As this post was written for Hive, for anyone here on Steemit/SteemPeak I do not have the same additional Delegation here. However, feel free to follow me over on PeakD if your interested in growing the anime presence on the site.
While I'm digging Hive, as well as Steemit before it, one of the things I never liked was the lack of Anime content around here. Thanks to the generous Delegation I got from @eeks, I wanted to make an active effort to promote and share anime content here on the platform. And I mean more than just the random people using the platform to upload full anime episodes.
I want all forms of Anime content. From the review to fan art, lists, and even AMV's. While I may not have the biggest stake here, I can help spread it around and give everyone a platform for their thoughts. For people who are already on Hive (Either the main site or the PeakD Front End), a lot of you probably already know about how little anime content we have around here. Some of you, back from Steem, may have stopped because there wasn't a whole lot of support for it. I'm hoping to be able to help change that.
For people who are not part of this already, I there are a few things to know about Hive, and the experience of posting onto a Blockchain as it's a bit different than other sites, so for my followers from off-platform and anyone interested in creating some kind of anime content, here is what you need to know. (Note, this is very simplified, and there are people who could better explain the more technical aspects of this, but this is enough to understand and post without worry).
The first is your posts are all stored on the Blockchain itself, rather than the site you are accessing this from. Make a post on hive.blog, for example, it can be viewed from PeakD. The websites are nothing more than a front end that lets you use to view the Blockchain. There is more to it than that, but basically even if one of the front ends stops functioning, your work will still be on the Blockchain.
Second, this is a very decentralized platform. You don't have any moderators that can come into moderate comments, flagging people effects a couple of things, but you will never be able to remove another user from Hive in general so long as there exists a front end that will allow them on. Muting people and dealing with comments made is entirely on you.
That said, you are pretty much free of any type of censorship. This one I bring up because you have more platforms like Twitter and Tumbler that have cracked down on many different kinds of art and content, so a lot of what people from those communities posted can no longer be shared (Though in the case of Twitter it's almost like a dice-roll if what you are doing violates their terms or not). If you can conceive of it, you can post it regardless of the implications, thoughts conveyed, or even how lewd and degenerate it is, you can post it (Though many front ends will likely take issue with illegal content, actions taken my vary depending on the Front End). As it stands, there is pretty much no one who is going to limit the content you can post.
Creating an account is where things get a bit different than a lot of other websites. Because the whole thing is built on a Crypto Chain, you create a Hive Account, and that account will be the one used on all front ends. There is essentially a 'Cost' to create an account (You don't have to pay yourself, though some who create accounts can charge to create it quickly the sign up is free). Because of this, there is usually a verification to make sure you are real. Hive.Blue, the default one, just asks you to link to your Social Media or Website, and make a post saying something about it.
Options for account creation can be found here: https://signup.hive.io/
Where things are a bit more complicated is you don't set your password, the Account is created and you are given 'Key's' which allows you to access the account. You do not get to choose the keys, they are long seemingly random sets of numbers and letters, and you need to make sure you do not lose them. If you lose your keys entirely, you lose your account. Save them, make sure they are backed up off your computer in case something happens, whatever it is you have to do. As a platform Hive is great, but you do need to take a few extra steps to make sure it's a functional experience, this is not like signing up for something like Tumbler.
Now, if you have don't know anything about blockchains or crypto, your only real reference is likely the Cryptocurrency Bitcoin, and are probably thinking about some kind of payment for posting on Hive. This isn't wrong, but don't rely on it. You can earn Hive (The Cryptocurrency) by posting, but even if your works take off it is going to be very little and isn't going to be at all good for trying to make a living. After about two years I don't think I could even call this an effective part-time job. At most, a few extra bucks here and there is nice. If you are a talented artist who does commissions, for example, don't stop doing commissions and post all your work here hoping that any kind of rewards from here make up for not doing commissions, cause it won't. But if you are someone who is going to post your work anyway, like people would do on Tumbler or one of those blogging sites, it's a great place to share it. Really if you want to treat this just like any other social media platform for sharing your stuff, that is perfectly fine.
Now, to explain why my comments about 'Delegation' early on, and bringing up the crypto bit is important. The short version, if you stake your hive, your vote has more sway in determining rewards as well as affecting how high you show up on trending, making your stuff easier to find. Because I have a higher stake than a lot of people, me sharing and voting your content has more of an effect on people finding that content. And as stated before, I want to see an increase in how much anime content is on Hive.
I do have a Discord linked on my bio, so feel free to join if you want to share your anime content that you post here to make it easier for me to find, as well as tagging your posts 'Anime' when you create them.
For those familiar with Communities, I will create one when it lets me, but there have been issues so far, so bear with me for a bit on that one.
Tl;dr: Using Hive to post is a very decentralized and censorship-free way of sharing your content, though there are some extra steps and things to consider when making your account.
Here's hoping to hear from new users and old alike, and I hope to see a stronger weeb presence on Hive in the coming months.