Curation on Hive: The Length and Breadth

in #hive-1538503 years ago

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The Hive blockchain is a unique blockchain that rewards its users in every possible way. The most common way of earning rewards on the Hive blockchain is through the curation process.

In this first episode of the Hive Library, #HLIB series, I will be detailing the concept of curation as applied to the Hive blockchain.

This #HLIB article will focus on the following key areas:

  • What is Proof of Brain?
  • What is curation?
  • Who is a curator?
  • What does curation involve?
  • What does it feel like to be a curator?
  • What is the implication of vote begging, plagiarism, and content recycling on the curation process?

Proof of Brain

To establish the need for curation on the Hive Blockchain, we have to establish what Proof of Brain is (not the proofofbrain.io - POB, community).

To begin with, you have to appreciate that cryptosystems and blockchains work with different methods of validating and rewarding activities on respective blockchains. Among them are the following:

  • Proof of Work (PoW) is the traditional mining process for cryptocurrencies.

  • Proof of Stake (PoS) is a method in which authority is given to the highest holder of crypto on the block to validate new blocks.

There are others, including Proof of Authority (PoA), Proof of Capacity (PoC), Proof of Activity (PoAc), and Proof of Burn (PoBn). Some acronyms have been made by me

All of the above are known as consensus mechanisms, as they all involve some computer-based algorithm to validate activities on the blockchain and reward its users.

In 2017, the Proof of Brain system started to become a thing. Here, activities are rewarded based on human judgement of worth.

The Proof of Brain (PoB) was a system designed to reward content creators and content curators. It is a token system designed to reward users when they contribute to a token-based community such as Steemit and Hive.

The Steem blue paper says it all about how the Proof of Brain system operates:

The users who produce content are adding value to the network by creating material that will drive new users to the platform, as well as keep the existing users engaged and entertained. This aids in distributing the currency to a wider set of users and increases the network effect. The users that take the time to evaluate and vote on content are playing an important role in distributing the currency to the users who are adding the most value. The blockchain rewards both of these activities relative to their value based on the collective wisdom of the crowd collected through the stake-weighted voting system.
Steem Bluepaper

From this, we could easily conclude that the Proof of Brain system rewards users based on their intellectual abilities. First, their ability to create educational and entertaining content; and secondly, through their ability to judge the worth of content, which is the curation process.

What is Curation?

On the Hive blockchain, the word "curation" is constantly being tossed around. Just a kind reminder:

Curation is the process of judging and assigning worth/value to a piece of content shared on the Hive blockchain.
@zestimony

Remember, Hive operates a Proof of Brain (PoB) consensus mechanism, which means that, unlike other methods of reaching consensus on blockchains, which require more automated inputs, fellow humans (me and you) browse through the blockchain and judge whether or not the contents being shared are worth it. If they are judged as worthy, they are assigned value through upvotes.

The whole of this process in which users on the Blockchain scan through contents shared (posts) and assign them value through votes is called curation [a vote is a vote, whether up or down].

Who is a Content Curator?

A curator curates. He/she is the one who looks over the contents on the blockchain and assigns them value. In this context, we are all content curators as well as content creators. So, you are not just a blogger, but you are a curator as well.

However, as individual curators, our vote value almost always amounts to nothing significant in terms of token rewards, though, it does good for our reputation.

However, we most likely consider whales with huge voting power as the main curators. Even if this is not correct, it is not entirely wrong in itself.

Most communities on the Hive blockchain will assign the task of curation to a few trusted members of the community who have been tested and trusted to have a good sense of judgment.

It is only by using their judgments that a post will receive significant curation rewards, most likely, from a whale.

What does curation involve?

Curation involves a lot:

  • It requires the curator to practically read through the whole text that makes up part of the post shared, then make sense of it.

  • The curator also has to use plagiarism checkers to confirm whether or not the content shared is plagiarism-free.

  • The curator will look carefully at individual images and their sources to ensure that any sort of copyright infringement has not occurred.

  • The curator also looks out for the level of engagement in the post to give him/her a clue of the level of community interest in the content shared.

  • The curator may also provide feedback to the content writer on the state of their post and possible corrections that must be made before the post may gain curation rewards.

