Diversifying My Steemit Experience: In Over My Head With Awesome ChainBB
So what's so great about Chainbb that I picked it as one of the other platforms I am posting and commenting from? This one is a little harder to explain as easily, but it is as equally an awesome project as eSteem.
Like the title suggests, there's such a mindset change needed in order to appreciate how Chainbb is more than just another front-end for Steemit.com. So much so, that I feel a little overwhelmed by the very different approach to presenting content and producing a post.
For example, there doesn't appear to be a preview panel to show you the results of your markdown efforts. But keep in mind, this project is early, and ambitious, and these features are sure to eventually make their way onto the forums.
But the current offering is no slouch, though again, it does come with a learning curve/perspective change.
Whois Chainbb?
ChainBB is the latest digital lovechild of @jesta the steemstats.com developer who has been a Steemit asset for as long as I can remember (or since July 15, 2016 - thanks for the specific date eSteem!)
This latest project impresses me most with its organization of topics and ease of exploring the forums.
In the screenshot above, I made sure to collapse some of the topics to illustrate how easy it is filter down to only the subjects you want to explore. And by clicking into any of the available subjects, your brought to another screen that both presents the latest posts in the forum, and also recommends sub-forums that could interest you or are relevant to the conversation somehow.
Posting is a Little Tough
The part of the experience that I believe will greatly improve over the next days, months, and years is posting. I have come to rely on being able to preview my post, so not being able to do so on Chainbb isn't a dealbreaker, but it is currently an obstacle.
Full disclosure: I am writing this in Chainbb and will post from here as well, but I will pump the text into the steemit editor just to make sure my markdown isn't funky. But as much as possible, I am trying to do all the writing in the provided editor on Chainbb.
One feature that I like is that you have to travel to the forum for the topic you'd like to post in before you can post, and this generates the first tag you will use, depending on which thread you're posting to. Another great feature is that you can write up a post in the steemit editor and even post from there and still tie it to the forum by making it the first tag. In this case, I'm using chainbb-general as an example.
In Chainbb, this tag is preselected for me. But in Steemit, if I were to make it my first tag, it would then also show up in the forums in the correct place.
So for those of you that may want to support this project but are intimidated by the learning curve, I believe this is a way to still show support (Please correct me if this is wrong).
I will be using the Chainbb tag as this is a first impression novice user experience review.
Commenting is FUN!
What I enjoy a lot right now is replying to comments via Chainbb while I'm shackled to my corporate ball and chain. It's easy and when you read down the thread it's must easier to immediately identify the context of the comment.
This is highly functional, but I've also come to rely on having the value of the post or comment displayed somewhere. Of course, this is just extra information that doesn't really matter in a good dialogue, but on Steemit we're so used to seeing this information that it's noticeable when it's not there. My workaround for this is eSteem, so I have not noticed a big impact to my workflow.
And in a way, I'm really pleased by the focus being less about the dollar amount of a comment or post and more just about the community and conversation. I mean, honestly, we all know that on the backend good content is being rewarded (hopefully), so not having it here is almost akin to leaving your smart phone at home for a weekend camping trip (not recommended).
Chainbb also provides color coding on the voting button that helps you quickly identify what you have or haven't voted on. A dropdown also allows you to set the percentage of voting power, and once clicked it turns purple. Blue indicates you haven't voted yet.
Thinking about it in this way helps free me up to appreciate that there are friggin forums of Steemit posts that I can go all Spelunker on!
The Rock is my Corporate Job and the Bottomless Rabbit Hole is Chainbb Forums!
Lunch Break Done, Back to Serfdom
There is so much more I plan to write about Chainbb, but with the last remaining gasps of my lunch hour I am going to get some fresh air and explore the Forums!
Let me know in the comments how your experience has been with Chainbb, and please leave any pointers or pro tips that can help Chainbb novices like me!
Chainbb: Chains You Can Believe In!
Big Shoutout to @cryptoctopus who was the straw that broke the camel's back for getting me to sign up to chainbb a few weeks ago and to finally start using it.
(posted from Chainbb.com)
My earliest internet memories involve BBs, and they remained my favourite style of discussion forum/social media. So glad to see it implemented for the Steem blockchain!
Epic write-up @prufarchy! This is my first post using ChainBB. I kept meaning to try it out, but between you and @cryptoctopus I've been pushed into the inevitable! Cheers! =)
That was my deal too! I set everything up and then kind of left it at that as my mind wrapped around the value proposition. I was also moving at the time so I was spread thin.
But cryptoctopus is just a good influencer and I came around. I'm glad I did too, there's so much greatness happening with this development.
