Reflecting on 2023 and Charting the Course for 2024

Today is day number 364 of the year 2023. Why am I paying attention to that? Well, for the last 364 days I’ve been working on publishing every single day so I can be among the first to unlock @hivebuzz publish every day for a year badge.

Today seems to be a good day to look back on 2023 and share where I’m heading in 2024. Hive has been central to my journey this year, starting with making the decision to do something I’d never done, create and publish daily.

Back at the start of 2022, I’d never published for a whole month. Since I already know what tomorrow’s content will be and I know I will complete the challenge, here are my results now:

• 95 weeks of publish every day (Monday to Sunday)
• 20 months of publish every day
• 1 year of publish every day

Learning Time in 2023

Who says you can’t get an old dog doing new tricks? Speaking of learning new tricks. This year has been a lot of learning time. The learning led to the evolution of what will be a business model for 2024. More on that later.

One of the major areas I’ve been learning this year is AI (artificial intelligence). It’s been a fascinating journey and has opened doors for me.

AI Is Controversial, But, Remember…

Yes, it is not without controversy. What new technology arrives without controversy? Remember back to the early days of cryptocurrency and for that matter the legacy chain? I joined in August 2016. There was no shortage of sources claiming the chain was a ponzi scheme, a scam, a fraud — you name it. If it was a negative term, it was applied to the chain.

It was a new technology and a new way of using the tech. It provided a way for non-crypto people, like me, to be creative, learn about crypto and earn for their work. I wasn’t earning much but I had a blast exploring how it worked.

Seven years later, I’m still here and wild horses couldn’t drag me away from it. There is community here that is like no other. Yeah, it’s messy and sometimes there’s fights and disagreements. Welcome to life. There’s an ethos here that allows, even encourages people to try things they have never tried before.

Seven Years on Hive in 2023

Pimp Your Post Thursday (PYPT) is a live curation show currently hosted on the DreemPort discord server. I started it six years ago as a test of using a voice channel. People enjoyed having the opportunity to share their content and get to know each other. I welcome content no matter where it is created, most of the posts shared are from Hive.

In 2021 I heard about this thing called “Spaces” on Twitter, live audio. I searched it out, turned out I had to use my phone to access them. I hate using my phone but I tried it out. I spotted a space title with the word “Hive” in it, something familiar, I joined.

Enter Podcasting

Turned out it was an afterchat room opened by @epodcaster following a HiveChat which was a text based weekly chat talking about the Hive chain on Twitter. Jennifer was part of the team along with @traciyork. I found out Jennifer had a regular Space on Fridays called “Cup of Audio Coffee”.

Jennifer is a professional podcaster who founded National Podcast Posting Month (NaPodPoMo), a challenge to create and post 30 podcasts in 30 days that runs every November. Jennifer encouraged me to try podcasting, so I tried the challenge in 2022.

Thanks to @aureal, a podcast d’app on Hive, I was able to publish the 30 podcasts I did for the 2022 NaPodPoMo on Hive. I carried on with a Christmas series and in January 2023 I started “Nicheless Narrative”, a weekly podcast where I narrated revised content I’d previously written a year or more previously. I did 26 episodes and then ended the season to prepare for NaPodPoMo 2023. All of them are posted on Hive through Aureal.

Meeting Cool People and HiveSpace

Back to 2021 and shortly after meeting Jennifer, I visited another Space. Turned out that one was being hosted by @alessandrawhite, her first time hosting a Space. However, she had founded and was hosting Creative Work Hour, a daily gathering of creatives on Zoom.

Alessandra and I got to chatting and I learned she was wanting to learn what blockchain is. Well, since she was asking me, she was about to learn about Hive but not before she created a new Space that would become “HiveSpace” and Jennifer would join us. On HiveSpace we talk about Hive and the projects going on in terms Web2 people could understand. Some joined.

Between then and now, several members of Creative Work Hour have joined the Hive family. They include: @iwannabeme, @stuartcturnbull, @gretchenshepherd, @bitterirony, @andysporring, @gregscloud, @elameadows, @creativegray and possibly some I’ve forgotten to list. Sorry to anyone I missed.

Did I mention @alessandrawhite and @bitterirony visited me in May? That was pretty cool to spend time with two people I’d become good friends with. We had a great visit. There are no pictures, Shadows doesn’t like them.

