Hello. I'm back after delving into the data set I downloaded some time ago. Again, I'm examining a period of just a single week, with my sample data being from the 18th of May, 2025, to the 24 of May, 2025.

_{Image composite completed in Photoshop by @holoz0r using Source 1, Source 2.}

---

Introduction

---

The goal of this post is to see if posts of different lengths differ in their payouts. It is also to map the distribution of payouts based on word count. Does a high word count indicate a good post? In my human reading, no. In data? Let's find out.

I write this post as I interrogate the data, so you can also get a glimpse into my stream of consciousness and thinking.

First, we need to know what data is being examined:

---

Data about the data

---

Here is some overarching information about the data examined:

Data Point	Lower	Upper
Date	18 May 2025	24 May 2025

Posts examined in period: 14,838
Authors excluded: hbd.funder, peak.snaps, ecency.waves

So, some quick stats:

Payouts

Total Payouts	Max Payout	Average Payout	Median Payout
$30,559.21	$101.05	2.05	0.48

Word Counts

Total Word Count	Max Word Count	Average Word Count	Median Word Count
5,928,739	10,056	399.56	248

---

Insights

---

Pay Per Word

---

$0.0052

Yes, that's right, over the week under examination, half a cent per word was paid out on hive. When I was a professional writer, paid on a per word basis to write editorials, reviews and other content, my pay rate was typically 0.12AUD a word.

That was over fifteen years ago, and articles typically took an hour to go from concept to completion - sometimes with longer ideation periods, and for longer, more in depth articles, research took a manner of days.

The written media landscape has changed dramatically from those early days of the Internet however, and Hive, is of course, not those early days of the Internet. We are, Afterall, "web 3.0"

That pay per word is far from a guarantee. Just because I can type ninety or more words per minute, it is not absolutely no guarantee that I will "make" 0.45 just by typing for a minute.

That is because the reward pool is a dynamic, shifting thing. It depends on how many people vote, how they vote, and if there are downvotes. Its a complex thing, and nothing is yours until after the seven day period since it was originally posted has elapsed.

Nothing on Hive is a promise.

---

Above Average and Below Average Posts

---

Distribution by Word Count

In this section, I want to see the distribution of posts that are above and below the average word count and median word count.

In order to do this, I have created groups for the word counts. I did this with a simple conditional column in PowerQuery, with different increments of word count as the number of words increase in a given post.

Once groups are put together, this is what I get as a distribution (sorted by number of posts):

Word Count	Num Posts	Percent of Posts
< 250 Words	3188	21.49%
< 500 Words	3145	21.20%
< 50 Words	2758	18.59%
< 750 Words	2020	13.61%
< 100 Words	1492	10.06%
< 1000 Words	920	6.20%
< 1500 Words	873	5.88%
< 2000 Words	243	1.64%
< 2500 Words	100	0.67%
> 2501 Words	99	0.67%

As expected, the overwhelming majority, are between the median and the average. If we plot this on a chart, we might get a more meaningful curve of post length.

Most posts are above 100 words. Very few posts are above 2000 words. The most likely length of a post is between 101 and 499 words. What do you know, averages and medians work as they should!

If you prefer to see this distribution as a pie chart, because pie is delicious, here it is:

Now, how many posts (count and percent) are above / below average length?

Word Count	Count	Percent
Above Average Word Count	5317	35.83%
Below Average Word Count	9521	64.17%

And again, how does that look as a pie chart?

Distribution by Payout, and Word Count

Now is where we're going to get to some of the potentially deeper insights, and to answer an age old question, which I am sure we each have our own hypotheses on. Are longer posts better? By better, I am asking - do they get more of the rewards?

Data holds no lies, only in the way in which it is presented, so I am going to be as neutral as possible in presenting the data.

There's also some important points to consider about word count. I'm not excluding things like headers, code, and for non "English" posts, spaces do not appear as commonly - so posts written using Korean, Japanese, or Chinese characters are likely to have lower word counts, as they seem to contain less spaces overall.

Having said that, the bulk of posts on HIVE tend to be written in English or Spanish, and counting the spaces between words for these languages is a pretty reliable indicator of word count.

