Why I'm Moving To Busy.org
You all know that I love STEEM and the entire Steem blockchain. I used to only use Steemit as the portal to the fantastic content we have here but have since changed my tune. While Steemit is still excellent and fills a need, I find busy.org to fit my style much better.
I first learned about @busy a while back when Steemit was suffering, what seemed to be a DDoS attack slowing it down to practically an unusable state. However, at the time I was a bit of a Steemit minimalist and did not pay much attention to busy. Over the past week, I chose to give it a solid try and concluded that I like it better than Steemit.
What I Love About Busy
Over All Presentation
I love the way @busy looks. It's super clean and comfortable to read. It feels more like what most people would expect a blogging based social network to look like in my opinion. It's easy to see that the devs have a focus on usability overall.
Notifications
Even though I use @ginabot to receive notifications, it is still nice to see them on busy. At this time I have yet to see any setting for the notifications, but that is a minor detail and one I am not worried about.
Save Multiple Drafts
This is epic for any serious blogger. Write a post now and save it for later to give yourself a head start. I do believe that you may access those drafts from any computer, unlike the way Steemit holds drafts. If this is no the case, please let me know.
Interesting People Tab
I like this tab that @busy included in the main feed. It gives me an easy way to check out other users that I have yet to see. I am not sure how they are pulled, but it does seem like there is some thought put into the process. The creators shown are not all steemit "famous" creators and looks to be tied to how I am already following.
However, it may just be all about the user's reputation and nothing else.
Easy To Read Blogroll
This is a big plus for me! The way busy lays out the posts on the feed, and the blogroll is much better in my opinion. The thumbnails pop off the page in a way that makes an effort worth the time. Why have a tiny image in the blogroll when we spend the time to make the header image?
Awesome Vote Slider
The vote slider on busy is easier to use and get to that exact percentage you desire. I also like that it shows the amount of currency that percentage yields at our current Steem Power.
What Could Change
Needs A Dark Theme Option
It's true, there is no dark theme option on busy at this time, and that is fine for use during the day. At night I prefer to use dark themes where I can since it is easier on the eyes.
So I started to mess around with color schemes and plan on releasing a Chrome and Firefox extension to change @busy to a solarized dark theme for me until they implement the feature. If you have any suggestions, please feel free to let me know.
Remember Comment Vote Percentage
The saved voting percentage for both comments and posts is a nice plus that Steemit has at this time. On busy we can set the default voting percent, but it is site wide. So for each comment, I make I have to manually change the percentage to whatever I deem reasonable. It's by no means a deal breaker for me but would be a nice touch.
Will I Ditch Steemit?
For the most part, I think I am going to stop using Steemit in favor of Busy. I already set GinaBot to open all links with Busy, and I find the overall experience to me much more pleasurable. There may be some occasions where I will need to use Steemit instead, one of them being the internal market that Steemit has and busy does not as far as I am aware.
Thanks For Reading!
If you have any topics that you would like me to cover pleas feel free to comment them below and I'll add them all to my list!
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Interesting, I’ve heard pros and cons to busy in my early writing days. Nothing recently until your post. How is busy on mobile?
Let me mess around with it and I'll let you know. I do 99% of my steem stuff on a laptop or desktop computer.
Depends on the mobile phone. Few weeks ago i compiled a guide on alternative platforms to steemit. Busy.org was one of them. I have endured great amount of pain surfing through busy.org on my iPhone 6, however, it runs absolutely flawless on my macbook. Then i tried it on a new android phone (packed with some heavy specs) of my wife. Busy.org gave me no issues on that one.. so i came to conclusion that it depends on the power of your mobile devices. Though it would be interesting if busy could release an app for their platform. That way the performance will be optimised on handheld devices. But the author is very much right about busy.org being awesome.. it gives you so many features that should have been there on steemit.. hope it helps..
Thanks for summarising busy. It seems busy is more responsive than steemit. But I have a question, If you will post on Steemit or will be surfing on steemit. In this case will a steemit user who follows you get your posts in feeds?
Yes! Because it is all the same blockchain :D
Thanks God. Because it is important for me to stay engaged with those who I have followed.
Thanks for posting this info, @jrswab! This is my 4th active day on steemit and I'm so frustrated with so many issues here, I'm not sure how much longer I will last here. It's good to hear there's a decent alternative on the same blockchain with the same basic concept to give steemit a run for their money. Maybe, the competition will drive steemit more to fix all the issues they have here. I'll definitely go check them out. Do they actually give new bloggers any visibility at all? That's the number one issue I've seen so many have with steemit no matter how good the content is, which gives the impression that once a decent alternative arises people will migrate to in droves, if they don't fix it. All the best
Its an extremely good analysis.. i have personally found busy.org packed with more features than steemit. Only 2 days ago i was writing a post regarding how important comments are on steemit when my phone restarted and i lost all the progress and had to rewrite everything.. so drafts are one of the best features i have come across..
There is another benefit of using busy. I dont know if they are still doing it or not but they give you one upvote per day. And the upvote size depends on the combined SP of people who are following you. Means if you have got a whale or two following you then the upvote from busy.org will be substantial.. nonetheless, a free upvote is always welcomed no matter how small or big it is.
Good analysis.. cheers
On Busy predominantly... Both PC and on my mobile. Love the notifications, drafts, don't forget the bookmarks. Busy is, by far, the best interface.
You can hold drafts on Steemit? How?
Just one and it stays with your PC so you are unable no access it from another computer. It seems to be more of a cookie based draft than a real draft they hold.
That's one thing that really bugs me with Steemit. I think I'll give busy a go when I write my next post. Still trying to wrap my head around all the various Steem interfaces.
Isn't busy just a different interface for the steem blockchain? I.e another way of accessing it - with everything you post on busy also apearing in steemit?
In which case you're not really abandoning steemit at all.
I hadn't realised you can save drafts - now that is a useful feature!
Yes
Well yes I am because Steemit only a website to access the STEEM blockchain.
"The thumbnails pop off the page in a way that makes an effort worth the time. Why have a tiny image in the blogroll when we spend the time to make the header image?"
^ This point isn't really valid since Steemit can toggle between the two views. Just saying 😀
I probably should switch to Busy but all my shortcuts are to Steemit and it lets me use all the SteemPlus features, so... If I ever do go to it I'll be using its clone SteemKitties 😺
hahah oh yeah! I forgot about the toggle feature on Steemit... woops
I aslo love @busy, I'm kinda jumping btween one another.
And definetly need a night vision mode.
Well I will start my work tonight on the extension to take care of it for you. Maybe busy will even pick it up ;)
Thank you for the information in your post. alsaya will try it