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Before and sometime after the Hardfork, most of the automated voting activities went down and many people, possibly scared of not getting their autovotes, didn't post. However, is this the best thing to do? 

In my case, it doesn't really matter if the autos are up or down, I am going to post anyway, likely get some engagement and have a rollicking good time as normal. Often though, there will be *manual votes* coming in from those who read and, those who are *roaming.*

![image.png](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/tarazkp/23wgS4Mna37XEbT8iv3G9NLids3zgVVk2STk7n8sxqyx4fHjN42MmS49ZBNj2qu35Mxyi.png)

And it is the "roamers" whom I consider an opportunity for those looking to get some visibility, because even though the autos are down, there is still incentive for them to use their voting power.  This means that they will search their feeds manually more instead, increasing their odds of seeing new authors through reblogs and community feeds they may be interested in. The chances of getting seen are also higher because lots of people choosing not to publish when the autos are down. 

But, this is an opportunity that doesn't necessarily yield immediate or visible results in the short-term, but in general, nothing of value gets returned in quickly with anything, especially in regards to matters of ROI. 

But, all of the opportunity of this aside for a moment, what I find interesting is how people's behavior changes depending on whether they expect votes to arrive or not. Many of the people who enjoy a high level of auto votes won't post, but I think that this indicates something about the personality and reasoning. Is it really so bad for the well rewarded to not get votes on a post a two? 

>Yes.

At least in some people's eyes, because it is seen as a "loss" of income, because there is the expectation that the autos are "theirs", like a salary. Doing the work and not getting paid the salary due is not taken well. However, it is also this mentality that leads to entitlement mentality, and once that settles in, it usually ends up pretty volatile. Because, *the votes aren't ours.* But if we think we are entitled to them, when they stop, we feel cheated. And when we feel cheated, we tend to not react very well, as evidenced a hundred times in the past over the last years on Hive, through those who believe that the rewards they *are provided,* are a paycheck. 

I think that the "paycheck" mindset is one of the most limiting factors for content creators on Hive, as many start producing to get paid, which ultimately backfires in the longrun, as they end up targeting potential "employers" with content that doesn't necessarily interest them or, they aren't particularly suited to deliver. This creates an inauthenticity that is transparent to most people, especially the larger voters who are accustomed to getting targeted for votes.

Then there is the mentality of being an employee that settles in too, which seems to then use what is earned as a salary to be spent, rather than an earned reward that can be invested. This means that rather than becoming an owner, the creator is continually an employee with no skin in the game and, completely reliant on the votes coming in, which ultimately go through waves and may stop completely. 

>How do they react?

Let's go with .... "badly". 

After all, *they have been fired* from a job that they think they are performing adequately enough to get a salary for. 

>See the issue?

The reason that this interests me is that I have been a soft-skills trainer for a good while now and I have seen these kinds of behaviors in the real world. However, in the digital landscape and on Hive, these emotional reactions go largely unchecked, meaning they rage out of control. Rather than approaching it with tact and understanding, it becomes outbursts that just can't be taken back, leaving the only avenue available, a double-down on the emotional reaction - which ultimately costs them more.

I believe that while we all work in our "own self-interest", most of us have been conditioned to actually work against ourselves, as out "intuition and defaults" are not aligned to actually getting the results we might want, often acting in direct opposition to achieving desired outcomes. But...

>It *feeeeels* right.

And I think that this is one of the things that is developed with entitlement mentalities, the *feeling of correctness,* without reflecting on whether it is correct at all. But in order to do this, a little emotional control is required.  

Does anyone have any to spare?


Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]



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