Hello Hivers! :)
My name’s Giorgio, and I’ve been an active user of Steemit 2 years ago from my old profile: https://steemit.com/@ziogio/feed.
Since I was a child, my dream was to let people earn to learn and share life experiences, knowledge and fun. The current economic system doesn’t allow this dream to come true, but I found shelter in blockchain social networks and dApps.
Even though** I always loved the idea behind Steem and Steemit**, I stopped writing because 95% of my articles received zero traction and upvotes. Most importantly, no one read them. I felt discouraged and left to start my own blogs in Italian.
My desire to get better by writing more didn’t vanish though, and I patiently waited for next blockchain-based social network.
I tried CamTV, Minds, Yours, and many small ones. I even tested a lot of beta versions of new social networks like Happydemy and WTSocial. But I’m a marketer, and I can recognize when a project is destined to serve a very small audience and when it can become widely used.
Why Hive
1 month ago I started reading about Justin Sun’s acquisition of Steemit. The news didn’t move me that much, since I left Steemit years ago, but I was curious to know what the community had to say about this new CEO.
The only thing I could notice is how people felt betrayed.
But you know,** a lot of people feel betrayed and continue living their life as always**. Most of us react to the world without even questioning what would happen if we did the right thing besides of what others would think of us.
Steem Witnesses and the entire community did just that. They tried to have a civil dialogue with Justin, and when they saw he was taking away everything the community always fought for, they dropped out and performed a hard fork - brining Hive to life.
This story deeply moved me. Everything I hear about when I join a new social network is how cool privacy is, and how people should fight against Twitter, Facebook and other mainstream social networks. **But Hive is different. **
Sure, Hivers focus on privacy as well, but I can see a real community here. Hivers are ready to change everything to sustain what they built over the years, and they’re ready to create innovative projects based on equal opportunities, collaboration and kindness. These convinced me to come back.
My experience with other crypto-based social networks
Just to solidify what I’ve said above, l**et me share you my last experience with a blockchain-based social network: Minds.com
Minds became quite popular when the famous Hacker Group “Anonymous” sustained its mission. Since then, anonymous turned into a random hacker group without any real activism and disappeared.
That social is now a big hole of hate, white suprematism and hurtful ideologies. On my last post, random people wished me to die: https://www.minds.com/newsfeed/1088930609529143296 and on my serious, in-depth analysis of what I think Minds should do to reach mass migration: https://www.minds.com/giorgiobarilla/blog/minds-should-welcome-everyone-1087550158333263872 the userbase called me a faggot, a crybaby and brought zero arguments to the table.
When I joined the Hive Discord Channel, I found a welcoming, loving family of users sharing informations about Hive and ways to get more readers, upvotes and general knowledge.
Crpyto-based social network are usually filled by jerks that couldn’t express their hate on mainstream social networks, while Hivers are here to create a new economy - not to insults one another.
I’ve seen around 5 to 10% of hateful, spammy or useless comments on Hive.blog. That percentage is near to 100% on Minds, Yours and similar social networks. Hivers take responsability of their words, even though they’re not forced to use real identies, and I deeply admire and appreciate this mentality.
My view on Hive(.blog) as a Marketer
Thinking Hive can become mainstream is utopia at the moment. The normal Facebook user would never understand what Hive, Hive Power and Hive dollars mean, and he would never understand how to trade cryptocurrency on games, dApps and several UI interfaces.
But Linux had the same issue. Windows and MacOS users are still the vast majority of the market, but all the big Linux Distros are self-sustained and big players are switching to them to sustain open source projects.
I see Hive as the linux of social networks: a kind, warm, useful place to be in first, after more and more people come here to read what we amazing Hivers have to say. Mass migrations is unlikely to happen in 2020, 2021 or even 2022, but we don’t need a lot of users to create a self-sustaining economy.
Even 2 years ago there were people earning more than 1000$ per month from Steem Articles alone, and this is INCREDIBLE.
Conclusion
I’m here because I believe Hive and Hivers can improve me and my family. Not just financially. I know how to make money on “normal” social networks too… but:
It will help improve my English;
I will meet amazing people, sharing stories and knowledge;
I will create digital content and OWN it;
I will have fun with all the dApps like Splinterlands and other browser games while earning money;
My tech knowledge is very high compared to the standard social network user, but it’s nowhere near what most hivers know about blockchain, crypto values and software development.
I will, however, help the community as much as I can, and I promise I will only share interesting, insightful and great content here on Hive.
My husband also joined, and we hope to make Hive a better place doing what we do best, while we trust all the other Hivers will do the same.
To all the Hive witnesses and Hive users, thank you for the amazing platform you realized. This will give a voice to lots of people, and will make dreams like mine (earning by learning) possible. Let’s build this community further. Together.