Quality instead of Quantity - Cleaning out in my Follow List
When was the last time you looked at all the Hive accounts you follow? How about the following lists of other hiveans?
Let me guess: it was pretty long ago, if ever. But maybe that's exactly what I should do. Maybe we all should do that, on a regular basis...
The other day I saw an important point raised by @cryptictruth in this post, which resonated with me immediately. (Btw, you can see the same sentiment expressed by @bozz in this post.) He talks about the Hive blues I have been feeling myself. General discouragement from seeing the price drop further and further, projects that get started but are going nowhere, and old time hiveans becoming inactive and slowly fading away.
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But not him, and not me, either! After all, we're not here to cash out our HIVE, so the price is little more than a indicator for how well the blockchain is doing generally. Also, we've seen our share of projects rise and fall, in the same way how community members appear, get their time to shine, and then stop, for whatever reason. No... Long term hiveans like us will probably stay online until we're forced to become witnesses because nobody else remains. (That's a joke! If that ever happened, I would probably fold the towel.)
But what can we do to re-ignite our enthusiasm for Hive? After all, the whole downward spiral does have a discouraging effect on us. The answer is community! Which hiveans do we have a connection to? Who are the folks we actually still interact with? He even asked me for a list of names of friends or people I always support, so each one of us can head over to them and start a conversation. What a neat idea! But don't we have such a list already?
That's right, it's our follow list! Not the thousands of our "Followers" (yeah, right! Numbers have never been this deceiving.) but our followees, that is, people we are Following. Mine was a proud number of close to 500. And that's part of the problem right there...!
Who are those multitudes anyway? Many of them go waaay back to the very beginnings of my blogging adventure. Most of them I picked up in some discussion or other, which I frankly don't even remember. Lots and lots of them bring back wonderful memories of the last nine years on the blockchain. And yes, the vast majority have not posted in over a year. Sad!
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So I decided to get rid of everyone, except for those accounts that are still active, and I still engage with in one form or another. Following is easy and well received, but unfollowing someone? That usually requires a really good reason. So far, this has been only the case for a real jerk move. Honestly, you can't blame a blogger for just fading away... or taking a bit of a hiatus. But no longer! In the interest of those who are still here, I am unfollowing anyone who looks like they are not. If they (ever) come back, I'm sure I will notice eventually, depending on their activity. Or so I hope, at least...
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So I started the clicking task of unfollowing. Four clicks per account, so ten accounts took me more than a minute. It felt like decluttering a drawer full of stuff I don't use any more, but didn't throw out because they keep hanging on, either in the future (I may still use it someday) or the past (oh, those sentiments...).
I did not draw a clear line of inactivity. For accounts I did not recognize immediately, a few months of not posting was enough to be unfollowed. For those near and dear ones, the ones I truly hope they will come back, since we've had so many great exchanges, I even left a grace period of more than a year.
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Hours later I brought down my following list to 82. And even here there are exceptions. For example, I kept those handful of people I managed to onboard myself, even though they never even wrote one single post. Also, I still follow my own alt account (which is almost just as inactive). But other than that, these are the folks who remained. Still, I guess they are way too many for others to simply check them out and see who they are. So here is a list of my top twelve, the hiveans that I've gotten to share numerous memorable exchanges over the years, and are still up and posting:
@city-of-berlin @ecoinstant @erikah @fenngen @heroldius @justinparke @mipiano @revisesociology @riverflows @samstonehill @senorcoconut @travelshots
If YOU read this, and didn't make the list, but think you should have, please drop me a comment! That will most certainly reserve you a very special mention!
Hey, glad to see me on that list. I have also been feeling this sense of Hive being kind of lifeless and this brings in some sense of community. I always log back in to see if I get inspired in some way to continue being here but usually end considering that it's really not worth the time and energy. Thanks for this post, stuff like this are needed to keep things lively!
Nice! I'm so glad my post had the desired effect. Not just on me, but on you as well! I think it's important to stop and consider on a regular basis: why am I here? What is it I want to do? Writing down my stuff I can do for myself, and I would probably do it even if no one was reading them. But the feedback from others... in fact any reaction, that makes it so much more worthwhile. Everything else: rewards, cryptos, projects, investment, all the other stuff are just nice things around it. At least for me.
However, I understand that not everyone has the same reasons. For those who rely on HIVE earnings to supplement their weekly income to make ends meet, I can see that the dropping price is a reason to discontinue. And though it's sad, you can't blame anyone for quitting for that reason.
Silenced by hivewatcher but still here 😉
I'm so glad you're still here in spite of being gagged!
