I've been here for a few weeks now and I thought I'd offer my thoughts about it, which are mixed. Then, that's my nature - I tend to see everything on balance, recognising both pros and cons. Bottom line, I can't help but like Blurt, otherwise I wouldn't be here. I like crypto socials - primarily, Hive became my home after the Great Steem Fiasco, and I still love Hive - and nor do I think people should have to choose loyalty to one or the other or be berated if they do.
I post a little differently here. I thought I'd just copy and paste my Hive stuff over to save myself the work of being original on both platforms, like many do, but it turns out I only do that about ten percent of the time, and the other 90 percent I'm either changing one post or another to fit where I'm posting, adding or removing content, or I'm writing completely different things here. There's a lot more short form here - and really short, sometimes just one photo (what's that all about) which kinda bugged me at first. Was that even worth anyone's upvote? But sure, it's a free Blurt world, whatever. I do miss longer reads, but then, how much time does anyone have? It's kinda refreshing to read a few paragraphs, comment a little, and move on. Liberating, even. I'm enjoying doing shorter form myself - and I think that's the only way I can juggle two platforms the way I am.
The tag thing drives me crazy here. It's impossible to find stuff you like and if everyone's using #dailyblurt or whatever the main tags are, how do you sort it by interest? I'm having to find a post that I'm interested in and hope they have the tags I like, then click on those, to get to a place I want to be. Ugh. Maybe someone has a better way of doing this. My internal clipboard nazi comes out and thinks - why are you using THAT tag? Why don't you use a PROPER tag? But I guess Blurt is young on the wheel.
Blurt isn't as well developed as I would have hoped, but on balance, that could be a good thing - there's lots of potential to get it right. I do appreciate the lack of the downvote button because I've seen how it can be abused, and believe in the power of 'scroll on by' and don't say anything, hoping they'll just go away because they aren't getting the rewards. As I'm not right at the end of the complete-liberty-at-all-costs spectrum, I don't mind the idea of the COAL list as I believe, as @practicalthought so eloquently put it, that the owners of this platform do need to protect their interests and reputation a little. If someone's going around harrassing people or constantly being a prick, perhaps being voted onto the COAL list after some negotiation protects the rest of us from such a shitshow. I do understand it's an imperfect solution, but in the absence of a better solution, I can't see why that can't work for now.
I'm not getting as much engagement here as I would like, but then that can take some time - it took me a while on HIVE and even now some posts are liking shouting into the great void. Again, I think tags and communities help with this - you end up with tight groups of people really engaged with particular content rather than scrolling through trying to find something you might be remotely interested in.
I'm including a pic of my bike that hubs reconditioned for me so I can use the #colourchallenge tag for Friday Blue :P
I'm still not keen on the angry man face - I never really have been, ever since Blurt started, and I think there's room for someone to do a really professonal logo that is a little less underwhelming. The angry face is kinda hostile, but I guess the nice thing is that once you're here, you realise Blurt isn't hostile at all - I've been greeted and treated with nothing but kindness, and that's really awesome. I hope it stays that way. Still learning, still growing!
I also still post in hive and I think good and bad people could be everywhere, just like in real life.
I have the #dcc initiative, and I'm afraid of people will not be able to participate in it, because it's support tags and I would like it to work in blurt as well.
I hope developers like @tekraze will see a very important issue to solve in blurt, and they will fix it. I'm sure they will find a solution or maybe create the interface where tags will work better. Maybe @imransoudagar can tell us about blurt.live. Maybe tags works there better ? I don't know. Tags are one of the most important things to care about in a social media. I hope we'll find a solution.
Tags are related to blockchain, so all frontends have a similar issue until fixed. We discussed of some other way of doing that, but that has not yet been implemented.
Hope it's sorted soon as it would make a massive difference..
The logo makes you want to put a smile on its face…
See, that's immediately better! That grumpy face isn't doing anyone any favours. Love this version. I might start using it on things if that's okay, until something better comes along!
I love that short posts get attention and rewards! I'd have to spend many hours on a post on Hive that would earn $40. $20 to me for four hours of work?! It has gotten tiring, literally. And I had to watch what I said, or I wouldn't even earn that much.
I agree on that logo. It's really bad.
I LOVE the freedom of speech. No one berates me or tries to humiliate me for speaking my truth. Hive has gone sour for me simply because of a few accounts openly harassing me for my views. I was never downvoted terribly hard, but as I said, I watched what I said there. I said one of those things here, and got into trouble there! Something is very wrong at Hive at present. I hope it resolves. I hope it becomes as kind as Blurt is, because I miss having that wind in my sails.
I agree with all you said. There's a lot of alternative folk being censored and whether we agree with their views or not, or whether others agree with ours, is a moot point. I've been a bit shocked about how the alternative health bloggers were talked about behind the scenes which I thought was very off and it's a real shame it got that way.
Freedom of speech is awesome, harrassment never is - that why I I am on spectrum of freedom of speech as it CAN go too far, and Im not ever an absolutist.
Yeah I thought the short posts were kinda wierd but now I really love them - more of a true social media!
Ha, glad you agree on the logo. It needs to go to a vote and someone needs to design a better one! Easy fixed.
I've thought of Blurt as growing and as such there may be teething areas, but as early adopters, we get to be a part of shaping it. And I know it's a ways out since Blurt was started, but I still like to think that we're early.
Like you mentioned, I also feel like I'd like to have a bit more engagement, but I'm hopeful in that area that it will improve with time. I'm still testing different content so we'll see what works.
In terms of engagement, I also try to be the change by commenting on other people's posts and upvoting, lending support as I can. Beyond the platform, I am also trying to explain Blurt to people in my community off social media to get them into web3 writing.
Also, a good thing about Blurt, I think there are stakeholders (I don't know how else they can be described) who try to encourage interaction, reblog our posts, etc.. I don't know if maybe something else can be done to get people to engage with each other. I think the concept of communities is a great idea.
I like the fact that you can have posts of different lengths and still be upvoted though honestly, I tend to write longer texts for the most part. And as to using both Hive and Blurt, I'm on both platforms as well and enjoy each platform for different reasons.
I'm trying to do my bit by commenting more as well, even if it's one line. So I'll always try to comment on your posts where I can as I like your stuff! I've started @gardendiary to try to help with a community engagement thing, I hope it does help - I'm the kind of person who likes to pitch in if I like something and you know me, I love nature, so it makes me happy to support it both on Hive and here.
I think we're definitely on the same page!
Yeah. I’m on Blurt and Hive … and even Olde Steemit since I have some very good friends that stayed behind … I’m also on Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, Dtube, HideoutTV, Minds, Appics, Publish0X, Facebook and a million other places. I’m an artist / photographer / filmmaker …. So I share my work absolutely everywhere. Everywhere … that’s just what artists do.
Do you have time for real life, lol? YOu're kinda like me. I'm on Insta and Facey as well.
I spend 99 % of my day walking Lola or pulling weeds. 1% posting stuff.
Bloody weeds 🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌻🌻
If only we could eat them. Or make wine with them.
NOw there's a challenge!
I love the Blurt Logo. It’s kind of cynical and sarcastic …
It’s the opposite of what Blurt is ….
Type the word “censored” and you get this icon…. 🤬
So we got angry about censorship ( that exists everywhere…. Not just Hive ) and we created Blurt …. We came out the other side….. to happiness.
We can just Blurt out whatever we want and be Happy.
This is a bit silly but it makes me happier - like rising above censorship and smiling.
That is much better. 😊
Aw, thanks!