When I was in my mid-twenties I would head out most Friday and Saturday nights with my friends. We would first start off at someone's apartment for drinks (because it was far cheaper) and then at 11 o'clock (apartment silent time), head off into the wilderness of the city to see what we could hunt. Nearly all of my friends are women.

The meat market

There was a bar in the city that my friends liked to frequent because it was +23 to get in, meaning that they didn't have to compete with younger women - this sucked a bit for me, but I made do with what there was on offer - it was a hard life. It was a large area with several bars and access to a hotel nightclub. Every weekend, there were several thousand mostly singles looking to drink and mingle. Finns are big drinkers, which is often the only way they can pluck up the courage to talk to anyone of the opposite sex - or perhaps, it is so they can lower their standards and have an excuse for what they wake up to the next morning. This place was a meat market.

Good times.

But, in this hall of future broken promises and despite the heavy drinking, things still generally turned out the way it generally does - people matched up with people similar in "rank" to themselves. This isn't just a looks thing, it depends on multiple factors and personality mattered, the ability to speak, the willingness to have a dance, the self-control to not end up sloppy drunk and asleep in a booth with vomit rolling down the shirt - you know, class.

Personality matters

Okay, so I wrote an article asking what people hope for when posting and inevitably there were two factors that came into play - engagement and value through upvotes. No real surprises there considering that these two things are fundamentals of the Hive premise.

Now, I don't know if there is a "formula for success" to get either of these things, but what I have experienced is that it is much like the meat market of that bar I used to frequent, personality matters - being able to talk, being interesting and, being able to listen - as after all, communication is a two-way street.

Separately, engagement and upvotes are possible, but it is in combination that things become trickier.

Engage and Vote

Engagement can be achieved through creating some drama of some kind and pushing some community buttons so to speak - but this doesn't necessarily result in large upvotes and could very well see the direction of the pool diverted away from a post and an account over time.

Upvotes are possible through building relationships with accounts in various ways like those that get support from circle voting accounts, but this doesn't mean that there is going to be engagement on the content itself - evidenced by a scroll through Trending where we can see random upvoted content from users who got a big vote and those in circles, but no or low comments on their posts.

What you will find is what @abh12345 demonstrated in his post on payout and comments the other day. Those who are getting consistently getting larger payouts are in two categories - those who get comments, those who don't. Those who don't get comments are likely fitting into one of the circle categories of some kind, those who do get comments and large payouts are generally those who have built their account up - generally around themselves and what they do - their personality.

But, remember the meat market. It is easy to engage with people at the bar and have a discussion (after a few drinks for some), but it doesn't mean that someone is going home with you. And, going home with someone doesn't mean that they are going to wake up and be in love with what they find there. Relationships can have purpose, some shorter than others - but for long-term viability, there generally has to be engagement and upvotes - meaning that there has to be conversation and the continual buying into the relationship itself. Each day saying "I like talking and being with you for some reason, so I am going to stick around" and it is through this that people get supported in a relationship. If people get taken advantage of in relationships often enough or their support is never returned, generally there is seen as dysfunctional by one party and the relationship ends.

Content and consistency

It is because of these relationships that content matters, but consistency and personality matters more. When it comes to a social relationship, people don't hang around others because they have skills to write or they are smart, they hang around them because they enjoy their company. There are alternatives to this also, where some people hang around others because they admire them or want to be like them, get some glory by association or just because they are rich - or appear so.

Being rich might get you into a relationship, being a decent person helps keep you there - being good in bed doesn't hurt either.

When it comes to building a personality, consistency matters as those who are inconsistent are applied a lower level of trust than those that are consistent. People see consistency as post frequency, but this is only one factor. Consistency of personality is by far more important and erratic behavior is generally not seen as a socially positive state. Happy one day, complaining the next, all in the following and then rage quitting on day four - Is this the person you want to be in a relationship with?

Give me your sympathy

This is definitely how some accounts tend to operate on Hive as they are happy when the votes are coming and crying bloody murder when they aren't, they don't mind seeing others flagged, but if they get downvoted scream again, positive when price is up, negative when down, all in on Hive one day - talking about how it is a failure the next ... things are never good.

What I found at the meat market bar is, complaining people didn't do well.

The "sympathy sex" strategy might work at home in a relationship for some, but complaining about how much your life sucks doesn't get one very far at the bar - unless standards are very low - and very drunken. People like to feel good about themselves and part of that is being around people who facilitate this through being feel good people. Don't misunderstand this though, in the bar, being a bit of an asshole helps, but it has to be the playful asshole, not the arsehole.

Birds of a feather

Generally when we choose the friends that we spend the most time with, we will look for people who are supportive but honest with us, people we can trust to be even-handed in their approach and we enjoy the company of. Why spend time with people we don't like?

Well, that is a whole different kettle of fish as this is the internet and some people look for engagement through creating controversy and adversaries, which can work, until they get ignored. The interesting thing on Hive is when these types also want the other side of the feedback, the upvote part, as often that isn't going to happen consistently as they fail in the personality component, the one that people want to consistently be around.

Often, like minds and personalities will congregate together and when positive, it can generate a great deal of energy that leads to development and growth - when negative, it can generate a lot of destruction. People that are always complaining might feel that they are adding value through criticism, but they don't seem to factor in the cost of their approach and what it takes away from the experience. When this is a constant barrage of complaint, it will drive eyes away from an account.

What meat are you offering?

When we go to the bar looking for some engagement, we likely have a shower, do our hair and put on what makes us feel good and possibly, what we think we look good in. We put our best foot forward, we make an effort. For some people this is easier than others, because they have habits that keep this in check, that makes being well-presented easy, simple, natural. Others have to force it and it is pretty obvious as they will miss the flow, look uncomfortable and out of place - trying to be something they are not.

Authenticity is definitely a large factor to consistency because it allows a person to do what they do, be who they are, without having to be force trying to be someone else. The problem is on Hive that people will often be who they are and that is someone that isn't overly attractive to the community for engagement or upvotes, but expect the same results as those who through luck or habit, have a personality that people might want to gather around. The expectation of uniform result despite approach and offer is a little bit crazy, no matter how unfair that might sound.

Attentions and intentions

While some people like to put forward anything for the votes and others for the engagement, what they might be missing is the consistency and personality development that attracts both in combination. It doesn't mean that they can't do this, but it likely takes more time than many are willing to spend and if the personality isn't conducive to being socially attractive, they might need to change a bit - something many don't like to do, which is fine - but there is a cost to doing what you want.

This is a social experiment much like going to the bar and seeing who is going to end up with who, which groups are going to gather together, which will sit in the corner laughing, which will sit in the corner crying, which will be on the dance floor being admired, and which will be on the dance floor inappropriately trying to touch people. There are all kinds here, but being the creepy, overly-drunk, staring guy with drool and wet pants - means going home with the prettiest girl in the bar is unlikely.

This is the meat market and some people don't have a lot to offer those who are browsing the stalls - either as a range of products or the customer service. Many businesses do better than others because of the people that run them, not what they sell.

Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]