  • The content curator also keeps records of users who violate one or more community guidelines and advises on possible penalties.

  • Carry out other community-specific tasks and much more.

What does it feel like to be a curator?

I have not served as a curator here on Hive, but I have a clue about what it could feel like. First of all, it is a very taxing endeavour, having to read through posts shared by a myriad of users and even provide constructive and useful feedback a few times.

The curator, along with the myriads of tasks he/she handles, also has to deal with handling cases of vote begging, blatant infractions of community guidelines, and much more.

Being a curator requires patience, a good sense of judgement, analytical and critical thinking, a good sense of justice, high intellect and cognitive capacity, and much more.

What is the implication of vote begging, plagiarism and content recycling to the curation process?

Vote begging, plagiarism, and unethical content recycling are what I describe as anti-curation practices. These practices, first of all, defy the fundamental idea of a Proof of Brain System system, are intellectual theft and even defile ethics.

Starting with plagiarism, which is basically the same as content theft, damages the reputation of the one caught in this act, it also places the Hive blockchain in a delicate position, and at risk of legal intervention.

Vote begging is basically trying to influence the choice of the curator, asking him/her to assign a value to your content based on your judgement of your worth. Everyone is independent of their thoughts and reasoning, so, any attempt to infringe on it is also infringing on their fundamental rights as humans. Vote begging is basically an attempt to cut corners and escape the curation process. Let's say no to this.

Unethical content recycling is trying to get rewards for a post shared that has already been duly rewarded in the past. If a post was not rewarded previously, it may be appropriate to recycle it clearly stating the reason for this, and this is, of course, appropriate if the community permits. Posts that are recycled verbatim after some years or months with the hope that they cannot be detected are considered plagiarised and will receive the same consequences as plagiarised content. I think communities need to decide on what ethical and unethical content recycling implies.

Final Words and Outlook

So far, it has been established that the Hive blockchain thrives on two major activities: content creation and content curation. Both activities require active involvement by all parties involved—the creators and curators.

In the next #HLIB series, we will be exploring the source of curation rewards. Concepts such as a curation trail, the role of delegation in curation rewards, and much more will be explored.

Thanks for indulging yourself in this. Peace out!



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Your feedback is appreciated. Is there something I haven't said correctly? Is there an addition you feel is important? Do you have any questions? Feel free to comment below.

Please, tag your friends to be part of this series. Hopefully, there will be an #HLIB episode weekly.

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This post is quality on all from. Curation is tricky, can be difficult for most people who don't understand the technicalities. Well-done there.

@tipu curate for your efforts

Thanks a lot for your feedback.

You have put in alot of work in here. More knowledge about curation which I know nothing about. Well-done!

Thanks bro for finding this insightful. I'm working on a lot more over weeks and months to come. I hope you still find the future episodes helpful.

Definitely. I will be on the lookout.

Thanks for stopping by!

You're welcome

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I find this post very insightful and helpful, especially how you connected proof of brain to curation and also the guidelines curator look out for. Plagiarism and vote Begging should be frowned at.

Thanks a lot for stopping by. A bit of enlightenment here and there is always good. I hope to do a lot more on several other topics on this series.

You are becoming very vast on Hive and making your personal research.. It is good for you and you can see, you are becoming to grow steadily here on Hive!

I'm learning from my boss na, my Hive mentor, @Starstrings01. Even if I go no further than this on the Blockchain, or I go way more heights above this, I'm forever greatful for your kind efforts and support.
Thanks for being at every single step of my way to the top. Just noticed my reputation is at 58 already.

Yay! 🤗
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Being new here, this post helps tremendously to understand the curation aspect. Well written, concise and clear. Thank you so much.

You're welcome @nthtv. I'm pleased you enjoyed every part of it. Thanks for stopping by!

The post explains many aspects of the Hive blockchain quite well. It is well organized and detailed. I have some questions though @zestimony .

Why have you used hl-exclusive tag for this post? So far I know, the tag is for the weekly contests of the community, Isn't it?

I have another question about which I am confused. Does content recycling includes the posts that are published on other platforms or does it mean publishing one post post on Hive twice? There are some posts that I published on another platform that is now died. I am not bringing it here because of the fear that it might not fall in the category of content recycling?

