In the past 24 hours a debate has swirled up again around @hivewatchers, downvoting, autovoting, and in the broader sense just about the "cultural norms" of HIVE. In this particular instance @gric was downvoted for reposting artwork he had previously shared several years ago back on STEEM. If you want to review that discussion the post can be found here.
What initially started as my own intended comment in the discussion became far reaching and involved enough that I decided to spin it off into this post instead. So, following are some of my views and concerns, as well as an announcement of my own intentions for my account going forward so that in fair warning my own followers can adjust their following and voting habits as they see fit and @hivewatchers can keep an eye on me if it deems it appropriate!
On Being Pro Downvote...
First off, I'm pro downvote. Downvotes have a critical role, they are a right to exercise with stake, and quite frankly I don't believe defining a "valid" reason for downvoting is even a necessity. "I just didn't like it" is as good a reason as any for why a post was downvoted. I hate to see people reacting personally to being downvoted, although I recognize it's just a natural human reaction. Whether it's a downvote here with seeming monetary consequences, or a thumbs down on other sites that has no real bearing at all, people take such negative expressions toward them to heart. You'll notice I wrote "seeming" monetary consequences because I'm also a firm believer in expected post payouts not being real money until the close of voting.
On Being Pro Autovote...
I am absolutely a user of autovotes using the service provided by hive.vote. I believe auto voting needs to be more widespread and built directly into front end interfaces like PeakD. I like hive.vote's branding of autovoting as FanBase. In my mind it's a step up from a normal follow and is the closest thing we have to something like Patreon. With tools to quantify a running tally of how much monetary value a FanBase subscription has provided to the creator from each subscriber it could easily fill all the roles of a Patreon type service in assigning things like reward tiers and community rankings for the fans. I dislike the vilification of autovoting.
That being said I tailor my own autovotes and actively monitor them. Oftentimes it comes down to averages and considering the content creator's posting style, frequency, etc. If I absolutely love your stuff and you rarely post more than once a day then a full 100% autovote may be in order. Post more frequently, probably a 50% vote max. Post on a mix of topics where some I don't find quite as interesting as others... probably dropping down to 25% to balance it out. And of course I've absolutely dropped people off of autovoting if their content moves in a direction I no longer enjoy.
The Larger Picture
So how do those two stances fit into the current controversy? People can downvote @gric's posts if they like and I've got no problem with it. However I went ahead and added him to my autovotes to show more support going forward. If I feel his content is getting spammy then I will voluntarily remove my support. The idea others put forward that he's simply "milking" people's autovotes is irritating to me. In an ideal world we'd all simply use HIVE like we use other sites and social media and let the money take care of itself in the background. On every other platform artists recycling old artwork into their social media feeds is absolutely accepted, and to say that it's unacceptable on HIVE because you're "getting paid" for it is quite frankly bullshit. So I do take issue with that being one of @hivewatchers guiding principles and I wish people would only entrust stake to @hivewatchers to deal with clear cut spam and identity theft, and not to police these supposed community norms. I see good work that they do in those other areas and commend them, but I absolutely would never support any funding proposals or delegate stake to such a program with the questionable added scope discussed here.
I believe that aspect of @hivewatchers mission is a hindrance to HIVE. If you think a bit of undeserved money is going to someone for reposting something they shared a few years ago, or on another site... I don't care. Especially because we have to be brutally honest and realize that the money is basically all HIVE has to offer at this point.
I onboarded an artist friend over the summer. When he was first exploring HIVE he instantly recognized @gric's work and was a fan. He was excited to see him here. It gave HIVE some credibility in his eyes. He enjoyed exchanging a couple comments with him. Unfortunately, like most people who come on HIVE, he hasn't been active in 4 months. After HIVE he started experimenting with Tiktok and that's where he's having a blast now, gaining thousands of followers, getting some view counts into the millions, and not a penny earned. Right now we do not offer creators the chance to build an audience of any significant size or gain the type of exposure of their work that is meaningful for their careers. So if you think someone is just posting for the money then maybe they are... but in my opinion we should be happy to pay it because userbase and retention are all that matters right now and we need to retain assets like @gric.
