Calling Community Developers - Let's Polish The Steemit.com Mothership!
The Steem blockchain is intended to be a decentralized project with tons of different applications using the blockchain in various ways.
There are some amazing third party applications that our community developers have created. Busy.org, Vessel, SteemDice, SteemDB, SteemWhales, and ChainBB - just to name a few. There are obviously tons more, including a large list on SteemTools.com.
Community development is great, and I would love to see even more great community applications thriving here! I would also like to see the platform go mainstream though. We need some platform to take us there.
I am fairly neutral on what that platform that is - If Steemit.com takes us mainstream, great. If it is Busy.org, that is great too. If it is some other platform/tool that isn't even developed yet, that's great too. Regardless of which site/platform gets us there, we do need something to bring in millions of users.
Right now, Steemit.com gets the most traffic, and is the main website bringing new users to the platform. Therefore, I am currently focusing much of my efforts there.
I worry that most people in the community have decided that because this is a decentralized project, and Steemit.com is run by Steemit, Inc. - that it is entirely up to Steemit, Inc. to make changes to the website. I am not trying to say that Steemit doesn't have the lion share of responsibility over making sure Steemit.com is successful, but it is my view that we all have a vested interest in making the website better.
Condenser (the code for Steemit.com) is an open source project. Any developer can make changes and submit them to the project via a GitHub pull request. I would like to encourage more developers to start working on condenser issues!
I have talked to @sneak (the development manager for Steemit) and have five issues that have a 'green light' from the Steemit dev team for people in the community to work on. This is not a guarantee that the pull request will be accepted, but it is something that they will be likely to accept if it is coded / implemented well.
If you are interested in getting involved with Condenser development, one of these issues would be a great place to start:
- GitHub Issue 1569 - Having STEEM->SBD conversions that are in progress show up in the wallet.
- GitHub Issue 1647 - Auto convert the tags that a user enters to lower case, rather than giving a validation error.
- GitHub Issue 1258 - Add option to toggle vote sliders in the Settings page.
- GitHub Issue 402 - More visible follow button, with the same style as the promote button.
- GitHub Issue 1311 - Disable claim reward button during broadcast.
If you are planning to work on one of the issues, I suggest:
- First get a local instance of condenser up and running, by following the instructions in GitHub.
- Make a comment in the issue that you are planning to work on it, so that multiple developers do not work on the same thing.
- Use the issue to document what you are planning to do, so you can get feedback before you code.
- If you are unsure what the proper way to handle something is - ask a question in the GitHub issue.
There is a 'bonus' issue, if anyone wants to tackle a more difficult problem - auto-suggest tags based on the characters typed so far. If you are interested in working on this, please open an issue in GitHub to discuss with the dev team. It will need to be coordinated with the condenser team to ensure you are using the the right kind of react libraries.
If you have other issues that you are interested in working on, let me or @sneak know and we can help provide feedback as to whether or not it is something that the dev team wants the community to work on.
With more people helping out on the project, we can start to get more of the enhancements made that people in the community have been asking for :)
One of the best Steemit posts this week - so much so that I reviewed your 5 development points in the Daily Dose today. Steem on Tim! UV/RS :)
just went back and was reviewing my post and noticed this comment. Do you really think this was worth $56.65? The next top paying comment on the post was $19.81, which was from a professional web developer saying they are interested in developing code for Steemit.com. Wouldn't the money have been better spent on something like that?
I may have to agree with you on that one Tim, but I promise you I've seen much worse than that my friend. Tomorrow's Daily Dose will cover this issue: Game Theory on Steemit.
I have too, but it is up to you if you want to contribute to the problem :)
Thanks @mindhunter! Always great to hear from you :)
Always great to be around Tim :)
Professional front-end developer here. I've been thinking the same thing for a while now.
I'm currently working on my own steemit based app, but I keep getting frustrated with the lack of some functionality on Steemit itself.
I would like to help out improving the Steemit interface even if it's just minor things here and there. If I'm not mistaken it's built using React right? I'll have to do a refresher course on that to get anywhere (I'm an Angular guy mainly) but after my app is in beta I'm going to invest some time in Condenser too.
Yes, react and nodejs. That would be awesome! Let me know if you have any questions.
Reddit is pretty basic, it hasn't changed much in 10 years, Steemit hasn't changed at all since 1 year but It's still complete shit compared to Reddit.
Look like they only have one team/ dev that's either working on the blockchain, on the backend... but NEVER on the fucking UI!
From what I understand, their main focuses right now are the performance improvements that they recently blogged about, communities, and the mobile app. I recently did a separate post a few weeks ago with some of the other changes that are in the works. The communities changes are 100% on the front-end / UI side of things. So it is not that they aren't working on things, it is more a matter of the changes not being ready yet.