How it feels like to be a curator? It feels to be in a great responsibility, especially when a trail is following you.

Though, I'll appreciate it if I'm allowed to use this tag for this series. But for now, I've removed it.

I don't know about it. You should ask this question from the moderators in HL server

It's alright. I've spoken with one of them, and they insisted I removed it. So, I've done so.

Thanks @amberkashif for stopping by. For the #hl-exclusive tag. I've removed it from the post. Though, my intention was to make this series exclusive to the Hive Learners community.. and I felt the HL-EXCLUSIVE tag was for all posts exclusive or specially designed for the Hive Learners community.

Sincere apologies if I have broken any rules. I've corrected it.

In view of post recycling, I've adviced that communities make rules to govern that. Because, there are many loopholes to this. First, as you've said you have other contents outside Hive which if you share here will turn out to be plagiarized. But they are yours, so you're not placing the Blockchain at any risk.

So, that's a gap. Communities may choose the following options:

  • Allow post recycling for posts that curation rewards didn't amount to a specific amount decided by the admin and moderators.
  • Allow cross platform post recycling where usernames are exactly the same and it has been clearly stated that post will be shared outside the Blockchain.
  • Allow post recycling for content that has been modified and updated.
  • Allow post recycling for different sharing media. E.g. A post may be made initially as a text, and recycled as a video.

There are a lot of ways to go around this.

Thanks for stopping by!

Sincere apologies if I have broken any rules. I've corrected it.

I am only a member of the community just like you. The moderators can tell you better

Lol. On Hive, it may not always be easy to tell who is who, especially if you use front ends like Ecency. Thanks still.

This is very helpful information especially for beginners such as myself. I recently joined Hive & am a bit overwhelmed by all the information I need to learn. I have already bookmarked this post & will share with others to help them as well! Thank you!

Thanks a lot for finding it useful. I'll be working on more like this hopefully, on a weekly basis, I wish you'll find future ones useful as well.

This is Enlightening honestly.
I think I clearly understand what content recycling means now..
And the other things you talked about too.

But I have been wondering, can one person be a moderator and still be a curator??

And I would love for you to throw more light on what a spam post is.

Thank you for this amazing post
We have learnt from it.

First of all. I'm happy you found the post to be beneficial.

A curator and a moderator could be the same person, they could be different persons as well. It all depends on the administration of the community.

There's nothing special about the moderator's account and a curator's account on Hive. So, in some community, you may notice that one person serves both roles. In others, these roles are divided into different users, which sometimes, in the background, the moderator may be the one controlling the curation account.

However, curators usually have big HP (most of them are whales), so most communities for safety will have moderators separate from curators so they send moderators to curate in terms of checking posts that are worthy of curation, then the moderators will share feedback to the curator who now votes the posts.

For spam posts. Maybe I'll cover this extensively in a later post. But spam posts are one or a combination of these:

  1. They are unsolicited and unwarranted. Imagine going to Leofinance to talk about make-up, that's spam.
  2. They are overly recycled. This is common in the comment section. Where you see some bots make the same comment over and over again.
  3. They are usually of low quality.

Basically, once a content, be it a comment or post is irrelevant to where it is being shared and unsolicited, it's spam.

Wow I think I get it now,

I use a think a spam post means to upload two different post in a particular community in the same day..

For spam posts. Maybe I'll cover this extensively in a later post. But spam posts are one or a combination of these:

Please do if you can, it will be helpful.
Thank you so much for the explanation.

You're welcome dear.

it is a very taxing endeavour

While reading the functions of a curator, I knew it is a tasking work. Curators are really trying especially when you have to scan posts, check if they are plagiarism free and the use of image sources are done correctly. I really give kudos to the curators here on Hive because it isn't an easy work and it is more tasking if such person has an offline Job. Thanks for the explanation 👍

Thanks Princess for stopping by. The curation process Isa really tough one, I even believe strongly that most curators have to work full time on the Blockchain.

I hope to do more of these contents in the future. And reception from persons like u is a motivation.

Smiles
I shall be looking forward to more from you then. Thank you 😊

Welcome Princess. For this #hlib series, I'll be your prince 😅

Hahahaha. No wahala