyway...
How fun that Snowpea has a new friend from Ukraine! 😊
And I love that tranquil "blue room" in your last photo! That is lovely! 💙
Have a look at this thread. I am legit terrified now. Yes, it's a tool, but it's so much more. It's like handing anyone their own personal battleship. And this is the little AI they will let us see.