I came to say the same thing as @keithtaylor, I'd been mulling it over after reading @curatorcat's post here.

Hive isn't any different from any other digital or material community. They all have a head of active people who learn and recreate the habitus of the community, and then a very very long tail of people who are progressively less or hardly engaged, depending on how willing or able they are to learn how the community works, and who either lurk or disappear. Like material communities, it's about humans and relationships, not technology and transactions.

The amount of creative energy that is lost to whining: about downvotes, lack of votes, onboarding, retention, price is phenomenal. I find it a drain and I try and not be around those people - stick with people with ideas, energy, who are doing something. But I guess I should accept it as part of the rich tapestry of communities and part of the background. I don't have to pay any attention to it 😂