Evolution of Generative Art in 2023

By June 2023 I was exploring how to use AI, in particular, Midjourney. Early in June I started creating images daily. They started out as a way for me to practice prompting. Then they evolved into me creating them based on the word prompt include in my daily email list, Prompt A Day.

At the same time, I’d been on a bit of a personal journey of my own, exploring my spirituality at a deeper level. I started expressing some of the journey in the images, the quotes I created to represent the images and eventually the reflections I wrote on the quotes. All of them were published on Hive.

I published my first NFTs in 2023 on the @nftshowroom. I’ve not published any for sale in a while but there is a group of them called PYPT Exclusive. I create a new NFT for the month and make enough editions available for each week of the month for an active participant at PYPT to win.

Finding Me on Web2 and Web3

Here’s an illustration about Hive being truly an all-in-one platform. I was able to post my reflections on my blog. The days I posted only the Word of the Day image and quote, they were posted on @dbuzz and in November when my reflections became podcasts, they were posted through @aureal. When I decided to do some playing on Midjourney and post an assortment of the images, there was @liketu.

On Web2, doing all that would mean separate accounts on Twitter, Instagram, my website and my Medium account. On Web2, being able to follow my work means seeing part of it in different places. On Web3 - Hive, just visit my profile, it all shows up there.

I didn’t stop at Midjourney when it came to AI, I use ChatGPT extensively to put together the reference notes I use for creating my content. My content, I write myself. It’s not my content unless I write it. To me, that line should not be crossed if you want to be a writer, you write.

As for the images I create in Midjourney, I see generative art as an emerging genre. It’s not type a few words and the image magically appears. It takes a lot of tweaking and interations to finally get an image worth using.

I may do a post on how I use AI in what I do. It’s my assistant these days in many ways.

So, Where Am I Headed In 2024?

Well, since I did one year of post every day, no reason to stop. I’m heading for a ‘2’ on the badge on January 1, 2025 @arcange. Thank you for all you do.

Did I mention I had started a weekly newsletter in 2021?

It’s called Nicheless & Loving It. My subscribers get some thoughts shared with them exclusively and then I share where I’ve published that week. When I took my Christmas break in mid-December I had published 82 editions. I will continue in 2024. It returns in Mid-January. The Prompt-A-Day daily email list will also continue to be published.

Pimp Your Post Thursday will continue to run on Thursdays. A set of NFTs for each month are on my to do list as part of setting up for 2024.

I plan on creating and selling some other NFTs on NFT Showroom as well but probably further into 2024 before they happen.

As for the Word of the Day project, that is evolving yet again. The daily images and quotes will continue to be shared on @dbuzz and some other sites. The reflections are moving to subsription only. I’m in the process of setting that up and the project will be known as “Reflective Echoes”.

It will reside on its own website and I’ll start adding merch created using the images and quotes I create. There’s a Wordpress plugin or WooCommerce that would allow me offer Hive and Hive-Engine payment options BUT it hasn’t been updated for the more current versions of Wordpress.

Plugins not kept up-to-date can create security weaknesses so I can’t chance using it. If someone is working on updating it or have one of their one, please let me know. I’d love to offer the crypto option.

As for the rest of my writing and my podcast, it will return to my nicheless nature, so expect to see more variety in my writing and my podcast which will return weekly starting in mid-January.

We live in interesting times. There is much to learn and so much fun learning to be had. Keep on learning as part of keeping on living. Most of all, keep on Hive’ng.

Shadowspub writes on various subjects as she pursues her passion for learning. She also writes on other platforms and enjoys creating books you use, like journals, notebooks, colouring books, etc. Her Nicheless Narrative podcast airs on Thursdays each week.

NOTE: unless otherwise stated, all images are the author’s.

Some of the image work may have been done in Midjourney, for which I hold a licence to use the images commercially.

How to Connect With ShadowsPub:
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Twitter: @shadowspub
Instagram: shadowspublishing
Medium: @shadowspublishing
Publishing Website: Shadows Publishing
Nicheless Website: Nicheless & Loving It
(Podcast & subscriptions for Prompt A Day, PYPT Reminder & Newsletter)


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