Anyway, data:

As a markdown table:

Word Count	Total payouts	Average Payouts	Median Pay Out	Highest Payout	Pay Per Word	% of Total Pay Outs
< 50 Words	$2,100.63	$0.76	$0	$32.73	$0.04	6.87%
< 100 Words	$1,315.56	$0.88	$0.19	$36.32	$0.01	4.30%
< 250 Words	$3,775.96	$1.18	$0.32	$44.18	$0.01	12.36%
< 500 Words	$7,178.46	$2.28	$0.83	$101.06	$0.01	23.49%
< 750 Words	$6,632.14	$3.28	$1.61	$98.07	$0.01	21.70%
< 1000 Words	$3,934.36	$4.28	$2.51	$49.52	$0.01	12.87%
< 1500 Words	$3,951.40	$4.53	$3.33	$62.27	$0.00	12.93%
< 2000 Words	$1,064.70	$4.38	$3.09	$45.80	$0.00	3.48%
< 2500 Words	$319.77	$3.20	$1.44	$33.55	$0.00	1.05%
> 2501 Words	$286.23	$2.89	$1.81	$25.48	$0.00	0.94%

I've highlighted average payouts so it is easier to compare against the median and highest payout for the given period for digestibility.

Longer posts tend to be rewarded more handsomely, but the pay per word drops as you add more words. The majority of payouts are in the categories above 250 words and less than 2000 words. Anything longer than 2000 words, people don't seem to have the patience for.

Also, importantly:

Payout Outcome	Count	%
Above Average Pay Out	3642	24.55%
Below Average Pay Out	11196	75.45%

Again, I want to see this data on a continuum to see how payouts correlate with post length, similar to the distribution of word count featured earlier in this post.

I am sure you don't want to see this by total payout only, so how about looking at it by average, and comparing it to the median for each category?

Add in the max reward for each category, and its an uglier chart:

It suggests that the "max" payments (ie, the most rewarded posts) have something new that I am going to introduce for the purpose of the discussion, which is "Reward Factor" this is the Max Rewarded post in a word category bucket, divided by the average reward in that category.

Therefore, we can, at least in terms of reward, consider "how many times better" that highest rewarded post was in that category than the average post. In my years of experience on HIVE, Post reward is not a direct indicator of quality, but a lot of people flock to it as such.

Reward Factor

Word Count	Max	Reward Factor of highest rewarded post	Average	Median
< 50 Words	$32.73	42.97	$0.76	$0
< 100 Words	$36.32	41.19	$0.88	$0.19
< 250 Words	$44.18	37.30	$1.18	$0.32
< 500 Words	$101.06	44.28	$2.28	$0.83
< 750 Words	$98.07	29.87	$3.28	$1.61
< 1000 Words	$49.52	11.58	$4.28	$2.51
< 1500 Words	$62.27	13.76	$4.53	$3.33
< 2000 Words	$45.80	10.45	$4.38	$3.09
< 2500 Words	$33.55	10.49	$3.20	$1.44
> 2501 Words	$25.48	8.81	$2.89	$1.81

On Average, the "Reward Factor" for the highest rewarded post is 25.07 across all the word count categories. Is that a fair distribution of the reward pool for the "average" authors?

Does a meritocracy award its best contributors 25 times more "stuff" than the average in other distributed systems or economies?

I suppose also, a better question is, are we rewarding the "best" content?

---

Bringing it all together

---

Overall Outcome	Count of Posts	%	Total	Avg	Max	Median
Above Average Word Count and Above Average Pay Out	2296	15.47%	$16,759.91	$7.30	$101.06	$5.61
Above Average Word Count and Below Average Pay Out	3021	20.36%	$2,323.77	$0.77	$2.76	$0.46
Below Average Word Count and Above Average Pay Out	1346	9.07%	$8,061.51	$5.99	$61.00	$4.85
Below Average Word Count and Below Average Pay Out	8175	55.10%	$3,414.03	$0.42	$2.76	$0.08

I now want to take a look at the sample of the most rewarded users in each category.

