Hive Needs More Devs Than Marketing
A statement we've gotten used to on Hive is that "development takes time". Some people started to question that, especially when developers are paid by the hour from the DHF...
There is quite a serious push on marketing and finding the best marketing strategy on Hive, but I wonder if we haven't reversed the correct order of doing things in enough cases: first have something to show to the world, then show it.
And to have something to show to the world, you generally need developers (and artists, UX/UI designers, etc.). Or business people who hire developers. Yes, content creators can have some impact, but the difference between rough content and a service or a product is that the latter attracts users in other ways inaccessible to content creators directly, and the latter can be built on top of content (or using it) too. It's like an assembled product compared to separate parts or rough materials. It has added value.
Here's where speed is as essential as quality, in a world that moves and changes so quickly. Even some of our top teams on Hive have taken very long building up their products: Splinterlands with Land expansion, 3Speak with SPK Network, INLEO with Project Blank (to give the old name placeholder for Threads), smart contracts on Hive, etc.
I know I'm stating a truism right now, but a way to increase the speed of development on Hive is to have more developers. There is a condition though: the new developers need to have up-to-date tools and documentation that make their job easy, otherwise they won't come or they will be reluctant to come when they have alternatives where these elements are well defined.
It isn't surprising that EVM ecosystems attract 9 out of 10 devs in the crypto space. And even if we look at ecosystems that are more in the spotlight than Hive nowadays, the number of their devs is in the thousands.
That makes things move faster (from the development standpoint) and seem more impressive, even when at the fundamental level they may be not. But things in crypto are more about what is more flashy and new than what is better and built the right way...
In my opinion, other than for awareness purposes, marketing should be pushed when there is something to market, until then, just build. And offer new developers who might join the conditions to learn how to code on Hive quickly without outdated resources.
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I slightly disagree to "first have something to show to the world, then show it".
You need marketing as well, right from the beginning. Look at Nostr. They had millions of users, even at a time when there was hardly a functioning product.
Hive has enough to tell, since years, but people are less interested if they learn that the project is not new but 7 years old.
We should really focus on some key features of Hive. Not creating the 20th game (let´s face it, all except Splinterlands are poorly and cheaply created), but e.g. emphasize the censorship resistance. Some countries in Europe are going straight into totalitarianism (e.g. Germany wants to fordid a large opposition party), the EU wants to act harsh against "disinformation" (aka anything the government doesn´t like), so free speech is more important then ever.
I think that's what marketing shouldn't be: unsubstantiated hype. They added millions of users who hoped to see something they would enjoy. They soon realized nothing was working (or not as advertised) and left. That's how marketing can turn against you. In this case, against Nostr.
I agree that's the reaction, but that's the gambling-type reaction, wanting to catch the perfect 1000x and then retire. At some point, gambling will be less predominant, if for no other reason, because most gamblers would have lost everything.
It is interesting that despite censorship becoming an increasing problem throughout the world and especially in the parts of the world that were used to more freedoms, the discussion about censorship resistance doesn't seem to interest many. Hopefully, that will change, but I don't see much willingness to resist, more toward the opposite: to give up rights in exchange for potential quick gains.
The length of how long a project has existed doesn't really matter. Why is Bitcoin so popular it's so many years old? The issue is the landscape has changed. Before Ethereum everyone was invested in cryptocurrencies/blockchains being used as solely a store of value. Then came Ethereum which dramatically changed the ecosystem with the advent of customizable blockchains.
Hive doesn't even have smart contracts, although @vsc.network will bring that soon. Smart contracts need to be a critical part of part of Hive's narrative. The old narrative is dead. We must adapt if we want to survive. When Hive was originally built it was an amazing feet, now it's behind.
But I think not everyone is interested to know about our lives and our works so we have to make something's private. It's a good platform
I make a point of not talking about things I find too private. And I believe privacy continues to be an issue people don't take too seriously yet.
Hmm
This is nice but how do you think we can have more developers on this platform?
That’s the main thing
Developers can be hired. The problem is to have good business practices that allow keeping them no matter the cycle of the market and that's not always easy. On Hive, I know INLEO was able to successfully do that. Not sure if anyone else kept all devs throughout the bear market.
I can agree, I am very bored of lots of promises and endless token farming and flooding Hive with even more shitposting from games that havent been released yet. My Staking Strategy From Unreleased Game Number 100...
Yeah... I understand what you mean. And if after the hype games don't live up to it, the disappointment is even higher, and tokens crash.
