I am not quite sure where this post should go. I pondered joining a new community - one where people share about their experience on HIVE or in content creation as a whole or one where people discuss the ups & downs of the crypto markets. But, it didn't feel quite right.
When I sat down to jot down some notes about experiences here on Hive it seemed right to share it here, in the Daily Blog community where I so often post about aspects of my life and the bits & bobs that don't fit in the other communities I regular post in.
During the past few weeks I have been tagged in posts & contacted directly about the supposed censorship here on Hive and have been personally asked to join other (supposedly) censorship-free platforms. I am not going to name names nor do I feel weird about people expressing their opinions about this platform. Honestly I feel honored that anyone feels that my content should be found on other web3 platforms.
I myself have some opinions about the supposed censorship issue on HIVE. I say supposed censorship on Hive because I personally have never experienced any sort of censorship. Quite the opposite in fact! Previous to joining HIVE I shared regularly on Instagram as well as Tumblr for years & years, never gaining much traction and very often feeling that my personal opinions were preventing my content from getting viewed by a larger audience. This was the 2020 era and I had quite a controversial opinion about health & wellness that I shared freely. So really, it is no mystery as to why my content was only seen by a handful of like-minded folks. And in my personal life I found that most people did not want to hear my opinion on anything else once they found out that I wouldn't be taking the vaccine.
I guess you could say that I learned my lesson about sharing on that particular subject and when I began to post on Hive, first under the moniker of libra.gardener and now Calendula Craft, I just decided to not venture into too controversial of waters. I don't discuss the politics of my home country (USA), nor of my current home of Argentina. Avoiding politics & medical issues is not a big ask of myself. In my regular life I don't participate in politics and avoid any sort of medical intervention, I haven't been to the doctors since I was about 21 (I am 32 now).
Herbs are my medicine, psychedelics are my therapist, and nature is my church. I have shared very very often the details of my spiritual beliefs as a witch and am very happy to say that I have never received any sort of negative feedback or hateful comment. I have literally never received a hateful comments on Hive in my 4 + years of sharing here. Even when someone corrected me about mis-identifying a plant or suggested that I might be incorrect about some data, it was always written in the kindest of ways. I cannot say the same about my comments section on YouTube and TikTok...
This is something I can't just discount due to a few people feeling that there is censorship here on Hive. How could I jump ship when Hive has granted me so many benefits in these past few years? HIVE has helped me gain a bit of savings in my crypto portfolio, yes, but, more importantly has shown me that my writing/photography/video making is worth something and that people are inspired by what I share here.
So, why are people asking me to join them in an exodus?
IDK really. I do find it a bit suspicious that the people are leaving Hive for Blurt.blog, a website represented by an emoji who's mouth is covered.
To me this image doesn't give me any sort of confidence that this will be a censorship free space. What about you?
And as for Calendula Craft ... I will continue to be a regular contributor for the foreseeable future. Sharing on Hive has become a part of my career in ways that I never imagined. Each and every morning I open up my notebook to write down ideas for future posts and videos.
I love that I can finally say that my writing & video making is compensated and that people find some benefit to what I share. Hive is the virtual hug from the internet that I so desired.
So, Hive and all it's users, I hug you back!