The Scope of HIVE
"You're reposting old artwork, we have to downvote you for that."
"You're making lots of "low quality" posts with just a picture and a sentence, we have to downvote you for that."
People's views of what HIVE is are far too limited. Because the first interface ever invented focused on blogging then in many people's eyes that's what it's for, and rambling on in posts like I am now is the "proper" way to do it. And our major front end interfaces don't help the growing culture clash by presenting the entirety of the blockchain in one format that's designed with this sort of long form written content in mind.
If you haven't heard, there's a new HIVE based site, liketu.com and I'm very excited for it and the rise of others like it. We had some in the past on the old chain like Steepshot and Appics which focused on an experience more akin to Instagram which I found very appealing and enjoyed experimenting with.
I just logged in today to confirm what I assumed to be the case and there it is... a nice fresh, blank profile page for me to fill. You see, Liketu only displays posts intended for it, made through its own site. It's a system that other HIVE based sites utilize and I believe is becoming a necessity for our current "core" sites.
While every HIVE based site and app gets the benefit of tapping into the existing userbase at startup, they all get to grow in their own directions, onboard users who may not use any other HIVE based sites and services, and develop their own cultures and norms. Applying the perceived social standards that have developed on PeakD, hive.blog, or eCency with a one size fits all sledgehammer is the worst approach we can take right now. We've seen it happen on numerous occasions as sites that focus on images, micro-blogging, fitness tracking or memes have sprung up and get lambasted. They run their own sites and apps, do their own thing, try to leverage the blockchain in new and exciting ways, and end up in wars because the existing interfaces aren't designed to effectively filter or sort content from different sources and inputs to the central blockchain.
I bring this up both for those who feel the need to audit "post quality" and as an example of the untenableness of @hivewatchers and some community member's position on reposting content. There's a very good chance I'm about to become a HIVE sinner and end up in the penalty box. I want to experiment with Liketu, use it, and support it. So I'm going to post some of my artwork on that pretty blank profile page up there, and you know what? It's going to show up in the feeds on all the blogging front ends as "recycled low quality shitposting" even though I did nothing to put it there and had no choice. That interconnectedness is both the strength of the HIVE ecosystem, and its biggest weakness if it's not used and filtered properly.
I can hear now the comments of some saying that all I'd have to do is decline payout... but I'm not going to! HIVE inherently ties voting and its corresponding monetary payout to visibility and exposure. As a 5+ year veteran I would much rather start off on Liketu and the myriad of new HIVE powered platforms I believe are to come with the advantage of some autovotes and a backlog of existing content to roll out than handicapping myself with a string of declined payouts or refusing to post any of my portfolio to date at all.
Finale!
Whew that was a ramble/rant... or as I like to call them, "blaaaghs." To wrap up I'll just hit a few bullet points.
- I'd like to give a heartfelt thanks to everyone who is following and voting my content.
- I advocate that everyone keep an eye on my content in the future and unvote, unfollow, downvote as you see fit to.
- However I'd implore everyone to really take a look at everything that HIVE can encompass, and examine the evolving social norms in that context.
- And to @hivewatchers and other content quality enforcers, let's just say I'm planning on "pulling a @gric." I am going to use a brand new HIVE powered site as it's intended to be used. The content will be new to that site, but will already exist on other HIVE powered sites. That content will be mirrored to HIVE front ends that make the choice to aggregate the entire blockchain rather than foster their own site and app specific communities and be seen as a duplicate or "repost." I will receive automated votes that I do not solicit or trade for and have no control over. If you downvote me I'm fine with that, but please don't bother with the automated comment as to why, because I already know that like @gric, I'll have done nothing "wrong" and won't plan on changing my behavior in the future.
-Bryan "the Imp" Imhoff
Follow me for more behind the scenes looks at the creation of "I Thought It Would Be Zombies..." Your votes help support its production! Also look for limited edition digital artwork for sale on NFTShowroom.com