Seems obvious to me that they could have more stuff going on in parallel or outsourced.
Have you seen how buggy their text editor is ? That's not some risky blockchain consensus / complex crypto / game theory level stuff.
I agree with this, I made a post about how everything is outdated (whitepaper/ faq. ) and how most steemers have no clue how steem works atm in terms of inflation because the info is wrong and outdated.
This is basic stuff, for a website that attracks 300k users how is it possible nobody is working on this? At least get rid of the whitepaper or put a note on it saying it has not been updated.
I like to give feedback but don't really know where to do this.
@steemitblog fair enough, but sofar no reactions.
The devs, who are they, how big is the team right now? Where is this written down? How do I contact.
How many people are reading the whitepaper and faq. before they invest, then they slowly find out that hardforks have taken place and that a lot of the info they based their investment decision on is wrong.
I foresee a good future for Steemit, but the above is unacceptable for a 310 million$ worth business.
There should at least have been an update on steemit.com/ a good updated introduction video.
It isn't like they are tight on money.
I help to maintain the FAQ. Can you elaborate on what is out of date? Feel free to message me on Steemit chat. I will do my best to fix any issues you have.
There was also some chatter in the #witness channel of Steemit chat last night. It sounds like the whitepaper is being worked on.
Hi Tim appreciate your reply!
Well I think a simple note on the fact that the whitepaper right now is out of date would be good either on the whitepaper or on the Faq. This was my biggest issue next to the fact that giving feedback should be explained in the faq.
I literally wasted hours on the whitepaper finding out a lot of it doesn't hold up in terms of inflation and power down.
I can only imagine how much time people have spent on trying to understand the system, like I did.
Also unfortunately a lot of the 2016 posts that explain very well how the system works are now out of date, which complicates matters trying to search for answers.
I admit that I should have read the faq though so some of it is my own doing!
I know it gives the date on the whitepaper, but as I made the mistake of reading the whitepaper before investing instead of reading the faq. I made an investment based on wrong info. This is not particulary clear for a new investor.
Maybe it is already in the faq., but it would make a lot of sense to point new investors to @steemitblog.
I got confused by the Steemit inc, I think it would help to explain the different types of investment opportunities rather then explaining Steemit Inc as it confused me (I am easily confused though!
I agree with the point about the confusion for investors. I know they are working on improving it.
From the FAQ though:
It is worth noting that the Whitepaper hasn’t been updated almost since Steem came into existence. Many changes have been made since then, so much of the Whitepaper is now out of date. It is in the process of being rewritten.
YES, even I just come to steem for less than one week ,I found a bug.
It is a beta website, so an occasional bug is sometimes expected. What did you find? I can try to document it in an issue.
It is hard to describe. Give me your email address and I will send you the details.
timcliff.steemit "at" gmail.com
OK
I will send to you on Monday
The email had been send to you.
It is all about priority.
To me it's more about the management's bandwidth.
Agreed and the front end is not it. One full-time developer could fix so many of the issues in very little time.
Check out the newest post from @emble: Get A Free Short Link Domain To Your Profile (Yourname.Stee.Ml) and follow if you like the content :)
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I absolutely agree with you, people should not rush and judge hashly and forget that steemit started last year...you have my votes.
Could we vote for what we want in the UI? Is it something for #beyondbitcoin? Or better another channel?
I'd like to see some form of #tag simplification, group synonyms together, see which tags are more popular say #steem-dev, #steemdev
Not really. It is up to Steemit, Inc. what they implement for their UI. They do take the time to read through feature request posts (especially ones that get a lot of attention/comments/upvotes). Just because a suggestion is made though, does not mean they are going to implement it.
beyondbitcoin is not really an appropriate tag. This is a podcast program / show that talks about crypto-currency projects. They occasionally talk about Steem/Steemit, but only in the larger context of the world of crypto-currenceis. Talking about UI enhancements to the Steemit.com website would be out of place / off topic for what they are really about.
Thanks for the elborate reply and clarification!
As far as I know steemit.com was created as a gateway to interact with the Steem blockchain. That is why other people created Busy.org. Busy is quite more pleasant to the eye and some oftenly used features are easier there. However, there are still some bugs in Busy that are inexistent in Steemit.
Thank you for that HUGE upvote, @julianita
I had the steem app and was having issues attaching photos to my posts. Kept giving me errors. Most certainly has room to improve. The UI can get better in so many different ways. And introductory videos describing the intricacies of steemit would be beneficial as well.
