@blanchy just reminded me of something in terms of content. A lot of people are looking to post onto Hive and get rewards (of course), but what they post is often not conducive to that end. But I am not sure why it is so hard to create something that other people want to read, until you actually think about how they create what they do.
An artist painting a picture will at least occasionally take a step back from the canvas and have a look at what they are doing, to see if it is in perspective, or if the colors are appropriate, or if it is conveying the message that they want it to drive. They do this because it is impossible to see the "big picture" when only looking at the details. But I wonder, do people actually read what they are writing and submitting to the blockchain?
If someone wouldn't even want to read their own work, why the fuck would they think anyone else would want to read it? And sure, it is true that not everyone is going to be able to bring the same level of skill to the writing or whatever, but much of what people submit to the blockchain is devoid of personality.
Social media.
What if people stepped back and looked at their content as if it was part of a "real life conversation" (remember those?) where they had to sit and listen to the story they have told. Would they enjoy it? Would it make for a great conversation? Would it make you think -
"Fuck, I hope to hear another story from this person!"
Of course, not every article is going to be relevant or appeal to every possible reader, nor is every article going to be made of gold. But, is that an excuse for just writing crap, expecting to be rewarded for it?
And, then there is the other excuse of "I am an introvert" as if that is a reason to not have any personality. I get that people aren't as social as others, but then it is worth remembering that, this is a community where the community are the ones who reward. If you aren't social, maybe it isn't the place for you.
Having said that, it is also a social platform where a person doesn't have to show their face in order to have a personality. It is possible to remain largely anonymous and still deliver something that is worth reading, across a whole range of topics. And, this can be done without having to interact with anyone one "as an individual". So, the excuse of being an introvert, is more an excuse of just not wanting to interact at all with people, but still get rewarded as if being social.
No one can be everything.
Wanting to be something and being it are two different things, just like wanting something and getting it are. If you want to be rewarded, then in general, it requires building up some kind of support base in some way, and while there are many ways "good and bad" to do this, if wanting to do it through content (like I do and have), that content has to be not only good enough, but consistent enough for people to keep coming back to and engaging with. In my own experience, that requires having conversations that are personal, that are ongoing, that can be picked up at other times again, like friends meeting occasionally for coffee and picking up where they left off.
There are other ways to do this also, and what you will find is that while my content is a little haphazard in the sense that it is based on whatever is going on in my life at the time, the people who are both consistent and rewarded, are those who have interesting series of content. They have themes that they have built over time, essentially creating a community (often actual Hive communities) around their content, so that people will engage. And, as they have developed themselves over time, they have also been able to start rewarding those who engage with them, so there is added incentive to take part.
Some people think that authors rewarding people for engagement on their content is "cheating" without recognizing that this is what is encouraged on the Hive. It is a relationship builder in many ways, and developing stake allows for a person to build a following, in a similar way that advertising does. Plus, that stake can be used to reward other authors, who could if they choose, build their stake and do similar.
Stake aside, it is almost always going to need to be coupled with some type of content that people want to engage with over the space of time. And this is the challenge that a lot of people are going to have, especially those who spend their time not socializing in the world, getting new experiences and instead, spending their time consuming content, not creating content. At least from what I have observed in myself and others, the people who have the hardest time building interesting content, are those who spend a lot of time consuming interesting content passively. Those who live interesting lives and engage in dynamic conversations, find content creation easy.
So, if you take a step back from your content, what do you see? Also, when you think back to the content you have created thus far, what do you remember? Do you have pieces of work that stand out, do people ever reference things you have created in the past, or conversations that you have had together? Have you built up a social network, or are you just dumping posts in hope or entitlement??
What does it tell about your personality?
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]
I do. Partly because I like the sound of my own
voicewords...Also to check for mistakes.A lot of splinterlands battles and art. Personally I am more passionate about my art but I would not be where I am now(around 9k HP) without writing battle posts. Also at times I don't have any ideas for new art for a while so posting just art is not a good idea if I want to stay consistent.
