My Hive Fest Diary 3c: Day 1 Conference - @macchiata : Belong, Create, Empower
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One of the speakers on the first conference day was @macchiata who, like me, was one of the winners of a free HiveFest Pass (
), so I was interested to hear what she had to say as a content creator and curator from Indonesia.Macchiata spoke about what it means to "belong, create, and empower" on Hive. Her talk centered on two key ideas, community and curation, and how both can help people find their place on the platform.
You might guess from her username that Macchiata likes coffee, and indeed, she compared the Hive experience to coffee in that each of us creates our own flavour, and sometimes sweet and sometimes bitter...
Macchiata has been on Hive (and the previous incarnation) for eight years, and has been actively involved with a bunch of curation communities such as:
OCD - where she started as a curator for Indonesian-language posts and later joined the main curation team. (By the way, since it was not explained in the presentation, OCD used to stand for "Operation Curation Delegation" but now stands for "Original Content Decentralized" as they have shifted their curation focus towards supporting a range of communities and pointing newcomers to those communities that best suit their interests.)
Movies TV Shows - for people who like to share film reviews and recommendations.
Hive Pets - for pet owners to share their pet care tips and anecdotes.
Brewville - for coffee lovers to post cafe reviews, brewing tips and gear, coffee reviews.
Hive Book Club - one of Hive’s largest reading communities, with over 5,000 subscribers, and over 100 active posters.
Why Curate?
Macchiata discussed the importance of curating on Hive. When newcomers arrive on the platform, they often feel lost in a sea of posts and communities. Curation, she said, can make all the difference. For example, her early experience with OCD showed her the power of that first meaningful upvote or comment. It can make a new user who posts good quality content feel seen, valued, and more motivated to stay.
Empowerment or Gatekeeping?
While curating can raise the profile of individual bloggers, Macchiata acknowledged that if curation groups always highlight the same creators, the group can feel more like a clique of privileged bloggers. But when curators stay diverse and open-minded, curation becomes empowering, a way to amplify a wider range of voices and encourage community growth.
She compared individual curation to personal taste, upvoting and commenting on content that you like while group curation is more like running an art gallery, where a team decides what fits the theme and values of the space. Both, she said, have their place on Hive.
Offline and On-Chain Bookclubs...
This was the part of the talk that most interested me...
Macchiata revealed that she also runs a library in Indonesia with her family. It’s a free space supported partly by the government where students and researchers can borrow books.
Her goal is to use the library as a bridge to introduce new people to Hive through reading and learning. She’s already hosted events to explain what Hive is and how to get started.
That got me thinking...
What if there were a virtual library on Hive where you could download pdf books? Or trace and upload books that small physical libraries such as the one that Macchiata runs do not have access to? What would such a service offer to differentiate it from resources such as Gutenberg.org?
Anyway, here's the video of Macchiata's HiveFest 10 presentation:
Cheers!
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