Please check out my posts you will laugh . I write funny stuff
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يسعدني ان اتابعك
تسلم يا إيهاب ربنا يعزك أكون سعيد أن أتابعك و تتابعنى
this! tip! 0.2
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If you are in need of a better Steemit UI, you should take a look at my recent development ;) I've never worked with ReactJS, but I've found a way to enhance the Steemit UI with an Userscript (Open Source, JQuery):
https://steemit.com/steemit/@steemchiller/new-sct-version-1-0-3-beta-available-neue-sct-version-1-0-3-beta-verfuegbar
Preview for the Steemit Post Overview with SCT Style "3D":
You should get involved with the GitHub repository and start submitting some pull requests :)
Thanks for your response! I've no experience in working with React and Node.js, but I'll definitely start some pull requests in the near future ;)
Awesome! It's not as scary as it sounds :) I had no experience with either, and after a few 'easy' pull requests, I've started to get fairly comfortable with it.
Really Awesome post thanks !!....My new post ...[Akshardham Temple]
Thank you very much for your great comment. i agree with your comment.
Excellent post, I am not a great developer but will definitely check out github and see if I can tackle one of those issues.
Cool!
If it's the time to talk about improvements, i have a list here:
(by the way this page https://steemit.com/static/search.html seems to be dead for me)
And maybe more in the future...Still thinking how we can stop the spammers...
This are very simple things that looks like no one care in Steemit.Inc. Til now everytime I read an update or a post about Steemit problems are all about programming or technical stuff but nothing about interface or relation user-web, navegability, information and so on... to many programmers and few or no designers (UI and so on) at all! When both stuff are very important! Normal people do not care at all how it works in the background Steemit, when will be the day that programmers will realize that????
And even so they are so dedicated to the "technical problems" I have read some post who talks about problems in scalation of the platform, the problem who I am really afraid of because means Steemit can not grow as they promise.
I really really hope for the good of the platform but the actions of Steemit.Inc (or not actions at all) does not look good for the future from my point of view... and I am here since more than one year now.(with the english account @juanmiguelsalas not this one)
Be patient. It is a beta website, and right now they are working on laying the foundation for things to come. They understand that the things you mentioned are important, and they are not stupidly ignoring them. Things need to be done in the right order, and there is still a lot of technical/geeky stuff that has to get done.
Hi @timcliff! Do you know that I ask for the same "problems"(kind of) in the SteemFest 1? That was last year.... At that time i got as an answer that Steemit.inc would be hiring a group of UI designers or something like that... Steemfest 2 is almost there and I do not see a lot of change(there were some done, minimun changes) I honestly do not think that to change to a better interface is a diffccult job (I also made web design in some moments of my live so I could say I know wha I am talking about it) or need more than 6 months. But what I know working with coders and programmers is that they really do not care about UI design or things like that, and it is ok, I complete understand that has nothing to do with their jobs so is secundary in their minds. They are not "stupidly" ignoring them just think is not so important.
Right order for who? From a technical point of view (developer) you are right but from a user point of view, sorry but I disagree with you. You can have development in both parts, geeky stuff and UI and more design related stuff at the same time.
And do not get me wrong, I am in Steemit now since more than one year and will be still here next year for sure. I really like Steemit and can see the great future can have but ...
Edit: sorry, I answer with my english account. It is the same person ;)
The original plan was to hire UI designers, but from what I heard they got refocused into mobile and communities.
I realize from an end user perspective, everyone wants the UI/UX features that mainstream users expect from social media platforms.
The goal is to take the platform mainstream. End users are not necessarily going to know the right way to get us there though. Building a bunch of bells and whistles, and changing the UI design when there are plans for changes that will be altering how the whole platform works (like communities) is not smart actually from a business/development perspective.
It will be soooo different the website with the "communities" and "go mobile" that it has to change overall even the design UI/UX of the complete site? And again you are thinking from a bussines/developer perspective. You should think a bit in the users who are the people who will support the platform with content at the end. And actually as a bussines who depend of the users I personally would disagree with this strategy (my bussines perspective) I would try to get a balance between everything.
Look, normal people need to see things changing, at least a bit. And give some design changes that take a looot less time that developing changes normally will make people happy. You should have seeing that on Facebook, they release things drop by drop and people get happy even if they do not get paid there :o)... And normally you do not make big changes from one day to the other also. At least I would not do it in that way.
I think you are underestimating end users a bit here. And more in Steemit where there is a "Public opinion" that normally is listened. (or it supose to be listened)
Pd: sorry for my english... it is not the best but I hope you can understand what i mean.
Be patient. That's about the only advice I have to give. If you don't like what they are doing, there are other projects like Busy.org and others that are more focused on the front end UI stuff. It is not that Steemit doesn't consider that stuff important, but they are a relatively small team, and they have other priorities at the moment.
