A Gentle Touch with New Hiveians

Both of my sons were gifted a kaleidoscope from their grandparents for Easter. We tried to show our youngest son that if he held it up to the light, looked through it, and turned it, it would make pretty different color patterns.

Of course, he was having none of that. He was mesmerized by the fact that the top half could be extended out and then pushed back in to make it longer or shorter. We tried to show him how to "properly" use it and he just ran away to a safe distance where he could play with it how he wanted, and keep an eye on us to make sure we wouldn't come try to take it away.

My wife made the comment, "That's the difference between boys and girls."

I sarcastically replied, "Yeah, girls want to see something pretty, and boys just want to churn butter." 🤣

As I sat there and watched him play, it got me to thinking about life in general, and how we try to do the same thing to others when we think they should be doing something a certain way. We try to get them to do it "the right way," when often times it really doesn't matter. If we keep pushing, it could drive others away.

New Hiveians
I don't know if "Hiveian" is even the correct term, but I'm using it anyway and asking for forgiveness later if I'm wrong. With the crypto bull market drawing more people to Hive with the allure of being rewarded for their posts, we have a great opportunity to grow Hive.

Much like with my son, however, we don't want to get caught up in making sure they're doing things "the right way." That's not to say we excuse things like plagiarism, not citing sources and images, using AI to generate their content, etc. I'm referring to the nuances of Hive, like joining communities, posting in communities instead of just directly to your own blog, using proper tags, grammar, etc.

Gentleness
This was something @grindan touched on when she and I were chatting in #thealliance Discord a few nights ago. While we want new Hiveians to avoid major errors like deliberate plagiarism, we also don't want to be so overbearing in our insistence that every rule be kept to a monastic level of obedience that we turn people away.

Gaming The System
While gentleness is important, we also don't want to enable and encourage those who show they are simply here to take everything they can while giving nothing back. While I've only encountered a small handful of people like this, Hive as a whole is fairly swift in handing out downvotes to those who aren't here to engage.

Finding The Balance
The challenge is in finding the balance between no correction, overcorrection and encouragement. None of us are perfect, but I like to think it's better to err on the side of encouragement.

An alternative that can work is what I call "The Sandwich." Start with encouragement, AKA the fluff or bread, which in and of itself isn't sustaining but is enjoyable. Next, add the constructive criticism, AKA the meat and cheese. Finally, end it on a positive note with more encouragement.

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I'm partial to this method, simply because it offers criticism in small, easy to swallow doses, without crushing a person's enthusiasm and making them think they're providing nothing of value.

As we encounter new Hiveians, let's start first by befriending and encouraging, and then start "serving up sandwiches" with both encouragement and constructive criticism!

Do you have a different method you prefer? If so, what is it, and how have you seen it be successful in practice? I'd love to hear your thoughts!

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