DApp of the week: Busy.org
Most of us who joined the Steem blockchain joined trough http://steemit.com, and probably used that interface for a long time. Today I want to showcase one of the other options for blogging DApps, which is also the main platform that I personally use. We're talking about @busy.org, probably one of the first non-Steemit DApps that was built on the Steem blockchain.
Busy.org itself is not that different from Steemit.com; they are both interfaces that allows you to primarily blog, read, and interact with other blogs. It does not really provide with a hugely different way of browsing the Steem blockchain, but there are a few things that I believe that Busy.org does a lot better than Steemit.
Why use Busy.org instead of Steemit.com
The previous few weeks have shown us that we should be careful about relying too heavily on Steemit Inc., so why not try out a different blogging interface that is not owned by Steemit? I have a few good reasons why I prefer Busy.org over Steemit:
The design is a lot better
Steemit has an outdated design, and I don't think anyone will argue with me when I claim that busy.org has a much better design than Steemit. It might feel a bit strange to get used to a new UI when browsing the Steem blockchain, but you get used to it pretty fast.
What my feed looks like on busy.org.
Busy.org upvotes you for using their interface
You do actually get a free upvote by using the busy.org interface, as long as you make sure that one of your five tags is #busy. The monetary value of this upvote depends on how many and how powerful people follow your blog, so those of us with a lot of followers tend to get pretty good upvotes from using the tag.
I find it to be worth it for most users, even if you don't have a big following yet, since a lot of posts don't really need all 5 tags anyway.
You get notifications about comments, mentions, follows, and transactions on Busy.org
If you are a real Steem veteran, then you might remember that Steemit used to also give us notifications when someone replied to a post or comment, but I think it's been over 1.5 years since this feature was deactivated. However, Busy.org still has it, and you will get instantly notified when someone either replies to a post or comment, mentions you in a post or comment, or send you a transaction.
This is pretty much what it looks like when you open the notification tab. The bell will also get a red button on it when you get a new notification, so you won't miss anything anymore!
Everyone can use the voting slider
If you upvote posts from Busy.org instead of Steemit you can use the upvote slider even when you have less than 500 STEEM Power on your account. I don't even think there is a lower limit on Busy.org, so this is great if you want to manually curate with < 500 SP.
You can save drafts
I constantly work on three or four different blog posts at the same time, and Busy.org makes it easy to do this. Every time you write on the Busy editor, a draft is saved, so you can keep writing it on another computer if you want to. The draft storage space is very limited, but it's still possible to keep up to 10 posts or so drafted. Thanks to @matkodurko for reminding me about this feature.
Better storage of photos
Steemit Inc. is cutting cost, and one of the noticeable changes for us users is that they compress all the images we upload on Steemit.com, at times severely lowering the quality of them. However, Busy.org uses a more decentralized type of image hosting (IPFS), and don't lower the quality of your photos as much.
You won't have to load all comments
This is a very minor difference, but one that I still love. Have you ever opened a post with an insane number of comments on Steemit? Even my gaming computer have problems handling that. If you don't know what I'm talking about, try to open this old post about the Byteball airdrop with 2,500 comments.
Anyway, with Busy.org you only get around 50 or so comments that show up automatically, and then you need to click a button to load more. This stops all issues I have ever had with opening these hugely debated posts.
Log in with Steemconnect and start using Busy.org
Like most other DApps out there, all you need to do to get started is to head over to their website (http://busy.org/) and log in with Steemconnect. I can't guarantee that you will like Busy.org better than Steemit, but I really urge you to at least check it out if you are one of those people who haven't really tried anything other than Steemit.
More DApps of the week
- DApp of the week #1: Musing.io.
- DApp of the week #2: dpoll.
- DApp of the week #3: Steem Supply.
- DApp of the week #4: Busy.org.
Thanks for reading
Have you tried using Busy.org for your blogging or interacting before? What do you think of it?
Yupp I remember @jpphotography explaining the pictures thing. I'd actually expect Steemit Inc to use IPFS and busy use a local DB. Interesting indeed. Anyway, I don't really know why I'm not using Busy that much but I just don't. The UI is soo much better than the native one and I still use that one :D You mentioned that yourself. But what you didn't and I find pretty important is the drafts. You can leave your half finished posts there and get back to them later. I feel it's one of the most important features missing in steemit.com
Oh yeah, I forgot to mention the drafts! But I agree, these are awesome, and I use them all the time. I will be updating the post to include them :)
Same here :)
I have the same issue like @matkodurko. I know Busy has been beating Steemit on so many levels, yet I am still using Steemit :D As one of our old Czech sayings goes: "Habit is a shirt made of iron."
Thanks for pointing out all the benefits of using Busy my friend, I promise I will use it more :)
That's a great saying! Habits are definitely hard to break. I think you might get a pretty nice upvote from the Busy upvote bot, so it could potentially be profitable for you to check it out. It really depends on the Vests of your followers.
Oh yeah, I know about these Busy upvotes - I have been using their platform for posting my posts to get them but that´s it - I do everything else on Steemit. I am starting to feel bad about it though - I mean it feels like Busy deserves more than just that from me :) I will try to start using Busy as my home platform for interacting with the blockchain.
Ah, I see. Hehe, I know how you feel. I did that for a long time as well, but I have gradually moved towards using Busy for reading. I still find Steemit to be a more easier to use for replying to comments tough, so I'm not a 100 % Busy user myself yet. But I don't think you should feel obliged to use them just because they upvote your posts.
So how do they pay their bills ? Just curious and I may have a look soon.
I have no idea. They get a huge delegation currently, and they raised some funds earlier before release. But I'm not sure if they got a steady stream of income tough.
I love busy.org. I especially like the fact that you get notifications when you receive a comment. And the design is prettier than Steemit's just like you say.
Posted using Partiko Android
Same here. The notifications are amazing!
Drafts and notifications are two main reasons why I use busy.org.
Both of these features are really nice, and something I wish Steemit also had. But it's a good thing we got Busy, so we don't need to rely on Steemit Inc. to implement this.
Hey!!
thanks for using the steem blockchain to post your story
You got a small upvote from me, I hope it will help you and the whole community to thrive.
Awesome, thanks!
Hi @valth!
Your post was upvoted by @steem-ua, new Steem dApp, using UserAuthority for algorithmic post curation!
Your UA account score is currently 5.182 which ranks you at #858 across all Steem accounts.
Your rank has improved 3 places in the last three days (old rank 861).
In our last Algorithmic Curation Round, consisting of 226 contributions, your post is ranked at #60.
Evaluation of your UA score:
Feel free to join our @steem-ua Discord server