This morning, I got an email from the uHive metaverse team, informing me that if I persuaded five people to each invest 1 Bitcoin (BTC) in uHive, I would receive $10 000 worth of its crypto (uHive Token). Now, as much as I'd like $10 000 dollars (and who wouldn't?) there's a couple of problems with that: Firstly, I don't know five people each with 1 BTC to spare/waste. Secondly, I'm most definitely not going to shill some project I don't like and in which I don't believe.
uHive, like Fratlife and the Hive (HIVE) network, is full of attention whores, misogynists, scammers, spammers and ultra right-wing nationalists. In my opinion, it's the Tatooine of Metaverses, just as Facebook's is the Mustafar system. Considering that most of my circle is made of people who are targeted by hate groups (LGBTQ+), why on earth would I, of all people, encourage anyone I know to join it? This is the problem that I have with "open communities" that allow anyone with an Internet connection and computer or phone to join: All the bigots and undesirables swarm in and ruin the experience for everyone else.
Mustafar is a volcanic planet in the Outer Rim territories. It is where Anakin Skywalker lost his extremeties when he fell near a river of lava and where he built his base. Image copyright IGN Star Wars Wiki (which is inferior to Wookiepedia, IMO)
"I have never seen a more wretched hive of scum and villainy."
— Obi Wan Kenobi (Sir Alec Guiness); Star Wars: A New Hope
If you want a space you (and your community) can enjoy, you have to put up walls and take out the trash. uHive are not even trying to do that, because "censorship, gatekeeping and policing people (even those with malevolent/malicious intent) is categorically wrong, always", or some centrist nonsense like that. They're taking the Facebook approach to the extreme. (Facebook does do some censoring, but it's way too selective and ineffective, since it is perfectly fine with being used to promote genocide in Myanmar and Ethiopia; it all helps keep users engaged, which keeps the profit margins fat and that's the only thing that matters.)
Maybe the Neo-Nazis and other hate-filled oxygen-thieves of the world have the right to a community where they can congregate, but I don't believe they do. The last thing we need is another world war. Don't get me wrong; I'm all for massacring certain people because of the harm they do (or intend to do), but the problem with evil is that we all hold it in our hearts to some extent and it's incredibly difficult to expel. Maybe that appeals to you, but it sure as hell doesn't do anything positive for me; it's my idea of a personal hell, without the snow.
That is why I will not endorse Fratlife, Hive or uHive.
Thumbnail image copyright uHive