Weekend Experiences topics are also great because they make for a deeper more personal stories. At times about things that I would not have thought to share on my own.
There is nothing wrong with battle posts, but I do think that more needs to be added to them to make them interesting on average. Most of the Splinterlands content is largely devoid of humanness - much like the game! :D
The WE community gets a lot of people engaging with it - I think people should learn from it and practice how to prompt themselves also.
What do you remember about the 6,300 posts you've done on Hive?
I do find it hard to create content on Hive, because I'm honestly not sure what type of content actually helps Hive.
I remember a lot. I have a lot of discussions with people IRL and reference back to the topics. I don't know them all word for word, but I have covered a lot of ground and can recall a lot of them. I wish the search was better so that I could quote them more.
The kind of content that shows you are a human. We are moving into a world of generative-AI content, that will largely be useless for developing a community of relationships. You have so much personality in your comments - you have heaps of different talents - combine them :)
My challenges to creating content often comes from not having lived experience. When I spend too much time in front of the computer, I have little to share besides what others are doing. This is when my writing tends to be bland as it is only the same ideas and experiences rehashed over and over.
I know from reading your posts that you have a job and have engaged in remodeling, holidays, and other life outside of Hive. You have something to share.
For me, stepping back is not about revising my work. When I step back it is to go out and experience something that I can share.
Although I do start drafts of posts and leave them. At some later date, I'll find it and either add more or complete it for posting. This obviously doesn't work for things that are dated. Consequently, I have a ton of notes that aren't complete. But they often get pieced together to create an entirely new post.
I won't quote the whole first paragraph, but that is exactly what I am talking about. It is like living vicariously through other people - and then trying to make it personal.
Get out there, experience life, live life. What is the point of being behind a screen if life just passes by outside the window?
:)
Somewhere, I have about 1000 unfinished drafts. I used to create about five draft ideas a day, but only use two of them, but write two more on top - It is good to take notes of interesting conversations, observations, and thoughts - even if they don't turn into content, it helps us remember parts of life that mattered at the time.
I have started using get.Mem.ai to help me piece together those thoughts. I ask the chat questions about what I've written and it surfaces relevant pieces that I can use to write posts. But I still have a backlog of notes that aren't in it. So it's more aware of recent work.
I think all starts with title and the cover/thumbnail photo of the post.
My titles are rarely clear :D
How can a work be edited if it's not read several times by the author? At least for me, that's a major part of writing.
On Hive consuming content is a great way to build a following :) Just read what interests you, then leave a genuine comment for the author.
That a few of my series still need finishing 😂
This post has been manually curated by the VYB curation project
I freewrite and edit as I go - however, I have been doing this a while already :)
This is a challenge for many people too it seems! :D
lols - I have some story series that I will never be able to finish - I no longer have it in me. Which saddens me a bit.
I didn't know you wrote fiction :) Which genre did you prefer?
How hard can it be to share some thoughts about something one just enjoyed reading??? lol
!PIZZA !ALIVE !LOL
Once I got a message on instagram from a girl in Mexico who had found my post on steemit from google results and said she it had really helped her. Since then I started taking my posts more seriously, and I write them all as if SOMEONE is going to read them.
Also these days writing has become a central way for me to organize my thoughts so there is that. I write for myself and for that girl who messaged me and I owe something decent to both of us.
exactly! They don't have to have an audience of millions - helping one person is enough.
I believe if everyone wrote, the world would be a far better place, with less anger, violence and human evils.
Being online creating content in any given field should bring people together to discuss and share exactly the same as we once did around the coffee table.
Debate and discussion, commenting or questioning is how society grow. Life is all about give and take, those who arrive expecting an audience simply posting to obtain a vote end up leaving.
Yeah, some people don't understand, and don't stay around long enough to see that the biggest value of Hive is the enjoyment one can get from being here. It's their loss!
Interacting, reading and responding is integral part, those not prepared to spend time learning etiquette within Hive lose out. Those who don't enjoy blogging, there is gaming option where they can find a niche to fit in.
