The News

Another week of not much happening on the $HIVE price. The legacy crapcoin has been running in parallel despite a lack of any real value. I should have mentioned last week that we were marking six years of Hive. If you do not know the full story then read this. This was a case of the community taking charge when the company behind a blockchain sold them out. In those six years we have seen lots of development on a really solid chain.

Friday Follows

• @ecency are constantly innovating. This week they added MetaMask integration and other features.
• @friendlymoose had some thoughts about Hive on-boarding. It has improved, but can still be confusing for new users. When they sign up it should be made very clear what they need to do with their keys and then then need a gentle introduction into how to make a good start on Hive. I have created accounts for lots of people, but it can be hard to appreciate what their first steps are like.
• @rubenstorm was robbed whilst travelling in Namibia. Please help him out if you can.
• @hivecomb offers a new way to browse Hive and curate.
• I enjoy the car reviews from @planetauto. Their latest is for the electric Renault 5 that may trigger some nostalgia for those who had the original car.
• You may have seen #hiveword from @beggars trending on Snaps. Now he has a new (and harder) game where you are finding multiple words at once.
• @risingstargame has various seasonal side-games over the year and it is time for the Easter one where there are new cards to win.
• @steemseph is marking an anniversary for one of his old albums. There is so much original music on Hive and we should support the artists.
• The Beeswap tool for moving between various Hive Engine coins seems to have shut down. @ecoinstant has an alternative.

The Dog House

In the dog house this week is me! I joined this blockchain nearly ten years ago after experimenting with various social platforms. I had been on Tsu that paid users from the advertising revenue, but they lost funding and shut down. I heard from @the-bitcoin-dood about a new blockchain-based platform that looked interesting as that would be much harder to kill off. Of course I was tempted by the possibility of earning, but I was also interested in what it could do for others around the world who have less options. I am fortunate to live in a pretty stable country with a decent job, but for some people the chance to earn an extra few dollars can be life-changing.

We have seen lots of changes over the years apart from the obvious fork that led to Hive. There were times when some people (not me) were making thousands from a single post, but the algorithms have changed since then. Of course we saw lots of abuse as people tried to cheat the system with plagiarism, impersonation and voting rings. Things like self-voting and buying votes were controversial, but it really ought to be about what other people think of your content. I was part of some anti-abuse groups who tried to deal with such issues. I never made it personal and just used my downvote to cancel out what I considered unearned rewards. I had a fair bit of retaliation for doing that.

I also tried to give advice to suggest better ways to get along here. One person took offence at what I said and has given me grief ever since. So I am guilty of giving a shit and unintentionally upsetting someone. It is only the latter that I regret. As I said, I do not get personal with such things and so left them alone to focus on what positive things I could do here. I see feuds as very unhealthy and unproductive. If you decide to piss off as many people as possible then there is not much chance of improving matters.

I have written about this before, but I am not naming names as most people will know anyway. I have always been very open about what I do on Hive. I control some other accounts, but that is public information and anyone can see the state of my wallet. I do not 'work' for anyone here and have mostly avoided getting into any groups with financial or voting systems. I have no real influence on what anyone else does. I am on Hive to have fun and possibly help others along the way. That is why I do these posts as well as running @tenkminnows. I try to avoid the 'drama', but sometimes it finds me anyway. I have always said that Hive is like the wild west and you have to accept that.

The End

We are almost a quarter of the way through 2026 so there will be various posts to write for a new month. There is also Hive Power Up Day (HPUD) that happens on the first of each month. I have maintained a long streak of those. I may never be a whale, but I want to be able to give bigger votes. I do a monthly update on my solar panel generation and also the #BritList. I have done lists for other countries, but do not have time to do those monthly so I have offered to help others do their own.

In a world dominated by corporate social media we need alternatives and I still think that Hive is a good option. Of course it is imperfect, but I find it to be mostly good.

Hive five!

The man behind:

@tenkminnows: Helping good Hivers level up @proofofbrian: A bot that checks for tag typos #BritList: A monthly list of Hivers in the UK