I discovered https://www.parley.io few days ago and I've been loving it. I must give a huge Thank You! for @thekyle for creating this nifty little gem. It's something I've been wanting to see for a long long time. Parley is about sharing and discussing about other people's work. This is what I wanted to see when I proposed ShareSTEEM as an idea for an Smart Media Token.

steemit isn't the only place with great content and there is no effective method to curate content that is outside of steemit and STEEM blockchain.

We need an efficient way to incorporate the content from around the internet in ways that greatly help the users of this platform while earning "Fair" rewards and giving necessary commentary.
That commentary part is very important. Why? Because the stuff we find on the internet may be not fully agreeable or incomplete according to certain individual's views. I must have the ability to add something to the content or clarify my own views regarding certain matters.

This is what I wanted to see on the blockchain. Parley gets most of it done really well. I'll let @thekyle do the talking about the project.

In short, Parley is a direct competitor to Reddit. The service allows Steem users to post links to interesting content they find on the web, and even more importantly it will allow creators to monetize their work regardless of whether it was posted directly to the Steem blockchain or not.

That said, unlike most Steem apps build thus far, we don't believe that the primary value of Parley is from top-level posts (although of course, they do still have huge value in bringing important news to hundreds of thousands of Steem users). Instead, we believe that most of the value lies in the comment section, specifically in the ability for users to discuss their thoughts about global events freely and without fear of censorship.

The Biggest Missing Feature

Parley has several upcoming feature which are mentioned in the introductory post: https://steemit.com/parley/@thekyle/introducing-parley-a-decentralized-discussion-engine-based-on-steem But the biggest and most important aspect is missing IMO. Even the time wasting privacy invading Facebook allows comments on the things we share. Sometimes I have things to add to the original content. Sometimes I have points that I disagree with. Reddit allows me to add my own thoughts on something I share and Parley doesn't. IMHO everything else regarding the development can wait, but the ability to write down personal thoughts is paramount for a platform that is made to spark good discussion in the comments section.

Of course I can put a comment below and express my thoughts. But how do I know that my comments is going to be on top? Also there is the need for a self-upvote on the comment to ensure visibility.

Solutions

1)Do it like Steepshot and add a "Comments" portion with a limited word count. I think 512-2048 range is optimal. Community should gather around and figure out a an exact number.
2)The other option is giving the poster the ability to pin a comment on top. But I don't know any easy way to accomplish this as STEEM blockchain doesn't support such actions at the protocol level.

Additional Constructive Criticism

I'm not a fan of n^2 at all. But curating content from outside of the STEEM blockchain is different from producing original content on STEEM. Also I need to mention that sharing just one link with a title and a tag doesn't take much effort. Think about the times you used to use legacy social media and decided to share something awesome. If you have been a Reddit user, think about how much content you shared. I know that I could easily share 4 high quality works using https://www.parley.io and that's cool. But what would happen if people start posting several times a day and upvote each other instead of creating original content?You could say that such users would be flagged. For that I'm going to say,

Flagging isn't pleasant and it takes additional effort. Parley isn't on SMT and n^2 or other non-linear reward cannot be implemented at the moment. But there can be a maximum limit for earnings implemented. At the current state I'd say even 100 SBD limit would be more than sufficient. Just check the #parley tag and see for yourself the value of such content. I'm not a fan of arbitrary limits and I think they are a less than ideal solution. I also wish I'd be able to see Parley o SMTs. But until that we need to have something. A max cap on rewards is the best thing I can think of.

Appriciate what you have and Evolve it with Love

It's easy to point fingers a things. What's really hard to do is getting some actual work done. I originally shared my ShareSTEEM idea as a potential SMT as I have only very basic programming skills and I'm glad to see something close to that from @thekyle ad I consider Parley to be a nifty addition to the STEEM eco-system. But the lack of poster comments and potential to abuse are holding back the potential awesomeness of Parley. @thekyle isn't working with some multi-million dollar startup to create this platform. I understand the development can be slow. But the 10% beneficiaries and promotion of the platform by users can lead Parley to become a far better Reddit and SMTs could help the cause even more.

If you guys have any smart suggestions, feel fee to share them. You can check my previous post on curating content from other sites here: https://steemit.com/steemit/@vimukthi/the-biggest-problem-i-see-when-it-comes-to-curation-and-making-steem-an-information-hub-and-how-smts-can-help-sharesteem

Finally I'd like to say Thank You and Wish Best of Luck to the Developers!
Until next time, Happy Steeming :-)