Creating Content on the Blockchain Part 2 -- Taking Your First Steps
This post is part of a series I’m building to help beginners on Hive learn the basics. My goal is to help you to get a base to build on your time on the platform.
I ended yesterday’s post by telling you today was going to be about building a following and creating content. As I thought more about creating building blocks of knowledge for you, I realized you need a foundation first.
Today is more bricks and a first step toward building a following.
Hive has an ever growing ecosystem. With a base to start from, you’ll be able to branch out and find what matters to you.
Covered So Far
- Suggested places to get your account
- Your keys and the importance of protecting them
- Hive is one account with multiple places to login
- Hive Keychain
- Hive, Hive Power (HP) and Hive Backed Dollar (HBD)
- Resource Credits
- Getting HP to get started
A Note About Visibility
What you do on the blockchain can be seen by all. What you post, comment, even your wallet transactions can be seen by anyone exploring your account.
Deleting content will only remove it from being easily seen, but can still be found by anyone using a block explorer.
Govern yourself accordingly when choosing what you put on the blockchain.
Where to Post
Hive has a wide array of places you can post. To avoid getting overwhelmed, do your first posts on the front-end you signed up on. Then explore from there as you get comfortable.
I do most of my posting from PeakD.com so I’ll be using it as an example. Most of what I am going to walk you through can be found on other frontends.
Frontends
I hear that, what’s a frontend question.
The Hive blockchain is like the engine that runs all the d’apps in the ecosystem. You could say it’s the backend. So a front-end is anything that gives you access to the chain.
PeakD.com and Ecency.com are both frontends. There are many others. Some have a specific purpose and you can only post content related to the purpose. Most of the specialized frontends let you earn other tokens in addition to Hive. I’ll get into that later.
Not every frontend is for posting content. There are specialized ones that we’ll explore later. Let’s keep on the track of posting content on the blockchain.
Once You’ve decided which frontend you’re going to post on, then you’ll decide if you’re going to post in a community, your personal blog or both.
Communities
Anyone on Hive can create a community where people with like interests can post. They establish their own rules and can moderate posts in the community. You can subscribe to any community you like.
Your Profile Page
Now might be a good time to give you a brief tour of your profile page. I’m using PeakD in this example but you’ll find what I’m explaining on most of the frontends. Their interface will likely display them in different places.
As you can see, you can personalize your profile with an avatar and header image. You can also add some information about yourself. To do this, click on ACCOUNT ACTIONS and select EDIT ACCOUNT PROFILE. I’ll cover the how in another part of this guide.
1. BLOG
This is your personal blog. If you create content using the create post button and don’t post into a Community it will show here. When posting in a Community, you can also choose to have it show on your blog as well.
If you reblog someone else’s post it will show on this feed.
I suggest you use the reblogging feature very sparingly, especially when you’re starting out. Reblog a post you really love by all means. Just keep in mind, if you’re not regularly posting yet, those reblogs will bury your own posts.
2. ALL POSTS
Every post you make on the blogchain will show up in this tab. It wont matter what frontend you use, it will show up here. Choosing to not have a community post show up in your blog will not stop it from being entered here.
3. REPLIES
Here you’ll find two options, COMMENTS & REPLIES.
Comments are what you’ve left on other people’s posts.
Replies are your responses to people leaving comments on your posts.
4. OTHERS
Here you’ll find several options:
- Connections — you’ll find several options, the most important for now is, FOLLOWERS & FOLLOWING
- Subscriptions — shows you which Communities you are subscribed to
- Notifications — notice of interactions with you
- Payouts — your posts and comments with rewards on payout after 7 days, this will show you what is coming up for payout.
- Activities — the latest transactions on the chain involving your account can be found here
- Wallet — will take you to your Hive wallet
5 ACCOUNT
You’ll find links to items on your profile like your blog, posts, replies, wallet and a dashboard to many other parts of your account.
You’ll want to explore the dashboard to get a sense of what you can do on PeakD (and possible other frontends). There are several ways to manage your account found on the dashboard.
6. NOTIFICATIONS
These can be reached under the OTHERS tab as well as from here. It’s personal choice how you access them.
7. The Pencil
Clicking on this pencil icon takes you to a drop down menu with items related to creating a post which is first on the list. If you explored the dashboard under ACCOUNT, you’ll recognize the items there.
Take a bit of time to explore the interface. It’s your window to the content creation part of the blockchain.
Wrapping up this Part
I’m keeping each part of this guide to 1000 words or less to give you a chance to catch your breath and explore what has been presented.