Above Average Word Count, and Above Average Payout, sorted by Total Payout Top 30:

author	Posts Authored	Words Written	Total Payout	Sum of net_votes
coldbeetrootsoup	2	1898	$140.94	1784
tarazkp	9	6756	$134.98	3596
hanshotfirst	4	2561	$112.54	557
worldmappin	7	4896	$112.34	1808
bozz	5	5513	$106.22	2565
borislavzlatanov	1	438	$101.06	763
tattoodjay	6	3675	$100.18	2959
nurfay	6	3110	$85.82	4234
buttcoins	2	1510	$83.73	1415
avdesing	6	7028	$80.61	2415
dalz	4	3675	$76.83	1609
rehan12	3	2896	$73.98	936
gooddream	3	3374	$73.44	938
danielcarrerag	3	4714	$73.26	410
papilloncharity	5	2196	$69.78	1597
jcrodriguez	3	3311	$69.71	889
sports.guy55	3	2938	$68.34	632
networkstate	3	4195	$67.62	366
bemier	6	7257	$67.45	1820
incublus	6	5960	$65.91	2130
nathyortiz	6	7250	$65.42	500
splinterlands	3	3121	$64.16	1585
giathebao	3	1973	$64.11	670
aggroed	1	1264	$62.27	667
verbal-d	1	532	$61.76	346
elizabeths14	3	2094	$59.76	1790
giuatt07	6	3923	$59.37	556
solominer	2	1143	$58.81	696
dwayne16	7	3563	$58.63	1147
josediccus	6	4991	$58.43	1649

Above Average Word Count, and Below Average Payout, sorted by Total Payout Top 30:

author	Posts Authored	Words Written	Total Payout	Sum of net_votes
pimp.token	6	5304	$12.52	1270
hivepakistan	5	4371	$12.06	1483
martinte	6	8167	$11.71	2868
stefano.massari	5	5430	$11.46	586
sw-kleymer	14	11511	$11.01	1007
borniet	8	4632	$10.93	978
kc6729	6	2981	$10.81	132
omztech	6	7046	$10.22	2724
julianhorack	5	4173	$9.82	476
chinay04	5	3831	$9.76	872
deeanndmathews	5	5826	$9.66	475
zain-ab001	5	3685	$9.43	1515
elizabethbit	5	2563	$9.42	1082
osomar357	9	8517	$9.15	837
kingsleyy	6	3019	$9.13	573
miguelgabriel-sw	6	4035	$8.95	538
el-panal	4	3213	$8.82	2305
curangel	4	5574	$8.81	941
jlufer	5	3441	$8.68	771
heyhaveyamet	6	3891	$8.59	679
kley-sw	6	3687	$8.58	440
daily-crypto	4	1916	$8.51	50
pocketechange	4	2214	$8.46	155
daily-photo	4	4238	$8.44	160
offia66	5	3331	$8.37	638
akrros	6	4527	$8.32	476
adaezeinchrist	6	3641	$8.20	930
abdul-qudus	4	2337	$8.18	532
amjadsharif	5	3364	$8.17	225
joelibra	5	2255	$8.11	676

Below Average Word Count, and Above Average Payout, sorted by Total Payout Top 30:

author	Posts Authored	Words Written	Total Payout	Sum of net_votes
oflyhigh	6	76	$181.62	1551
daveks	6	1002	$98.29	2138
redditposh	6	554	$83.67	1691
poshtoken	6	525	$82.53	1653
ijelady	5	1308	$81.99	738
jychbetter	7	112	$63.54	1032
lordbutterfly	1	264	$61.00	456
bxt	6	128	$59.93	431
rivalhw	6	42	$59.22	716
mrspointm	6	59	$55.86	955
zhangyan-123	6	54	$52.97	980
calebmarvel24	5	1005	$52.33	571
alex-rourke	4	641	$51.68	810
claudio83	5	1071	$49.22	866
grindle	3	758	$48.27	1341
kkarenmp	7	2583	$46.41	311
eliigonzalez	6	1602	$44.40	675
funworlding	6	1525	$44.34	126
restinpeace	6	1352	$44.31	106
youngartfair	1	236	$44.18	680
galenkp	5	1627	$43.93	1126
atyh	6	774	$42.87	786
thedistriator	1	336	$42.35	396
adelepazani	6	1321	$41.76	545
mahar26	10	2957	$41.62	636
susanli3769	6	23	$39.92	564
vesytz	3	786	$39.68	2062
atem.art	4	489	$38.39	700
monochromes	6	2219	$38.19	4087
pushtoken	1	362	$37.83	196