The possibilities on Hive are unlimited :) But I have yet to see any facet where genuine interaction wouldn't be extremely helpful.
!LUV
It would be great to see some form of debate more than chat, only way to try start, is by starting the ball rolling.
Many topics out that need to be debated, people are too scared to voice their true opinion on state of affairs with trolls.
Most simply stuck in a view to find reward not add value.
!LOLZ Happy Days!
I miss coffee table conversations. I get them at work, but there is always the sense of "this is work, so be careful". I have some good friends I can talk with though.
How are we meant to improve ourselves and learn from others, if we don't get deep with people?
Coffee shop meetups were always a highlight to sit chatting or debating, we used to spend hours dissecting topics, sometimes it got pretty heated, that was the fun part trying to reach some conclusion.
Work colleagues one has to be cautious, often taken out of context which leads to disharmony.
Well, I think some set of people don’t get to cross check what they have written which is normal but I’m sure that when someone knows that he or she is writing something that makes sense, the person will want to read his work over and over again…
And other people will want to read it. That’s why the topic and cover photo of a post is really important
It isn't just about editing for grammar - it is about reading it to see if it is interesting at all. Some people are more boring than reading the shopping list of an elderly person.
I think it's because a lot of new authors are too obsessed with the rewards that they get salty when they don't get much. They feel like they deserve a high vote early on and consistently. I was disheartened when I started posting too. The Splinterlands Challenge posts were the ones that really got me to stay. But as I talked to more curators, I found out that they are very critical of how new users act. Do they immediately unstake and convert to fiat, their followers/following, do they reply to comments/comment on others, etc. That's when I realized that I should treat Hive blogging as I would with social interactions. Find people that I find interesting and interact with them.
I actually just wrote about this, partially at least, tonight haha. I was on the topic of having certain things that I wanted to write about from our vacation, but I don't want to write about every little fucking thing that we did or saw. Part of it because it's private and just generally family time which should be cherished. Other parts of it are because, does anyone want to read about the fucking pizza fail that we had? Likely not! It goes back to people actually reading their content before committing it. I think that quite a few people don't read it, just throw it out there.
I think this also goes with the short form stuff - DBuzz comes to mind. Sure it's a Twitter alternate for us, but at the same time, should people read the drivel they spent 15 seconds to put together and post? Probably, because I know they should and not post it LOL
I think it's important that we have community and engagement, but also just some personality and bit of self control (trying to think of a phrase for what I mean here..) for reading what we are writing to make sure it makes sense and it's worthy of a "post". I've got a dozen or more "ideas" for posts but I haven't written them because at the moment they are shit, they need more soul!
As already mentioned, people are attracted by the fact that they can receive a reward for their work (hobby). And when a newcomer sees the number of rewards that others receive, his eyes light up. And they start writing... about nothing. Yes, it may sound harsh, but in order to attract attention to your work, get readers, and ultimately compensation, you need to give something significant to the platform. Posts in the style of “thoughts about nothing” will not work here. This is of no interest to anyone who doesn't know him or her. Here you need an idea, and it should not be one-time, the content should be regular. You have to try for this. As for me, here I found my cozy place, where I found like-minded people. I make birding observations, take photos and videos, and then share them with the community. All this takes a huge amount of time, and it takes a lot of effort.
Photography is exceptionally time consuming, then collating making sure of detail before sharing, wee bit of research to double check!
Writing into short story line, hopefully relating to the world as it is, never enjoy sharing negative, have also found my enjoyment through sharing nature in this manner.
I think we should not be offended when we are encouraged to improve, I am grateful when someone told me: hey you are not doing well, improve, I don't know, that makes me reflect and understand that we are constantly learning.
I know that I must learn English because translators sometimes damage the sense of my writing in many occasions and other little things, so I take your advice with much respect and I know that with preparation I will evolve.
I might feel like my content really isn't worth it, but thankfully I get a decent number of comments on my posts from people who appreciate what I write. I think if that went away, then I might really start to question what I am doing here.