If you’re anxious to get going, start exploring others posts and leave some meaningful comments.
This will get you introduced to others and you’ll be able to see the wide scope of content available.
Following Others
As you explore the content on the platform, follow people who have content you find interesting. That gives you a list of people to return to regularly to see if they have published anything.
Don’t expect follow for follow.
Don’t ask for follows.
It’s considered bad manners.
NOTES:
- Header image by author
- This is day 24 of 30 in the #HiveBloPoMo Challenge for April.
Shadowspub is a writer from Ontario, Canada. She writes on a variety of subjects as she pursues her passion for learning. She also writes on other platforms and enjoys creating books you use like journals, notebooks, coloring books etc.
Would you like to receive writing prompts every day? You can subscribe to Prompt A Day to get started.
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So nice to have a Hive sherpa @shadowspub ! Thank you for setting up base camp and leading the ascent.
That's an interesting analogy. I hope we all have enough oxygen with us to thrive on the height's of Mount Hive
I would also add
Don’t expect upvote to upvote.
Don’t ask for upvote.
Organic growth is healthy and sustainable.
Posted Using LeoFinance Beta
thanks @nathanmars I haven't talked much about upvoting yet, will do that more in the posting part and will keep your comment in mind.
Tell that to @clixmoney, he will disagree.
If you really drop a lot of time into creating, it's probably ok to ask for likes and follows.
Yeah, I do my best to write quality content. Even if I'm tired, or don't have many ideas. The web is so big, and we can always consume something to create, or just share our experience about anything. Also, I'm doing my best to support tags in hive. You can see how many participants we have in #dcc. At least 10 people are participating every week. I wish more people join us, but even now it's ok. So, if you'll have any opportunity to promote the contest I'm running every week, you can do that to help us. I usually upvote all the entries with my account and @dcooperation. I wish to see more of those entries, so I'll be able to support more people. Because I'm not that active curating, so at least I have some time to check #dcc tag every week. But it's not a general tag, we have some rules to use it. You can check the tag we are supporting this week, and we support a new tag every week : DCC tag contest - Let's support #travel.
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He can disagree all he wants, its rude and not at all encouraged on Hive. Earn the follow.
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I understand why people would feel unsure about asking for an upvote or even a reblog, yet there are Hivers going back to the earliest days of Steemit who still ask for either or both. I just figured "if it's good for them, it's good for me."
It's like selling a product in a store and then near the end you "ask for the sale." It seems obvious, yet it's amazing how many people go through the trouble to sell a good or service only to then drop the ball by failing to follow up by asking for the sale.
In both cases, here is what makes the practice of asking OK: you provided value with your post. You answered a question, addressed a concern, pointed the reader in the right direction, gave good advice, engaged well with others, made the reader LOL after the reader had a rough day, etc. If the reader felt good after reading the post, the reader won't think anything about being asked for an upvote or a reblog.
If a post is just tag spam or emoji soup, though, then asking for an upvote or a reblog is asking for trouble.
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Good writeup, I got to know some things which I should have known earlier, like my excessive rebloging.
Thanks a lot.
I don't know how many times I've looked at a new person's profile and see nothing but reblogs. As a recent person on the chain said when I told her that.. her answer was 'so don't do like Twitter'.. I thought it was a great comment.
Excellent advice. That may change in the near future, but for now it's excellent advice.
Until recently, I hadn't understood how valuable reblogs were as a form of engagement. It's a way of gaining visibility with a larger audience. It's also a way of attracting attention (however unexpected) of someone with high stake who saw value in the reblog of so-and-so's post-- or even the actual high-stake blogger.
If someone's blog is only reblogs with no content at all, that would be a concern. Even then, there could be a valid reason for that. For me it's May 2022, not September 2017; much has changed in how we view certain things.
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https://twitter.com/ShadowsPub/status/1518319812757360641
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Cool Cool, looking forward to the next part.
Great write up. I do love to reblog. I should probably slow it down. It's hard not to sometimes, I find! I will have to consider why that is.
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Thank you very much for this series, @shadowspub ! It really helps!
I have a question in regard to Publishing and Communities. I've joined several communities related to my interests. If I understood you right, every time I write something I can choose one of these communities to post my content, right? I mean, I don't need extra permission every time I post something in a particular community, right?
that's right ... as long as your post is within the rules of the community then just post. Don't forget to visit some of the others in the community and engage with them.
Thank you!
This was incredibly helpful. Thank you so much!