Below Average Word Count, and Below Average Payout, sorted by Total Payout Top 30:

author	Posts Authored	Words Written	Total Payout	Sum of net_votes
justmythoughts	25	5724	$19.36	905
nave7	18	381	$18.48	378
krolestwo	11	2308	$16.18	499
erosyu	6	1551	$14.48	171
rainbowzhou	6	57	$14.09	220
new.things	9	1537	$13.64	714
sinelux	6	2166	$13.42	411
zimurenli	5	46	$12.75	164
gidlark	6	947	$12.51	316
scifimultiverse	6	798	$12.29	84
cryptounicorn420	6	1298	$12.15	1456
williamyu	5	1320	$12.04	166
yumingli	5	47	$12.00	134
kawsar8035	15	3782	$11.90	1722
toofasteddie	6	681	$11.70	458
ssekulji	5	1130	$11.42	296
improv	5	1093	$10.99	472
drlobes	5	398	$10.72	576
kachy2022	9	1017	$10.48	202
teamukraine	6	280	$10.45	307
jeffspace	5	176	$10.37	164
flemingfarm	6	634	$10.35	931
radiogaga	5	1318	$10.30	322
nasseir	16	2574	$10.14	730
jasonmunapasee	6	1378	$10.12	1105
sunshinexu	4	36	$10.07	125
katerinaramm	6	1132	$9.42	639
felt.buzz	11	1160	$9.40	1321
zoricatech	5	841	$9.29	158
paty2005	6	198	$9.21	376

Who are the "laziest" writers on HIVE? ie, who has the highest payout per word written?

I suppose you could also call this the "most efficient" category, top 30, sorted by pay per word.

author	Pay Per Word	Posts Published	Words Written	Total Payout	Total Votes
dengyanping888	$3.34	1	1	$3.34	71
emmali	$2.72	6	7	$19.01	259
alpha-omega	$2.53	6	7	$17.68	479
oflyhigh	$2.39	6	76	$181.62	1551
susanli3769	$1.74	6	23	$39.92	564
rivalhw	$1.41	6	42	$59.22	716
pepovelez	$1.29	1	1	$1.29	26
cheva	$1.06	5	6	$6.36	309
zhangyan-123	$0.98	6	54	$52.97	980
yellowbird	$0.97	3	4	$3.89	140
mrspointm	$0.95	6	59	$55.86	955
l337m45732	$0.94	1	15	$14.11	159
mrpointp	$0.81	2	18	$14.50	250
lijans	$0.66	2	2	$1.31	65
evahe	$0.65	6	54	$34.94	2374
lovequeen	$0.65	6	56	$36.18	748
illmaskmajor	$0.65	1	25	$16.14	37
love5200	$0.62	6	54	$33.68	440
carolin77	$0.58	6	54	$31.50	432
nostalgic1212	$0.58	12	63	$36.41	914
jychbetter	$0.57	7	112	$63.54	1032
deanliu	$0.51	1	26	$13.32	178
aellly	$0.51	6	54	$27.64	397
annepink	$0.50	1	19	$9.56	129
bxt	$0.47	6	128	$59.93	431
ailgoy	$0.44	4	36	$16.00	373
abrockman	$0.43	2	34	$14.63	424
marygong77777	$0.41	7	70	$28.45	303
sunflor	$0.40	6	54	$21.45	243
bai123	$0.39	3	27	$10.66	122

Finally, because I am curious about myself during the period, my pay per word was $0.0087, a little bit above average for posts overall.

I realise this post is long and will be a lot to take in, but for discussion:

• Are we rewarding people appropriately?
• Do people need to turn off their autovoters and curate manually?
• Do we have a culture of nepotism on hive?
• Is longer content more valuable? (Depends on the category, I guess)
• Can this data be used to downvote content of poor quality that is getting a (perceived) unfair portion of posting rewards?
• How can HIVE retain "top talent" content creators by rewarding them more appropriately?

If you got this far, thank you for reading!

I look forward to the discussion!