Yes, I still have some starter packs for unreleased games.. but just the token farming is very boring now.
I have some too. From SoulKeep, for example. Eventually, it will be launched, but the excitement might be gone by then.
Hello, @gadrian. I agree with you that Hive needs more devs than marketing. What would be the best way to acquire or recruit more devs for Hive? Thank you and have a nice weekend! Barb !BBH !CTP #ctp
Either hire them for projects that have good business plans, or provide great tools and documentation for devs to come on Hive themselves to build what they want.
Yes those are great ideas @gadrian !BBH !CTP
I agree but at the same time feel like marketing and development should go hand in hand.
They do, but development comes first, and only after that is over, does marketing kick in. Or that's the natural order of things.
Development never ends. 😁
They both come in cycles, if we want to be correct.
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STOPI think I've seen some similar topics before. I think this is a difficult tightrope to balance. I believe Hive needs to have both and at the right amount. We need to market what we have and upcoming, while also building more apps for the current userbase, as well as for those coming in. Developing too much with little userbase leaves the devs underpaid. Marketing too much with little apps to use makes users leave eventually. Hive is more complex compared to other blockchains/tokens. We don't just offer tokenomics. There are different apps and services possible in Hive, and more people and dev just need to see that.
Yes, it is a complex situation, especially when you think about how to pay devs and artists as the products are being developed or before they become popular (if they do). It becomes even more complicated since new models are being tried out in Web 3, that are not yet very successful but at the same time don't depend on VCs or centralized funding.
But, at the same time, marketing a product that is not ready for prime time may work for early adopters, but never works for mass adoption, or even backfires, and the wrong impression is formed that is hard to change afterward.
I think it takes time but I do kind of agree that the DHF funding needs to be looked at again. It doesn't really incentivize people to be independent. Marketing is important but I think it's stale right now. We push the same things every single time and it's not really working out. So we need more appealing applications and reasons for people to come over.
Marketing works if we have that. It might not even be needed as much because people's excitement can be contagious. But it's not enough. As you said, what they are excited about needs to be appealing to someone unbiased coming from the outside.
I think this is a case-by-case situation. In some cases, there isn't another way to incentivize work being done that benefits the entire ecosystem (or the current one is good enough). In other cases, the team should find ways to monetize their product. And finally, I believe the DHF should have a version 2. One thing that is badly needed is the option to be paid by the project (at the end, or after milestones) on top of the option to be paid by the hour.
I think the more developments that Hive has going on, the higher the chances of marketing catching on. Marketing works well to bring in users but it's the developments that makes them stay. Having something to stick around for.
Absolutely! That's the point I was trying to make. Marketing has its purpose and works (when it is done correctly), but once users or customers come in, they must not be disappointed, or they'll leave and all the marketing effort was in vain.
Right. I think seen that way, development becomes more important than marketing, as it is the first step or foundation in which marketing can rest on, so to speak.
Definitely an article worth reblogging. HIVE can spend 200,000 HBD per day on development and that could cover up the payment for 1-2 developers for an year depending on where they are from. We are fully capable of hiring 100 developers to build on HIVE. The DHF has the funds and there are a great many things to be built on top of HIVE (such as smart contracts).
I still consider marketing to be important to grow what is already on HIVE. @splinterlands and @leofinance can use more marketing funds to onboard users IMHO. Having more DAPPs will make provide get more out of the new users. If a user get bored with @splinterlands and that is all they cared about, we loose the user. If there were dozens of games available, that user may stick around and even invest more of their funds.
I think our developers are asking less per day/year from the DHF, so don't give them ideas, lol.
The thing with DHF is that is quite difficult to access funding as a new developer/team (to Hive), without the backing of someone highly influential on Hive (and even then, it's not always guaranteed unless we are talking about someone like blocktrades).
Of course it is. Marketing always has its place and always will. But I like how Matt from Splinterlands approaches things, for example. He doesn't want to push Splinterlands again (not hard anyway) until they have the player experience revamped. What's the point of bringing in new players, if there is a chance you lose many of them once they come in? He also wants to do collaborations, because he said that's what worked the best in the past for Splinterlands, unlike other types of marketing. Here's something else: land, even if it's working already, it's something I wouldn't market now. I would market it when Land 2.0 is launched.
Other products need to be marketed continuously, but in a way that doesn't become tiring to the audience. For example, I am not an X expert, far from it, but I would somehow bring up the ad revenue paid already by LeoAds and how easily accessible is by comparison.