Makes me super excited for zappl and steemq
ChainBB is amazing product and clearly shows that it's up to developers to present the data to us in a way they wish. Steem can be utilized in so many different ways that it can be overwhelming for new users when they realize the potential.
There will be so many different projects built on Steem, and on some people won't even know their using Steem. There's no need to!
I'm also very happy to see this. There will be many more projects that will move the direction away from the monetary rewards. I'm planning to do some and I'm sure I'm not alone.
The vision for me is to have sites like Reddit, operating just the same, but with monetary rewards being a hidden bonus!
I think @jesta just posted he's off to develop for some new cryptocurrency. Will someone take over the development of ChainBB?
No, @jesta is not leaving the STEEM community or ChainBB... he is working on some projects involving the new Peerplays, but he is doing both simultaneously.
Less sleep for him, then :)
What? What did I say? roflamo
I was under the impression that you will be busy with Peerplay (about which you posted recently) and won't have enough time to work on ChainBB or other Steem related projects.
"My developer hours right now are being poured into both chainBB and Vessel, but running an extra witness node and being on call for emergencies won't slow that down." - Jesta
Both ChainBB and Vessel are Steem related projects.
With other related projects to include: creating a 25th hour of the day, apparently?
Not that everyone here isn't immensely grateful!
More quotes just to make it a bit clearer:
But there is this bit:
This means he's bringing the tools that he already has developed for Steem for Peerplay aswell as they are both based on Graphene.
But yes, I'm also waiting for 25th hour addition to day. Hopefully Jesta can deliver soon.
Those quotes still stand true. I'd say this week about 25% of my efforts have gone towards peerplays, the rest into chainBB. I have some things I want to add to peerplaysdb.com but right now I'm blocked at the API level, so not much happening there either.
I didn't mean to offend you, dek. I just happened to read the same post by jesta earlier and corrected you. Coincidentally I'm also testing https://steem.makerwannabe.com/ and saw you unfollowed me - That is okay, as I will be moving my focus from blogging to developing myself and I never were a good one at that in the first place, but I was just trying to help. Sorry if it came out wrong.
I guess my output needs working on :)
No, it's OK, I was misinformed, so I'm actually grateful for the clarification! :)
As far as unfollowing you, it must have been several hours prior to me even posting here or your consequent reply - I've realized that that while I was away from Steemit for the last six months, roughly 90% of my followers have become inactive, which is one the reasons why I'm getting very low attention on my posts. So I decided to remove all inactive accounts, active accounts, which only resteem but don't post anything original, and also all active accounts, which post topics which are not of direct interest to me. I hope you don't take offence - for example, I see you're not wildly interested in photography either, which is what I mostly post about here :)
All the best!
Ah, I didn't take in to account that the service isn't using my local time. And yes, my posts mainly revolve around the cryptocurrency space and the ideas for it.
Even though photography isn't one of the main interests for me here, I have followed you and will upvote if I catch some spectacular picture with my eye so get busy! :) The start is always the hardest, it will get better with introduction of subcommunities and different platforms for different uses (Steepshot for pictures etc.)
Hah! I guess I should actually follow you, then! :) Have a good day!
The thing is, I'm not a hype guy just for Steem and I'm willing to voice concern about it if I feel the need. I consider Steemit as a first information hub for people new to cryptocurrency as whole and that greatly directs my actions.
I don't bash other coins just because they aren't Steem, this is something I see happen around here occasionally and that's where the big money is but there is far greater value in Steem being a neutral information/social hub. Of course that is just my personal opinion.
Also I post rarely, I'm not the guy to force myself to churn out posts if I don't feel the need just for bigger following and greater dollar value. But I do value those who choose to do so as regular content creators are of course needed but the need will decrease as userbase grows.
Good day to you too, let's enjoy the summer!
Wrote a reply below one of @igster's posts, just saying something here in the event you missed that.
Peerplays won't get in the way of chainBB ;)
I did catch it and I apologize - I guess I misunderstood your plans :) Keep up the good work, @jesta!
I don't think the purpose of chainbb is to create an awful lot. I keep it open on my phone and burn some vote power and look what others are doing.
Good article!
i can hear this GIF
and yes i am in over my head
and are u saying you are a cyber serf here on steemit?
i guess this is neofuedalism in a way
I am not saying that at all. I was talking about Corporate Serfdom (My meatspace corporate job).
I come to Steemit to graze the hem of Freedom, to commune with a wide range of interesting, intelligent, funny, insightful people, and to dream out loud... and I've been fortunate to find a home here.
I mean, why else would I spend most of my lunch hour reviewing front-ends of the Blockchain haha (hint: gotta earn my way to Steemfest2 and keep the tradition going!)
Great improvement. Awesome