Community of Communities

This is just a little post for communities on Hive, as perhaps people don't fully understand what they are about. But, it is pretty simple, anyone can create one and they are privately owned spaces, generally with a theme topic. This makes them spaces for content, but most have rules attached to them.

For example, for the "Reflections" community:

The owning account is made when creating the community and the creator has the keys - me being the creator, making the community mine. I am also the admin for the community, but I could assign more, or assign mods to moderate the community, add members, or mute people that I don't want posting into the Reflections community. This doesn't stop them posting onto the blockchain, just hides their posts from appearing in the community itself.

But as I said to someone recently, I see communities like a home, and homes should be kept clean. I don't expect anyone to come into my home and clean it, but if someone comes in and makes a mess, it is my prerogative to kick their ass out of my house. Just because it is a community, it doesn't mean it is an open space where people can act however they want, without consequence.

The rules of the Reflections community:

The community is only four months old, but there have been a few cases of each so far and I have thrown some flags and muted one (currently unmuted). I think the hardest rule that some people seem to adhere to is the last,

Which sums up the rest really.

Sure, mistakes happen and people who might not have full understanding of the community, platform, or whatever can make mistakes and behave poorly, but it is their reactions that dictate dickishness, and people react poorly online. I suspect some of these people react poorly in real life too, but I will likely never know, since they are pseudonymous here and we will likely never meet in real life.

Communities on Hive are fantastic. As while they might not have all the capabilities yet of communities on other platforms, the decentralized platform protects them and they are actually owned, which is not the case on Facebook or Reddit - as they are centralized platforms and as such, have ultimate power. The platform itself actually dictates what is there or not.

What I have noticed over the last few years, is how often people feel that they are entitled to post what they want on Hive, which technically they are. However, they expect that they can post what they want without repercussions, which is not the case. Anyone can write a transaction to the blockchain, but it is still going to come with the community judgement, just like in the real world. Which is also why earnings on a post are not guaranteed, until the transaction what transfers Hive from the blockchain, into an account.

There are lots of communities on Hive worth checking out and some are very very active. For example, the weekend experiences one, owned and operated by my brother @galenkp for the last few years. It is one of the most active communities on the blockchain, of not the most.

Lots of subscribers, lots of active users, a ton of interactions every week. Communities that build engagement are very important for the Hive Community as a whole, because people gather around them. Communities become nodes of activity that not only generate interactions, they bring people together and build relationships between active users. Each day or week, people come from "far and wide" to be part of the community. These are also generally built by accounts that tend to be nodes themselves, like my brother, or other well known community members who tend to generate activity on their own posts too.

What you might find is that these people don't just share useful information, they build a community of people who interact with them and others, creating a network. And, that is the point right? It is about building a social network, but unlike Facebook, it isn't getting leveraged to sell advertising, it is just around people interacting and sharing ideas, content and their lives.

Which is why the personality of an account matters, not just the content. Because it is a social network that isn't selling the data, the value of the network is how people interact and make each other feel. This means that when people feel bad, they can get emotional and react poorly, and burn the bridges they have built or, lose the ability to build new bridges in the future.

One way to start an account fire, is to go into popular communities and, act like a dick. Because, firstly the admin will likely step up and do something, and that admin likely has connections built throughout the network already, because they are probably a part of the community already. Then also, popular communities tend to get seen by people who have larger stake, meaning that dickish behavior is going to attract response.

I think what people need to remember is that each community on Hive can be different, so what is suitable for one, might not be for another. It is like walking in not knowing if it is a "shoes on or off" home - read the room. Check the rules before posting and have a look at what kind of content is there. There really isn't an, "I didn't know" excuse.

Building a community-centric account on Hive takes time, as does building a community around a topic. And, that "time" isn't an amount of time, it is the active work that goes into the building part of it. When we spend the time building something, we don't want people to come in and ruin it. We don't want someone coming into our home and messing it up.

Anyone can build a community, and there can be multiple communities for the same thing if that is chosen. Nothing stops anyone building a similar to community to the one I have, and who knows., it might become far more popular - which is great!

But, if not wanting to invest time and effort into building an owned community, communities are great to participate in and can help people focus their attention to post along the guidelines for an audience looking for that kind of topic. Utilize communities well as a user, and they can help build your account profile a lot. Use them poorly, and the opposite is true.

Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]