Yes I will :) but.... In the meantime https://scrypto.io/
Edit: This is what I was talking about it, sadly is not Steemit.
Good suggestions!
Those are good suggestions, can I also add some thoughts:
This is a great post and like all other users are adding a lot of improvements need to take place to really grow the platform to different levels. I have not been around long enough but one feature that is missing for a regular user is to be able to purchase steem straight from the platform using a credit card. As this is not problem for many of us as we buy our steem at the exchanges ,this will be a big problem for new users joining in. Maybe there is such a feature but I am not aware of it. I also see a problem that the company is not taking ownership in leading the new projects and employing coders and developers to take those further. 2 weeks ago a new initiative started to implement #SteemBnB (basically AirBnB) for steemians. However, for this to really take of there needs to be a properly working platform with leadership in place to make sure everything is working perfectly and not just this being initiative from the users. If SteemBbB kicks in this alone would drive the price of STEEM to levels that are hard to imagine right now. AirBnB is valued at 31 billion USD so I do not see the reason why SteemBnB could not rise to those levels in years to come as the platform is users for users, cutting the middleman. There are so many options how the platform could be utilized but that needs developers, coders and most of all leadership. Well, those are just my thoughts. Thanks again.
The ability to buy/sell STEEM directly is its own animal. The regulations behind it are extremely complex and expensive. There are not many companies that are able to take on that challenge. Coinbase is one of the only ones.
Regarding third party projects like you mentioned, the leadership for those needs to come from the community members themselves. If people are expecting to throw out a good idea, and have someone else do all the heavy lifting to make it happen - it probably won't come to fruition.
I hear you out but for a normal person joining the platform and wanting to buy steem you need to simply take the card a purchase steem immeditalely right here on the platform without going through any additional hassle. Hopefully this will change in the near future since this will make a huge difference! Thank you for answering back and have a great day. Wishing you the best of luck with all your projects.
I think we all want that. It would surely be a game changer.
@timcliff thanks for the great post. I'm new but I work in crypto so understand the complications and realize this is still beta. I hope to see more devs chip in. This is made harder by the fact that atm, most good devs are already millionaires. Just hiring a decent one is an achievement.
I agree with @cryptoted that the playing field needs to be leveled some. I am the one in the post he used as an example. I was still happy. Got lots of positive responses. I have met some great people. And i love playing music. It can be hard to see others raking it in with less effort. Not that my posts are great or anything but i'm trying to do it right. To see a meme get 330 bucks is a bit much not to mention the post I saw at 13K the other day.
Despite that I think the site has promise but people are going to have to be patient to expect mainstream adoption were far away from that at about 12% of people staying active. The learning curve for just steem, steem power, vests etc,.etc. and how that affects your acct is enough to make any non crypto person walk away. Most at least.
Something that would be cool to add is the ability to change the look o f our Blog. Like enabling CSS or something. I realize that would add yet another level of complexity. Anything to make our little space more ours. The ability to have a banner on our blog or change the color scheme would be great but I am sure this has been brought up to nauseum already over the year.
I am looking at leasing steem power for a bit. I'm glad to have read this and see you doing well after a year. It seems people who are doing it right and stick to it do well after a time. That gives me hope. I look at this all as an experiment. Anyways good stuff! Thanks for the great post!
wow i learn something for your valuable comment. thanks.
I Think @ned Should See This :)
Great suggestions. Many of them seem like fairly easy coding tasks. I may even pickup one of those PRs myself. Though I suspect the lions share of the first one is getting the environment up and running locally; I have not looked at the setup but that is a chunk of work in most projects.
I have just started considering some of my own Steem based projects, hopefully one or the other ideas gather enough steam to get off the ground. :-D
Cheers,
@kellyjanderson
Yeah, that would be awesome! You are correct, getting condenser up and running is probably a large part of the effort :) I've done it quite a few times myself now though - basically just following the GitHub instructions. I have it down to a science and can get a fresh instance up and running in about 20 min now.
Cool, well I will have to put getting the environment up and running on my list to get done soon. Then I can start looking at these things.
I think I will put up a ticket for the lack of OG tags on profile pages, so sharing a link to your blog will produce more compelling previews on social media.
Added that ticket: Add full "og" tags to blog/profile pages
A simple Embeddable plugin for a steemit upvote is all we need for cross pollination to other sites. With a hover info to join if not logged in. YouTube needs to be the biggest target.
Cool concept!
This is a really good idea. The main problem I see though is that unlike so many other sites people can't just sign up. They have to sign up and then wait a day or more for account approval.