But that makes me feel very concerned. What happened? Do you know WHY you were silenced? How does that work in practice? You can't post, or you don't get rewards? Or do you get a bunch of downvotes? Most importantly, what can you do about it? Is there a way to redeem yourself? How long would such a sanction go on anyway? And is there any way I can help?
Number twelve has several meanings, so I thank you for including me in that top twelve number 😉
Köszi szépen!
Indeed, 12 is a special number, especially if it happens sort of serendipitously. I never decided to pick twelve, I only noticed that the people I have had most contact with ended up being this many (or few!) So congrats, and in fact, thank you too!
Nagyon szívesen!
I recently done this after a stint of inactivity, and it felt pretty good, I started with people who were inactive, but then went even further and unfollowed people that I followed at some point but don't read their current content.
It felt kind of heartless, but I wanted to try and curate who I follow so I can easily find things to read. Also, it was a bit awkward unfollowing people and getting a notification that they unfollowed me back lol
It does feel good, doesn't it? I suppose we all think it's a bit heartless, which is why I find that Stalin meme so fitting. But is it really? If I get a notification that some random account I don't recognize unfollows me, I'd just shrug. I may take a look at their power, and whether I had gotten any support from them, but in the end, oh well. If the same thing happens from someone I know, I would ask them immediately what happened, so communication would be immediately reignited. In either case, it would suggest me to up my game, so in the end it's not bad. Kinda like pruning trees so they'll grow better.
What site did you get this from? I simply used the info from the follow list.
Btw, these are all of the exceptions I've mentioned before: people I've onboarded, my own alt-account, and those who have been gone for not that long, but I'm still holding my breath that they will be back.
Oh, and there's one mistake I must have overlooked: @therising hasn't posted in 7 years. But interestingly, I've been getting some very generous upvotes from them, typically right after I post. I assume it's an autovote, so that would not stop if I unfollowed them, but since they are the only such mistake I made, I'll just leave it for now.
Oh! I use my own private tools to snoop inside the blockchain and see what isn't always easily visible for everyone. For example, I could tell you who has muted you on Hive if you're interested in knowing. You know? LoL
Yeah, I could tell that's true, and all I did was confirm it with my own private exploring tool.
Exactly, the amount of time that those you follow haven't posted is precisely the additional useful information my tool provides that you may not be aware of just by carrying out your pruning, cleaning and sanitation tasks. That's part of the reason why this tool was created.
Yes, these are "autovotes" indeed. But you did well to keep following them, because even though it's a bot account, it's best not to stop following them lest the "autovotes" stop coming too. LoL
Oh, I see... that's the insider scoop you've got. Nice!
You're saying someone has muted me? That is probably even worse than unfollowing! Not sure if I want to know though...
What's more interesting, if there were any other bots like the one I omitted by mistake, that I unfollowed, and now the upvotes will stop coming. Is there a way to find out? And if so, would it work to follow them again?
Exactly, that's the insider scoop that a curious, rebellious and argumentative old Cranky Gandalf needs to have on hand at all times to battle and defeat his enemies and adversaries. Hahahaha
Well, I didn't say you were muted by someone because I haven't checked yet. But if curiosity gets the better of you and you can endure the pain, I can tell you if you decide to find out the naked truth.
Yeah, there is a way to find out. Just wait a while and see if you notice that some of the autovotes you used to receive from those you've unfollowed have stopped. And then try to contact me to tell you exactly who they are so you can follow them again to see if they keep voting your content one more time.
Oh okay, in that case... I'll just go on assuming no one had any reason to mute me. And if they did, who cares, they probably didn't deserve to see my content anyway.
Sure, I'll do that, if it happens.
Well, now I have checked. And I can tell you that there are barely few more than those that could be counted on just one hand, the ones who don't deserve to see your content. But yeah, who the hell cares about those hypocrites?
Okay, I hope you don't have to do it. But if you do, we'll be wandering around.
you aren't following me at all :(
I'm not. Have we connected before? Were you on my list and I've unfollowed you?
I follow you for a while and left a few comments and upvotes.
It was just a comment though... no pressure :P
Personally, I follow some accounts, which rarely post, but when they do, it makes me happy. I wouldn't unfollow for not posting... They don't block my feed, so that's fine.
Thanks for being cool about it. I guess the point I am making here (with my whole post) is that we should not feel bad for unfollowing (or in my case here never starting to follow) someone. I feel my house cleaning really helped me with my own enthusiasm for Hive.
And you know what? Your comment here was also great. I appreciate your upvotes and your comments even more, however, I must admit, your name doesn't ring a bell, and I have no idea which posts you've commented on. (I hope I didn't completely ignore you.) Still, by making this comment here, made me want to check out YOUR profile too. So thank you for that.