If we could have a DAO owned VC like structure that can allocate funds to smaller projects to create prototypes and test out ideas, we could help new developers better.
This makes a lot of sense. The plans for developing a new player experience has been around for a long time. I have seen many players complain about the difficulty understanding the game. I do think a moderate amount of Land 1.6 marketing towards a metaverse audience could yield results.
That is an idea. In a way, that's how Value Plan works, except it doesn't fund development. The question is if it is desired to delegate the micromanaging of the allocation and control of funds for some types of projects through a pool of funds similar to Value Plan. And who will actively manage it? It is a lot of work from what the 2 people actively running Value Plan say.
I got the idea from seeing what Dash was doing with their DAO funds man years ago. Value Plan is doing the same type of thing. The most important part is trust. If DHF can fund few trustworthy people to invest in smaller projects to test out ideas, it could make a massive difference IMHO.
I think these "VC Managers" should be paid well for their efforts. If they are from countries with a lower cost of living, DHF can get a very good deal.
If I had to pick a person, I would nominate @ecoinstant. He would be amazing for a job like this.
I think the platform would profit more by prioritising developers over marketing though both are important. This is necessary to have a very functional platform. Then marketers can build on that. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
Marketing can work well (for a while, at least) with a good or a bad product. The problem is that once the users come in, if the product is bad, you lose them, and marketing is done in vain. That's why focusing on how the product looks and works is more important than marketing it. A great product almost markets itself. That doesn't mean it shouldn't be marketed, quite the opposite, but at the right times, to make a great impression instead of a bad one.
You would not believe the hours I've spent trying to dig through the developer docs...it's absolute misery (even basic syntax and return types are omitted, and the SDKs won't work with new versions of NodeJS - and the devs refuse to fix it, I've asked - and the tutorials immediately depend on dHive so you need another dependency...). If I wasn't already in too deep, I would have given up on it a long time ago.
!PIZZA
That's unfortunate because we can see there's competition for blockchain devs, and they can pick and choose. One of the reasons why I decided to write this post was the proposal of good-karma, regarding updating documentation. It's good that he wants to update documentation, but that implies that documentation is not up-to-date to begin with. And maybe experienced devs in the Hive ecosystem know how to handle the changing code, APIs, and specs without needing proper documentation for them, but for someone new, it is a nightmare, for sure.
$PIZZA slices delivered:
@definethedollar(1/20) tipped @gadrian
That's right, this project needs marketing and if it is marketed properly, we will see that the world will have a lot of interest in this project and in time it will be more popular around the world.
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You are probably right about the need for devs above all, but I think we need all of the above. We need more excitement and experimentation.
From what I can see, what we really need is to push back on overbearing enforcers like Hivewatchers and the Karens around here that call the cops on other users all the time. I've done a little bit of digging around over the last week or two and evidence suggests to me that we have been hemorrhaging users, even big stake ones like crazy over the past couple of years. I almost left with my stake and I still might.
Anyway. Good point. Ty
Absolutely! We can only move forward if we experiment, push limits, and try new things. Especially in a field as new and dynamic as crypto.
Yes, I've seen this subject brought up frequently, regarding the "corrections" applied through downvotes. If they were justified all the time, maybe the pushback wouldn't be as hard, but there are often cases of mistaken (BIG) downvotes, whale disagreements that may end up in downvote wars with collateral casualties, or spite downvotes, which all leave behind a bad taste in the mouths of those affected and their friends.
And yes, I believe they are one reason why some people left us, unfortunately.
I think there were some brief discussions at CTT about changing them, and how to change them to still exist as a possibility to control abuse, but also make them cost voting power, for example.
This is a heated topic. Keeping downvotes the same, changing them, or removing them completely, each option would have strong supporters and some serious arguments too.
Regarding Hivewatchers itself, maybe I don't understand exactly how they work, but I looked at their latest report from December and found some users being reported for 'unverified identity' (not 'identity theft'/'deception'!), for example, which to me seems strange on a platform like Hive, without KYC.
Very true. We need a lot of developers and the good thing is developers can actually be hired which makes it also easy. Marketing work is not helping that much for the blockchain now. We need developers
Marketing also helps, but it needs something "to market". If that something is solid, it's a great foundation for the marketing to have long-lasting results, and not just short bursts of rising interest until the reality behind the marketing campaign becomes known.