How to KEEP CALM and STEEM ON when everything is falling apart around you
So I have been having some trouble with Steemit - does this sound familiar?
I've been hearing this from all sides - especially and including some new people that I recommended!
'What do you mean this is the best site ever - it doesn't even work!'
Well, yes is does actually. But you have to finesse it sometimes. Treat it gently, rub its back and tell it everything is alright. The devs are working on it, that's for sure; Let's not make it any harder than it needs to be by repeatedly forcing 3x the number of transactions - then trying to delete the duplicates!
So this site is special, if you are reading this I am going to assume you have at least an inkling of the reasons. But what is 'this site'? We live in a world of so much technological advancement that things can get a little confusing. When people tell me that 'that steem website isn't working' - I have to remind them:
Steem is a blockchain
Whats a blockchain? Good question, one that I probably shouldn't embarrass myself by answering, but will anyway. Let it be known that a blockchain and a website are two different things!
A blockchain is a store of information over time, usually involving digital ownership, often called 'tokens' or 'coins'; its first implementation was bitcoin. The time vector is represented in 'blocks', and each block keeps track of changes - be they new entries, transactions, etc - since the previous block. These blocks are 'chained' together, so that if you take the whole chain of blocks, or blockchain, from the beginning, you will know where every token is held and, in the case of steem, everything that has been stored in the blocks.
Websites show information - in the case of steemit.com, it shows information that is publically available on the steem blockchain! And, although steemit.com is scaling up, it has had some rough patches over the last few weeks, which have had multiple reasons, some nefarious - maybe a DDOS attack!; some wonderful - more people signing up on the site!; and some just human nature - mashing the buttons until transactions go through type of viscious cycle.
Here's what's important to know:
There are other websites to access the Steem blockchain
Two that I have used and like are busy.org and steemitstage.com.
Protip: Only use your private posting key on third party sites, not your master password.
Busy.org is different than steemit.com, it has a different editor, layout and organizational flow! I like to use it to find older articles of mine or others, since resteems don't list in the same feed, but are separated. I've also used it to browse tags, which are way more organized on busy, and other general surfing.
Unfortunately, busy.org seems to use a different markup language, and doesn't have an image uploader, so I haven't actually posted an article with it yet.
But steemitstage.com is an exact clone of steemit! I have used steemitstage.com to upload photos and post articles, as well as all the other general browsing I normally would do on steemit.com
Here's a trick!
Here are three links to my friend @sanmi's article that inspired me to write this post:
https://steemit.com/steemit/@sanmi/what-has-happenned-to-steemit
https://busy.org/steemit/@sanmi/what-has-happenned-to-steemit
https://steemitstage.com/steemit/@sanmi/what-has-happenned-to-steemit
Notice that they all lead to the exact same article, and the url's all have the exact same extensions! That means that if you are trying to do something, say posting a comment, and it doesn't seem to be working, you can just replace the root domain steemit.com with either busy.org or steemitstage.com, and you will be led to the same place - and can now try again to post your comment.
That is - if you don't already see it.
I have noticed that since the devs have implemented their changes, I haven't gotten less error messages, but very frequently I have noticed that even with the error messages - my posts are going through!
In the above article by Sanmi, he kept trying to submit a transfer because of a Transaction Broadcast Error, and ended up sending it three times!
I am recommending to each one of us - take the time to check to see if your post, comment or transaction went through, refresh the page and check (Always save your posts and well-written comments apart; I use notepad for quick comments and openoffice writer to save my posts). Only if it really hasn't posted should you try again.
Unless we all start putting a bit more trust in the framework again, we are often putting 3x or more load than necessary on the system.
Edit/Update: While posting this very article, I got a Transaction Broadcast Error - following my own advice I opened a new tab and saw that it really had posted ;p
Love and Light - Steem on!
It's getting better all the time🎤 Thanks for the heads up on steemitstage. I knew about busy, but not what the third option was.
Yes it does seem like its getting back to normal now!
i tried upvoting this and it didn't work.. hopefully this comment will.. nuff said! ;-) its good to give the other options too.. it is a bit annoying but thank god at least anyone can pretty much clone steemit.com and keep her alive..
im guessing we will see more of these as time goes on.. demand is certainly there..
Thank God for this article! When people asked to use busy.org and steemitstage.com, I didn't understand the link between them and steemit. However, now I do and things are clearer to me. I was so annoyed by all the issues going on Steemit but I'm a bit relieved now. :D <3
I needed this information, it has certainly been frustrating on Steemit lately! Thanks for the help and advice, I'll start trying to have some more of that patience now that I'm supposed to be famous for. Losing two hours of work into the depth of cyberspace really put it to the test this week! 😎
Can't downvote too :-)
Whenever you talk about downvoting on my posts I start getting worried ;p
Hahaha yeah he used the d-word once before too :P
Nice and thorough explanation of various possibilites , I like the photos 😁, matches the real expressions.
One thing I must say, is that if you are transferring SBD, then double check before resubmit.
You know, it seems at the very least they'd compare the text or a hash of the text from the previous post and do a quick sanity check to make sure they were not equal before submitting a new post.
In addition to the links you provided, it seems there's also a CN Steem: https://cnsteem.com/
There is a very basic check, which seems to cause even more confusion for those uninitiated. When making a post at least, while clicking frantically, someone may notice that the errors switch from transaction broadcast error to synchronous error to error you may only post every 20 minutes.
Comments are once every 20 seconds - much easier for those to multiply - but I have found people complaining about posting three times the same article - that took patience - posts cannot be deleted and so they will have to edit them.
Upvoting with a big smile , fun but informative article >> >Y < <<
I've noticed that Steemit seems a little bit more stable with Firefox (my second-favorite browser) than with Opera (my favorite browser). So, if folks are having problems, a simple browser-change could help.
Interesting! I do use Opera for steemit - will give your advice a try!
I use chrome for steemit and since few days is working good. If don't work thank I use busy.org too and I know how to add photos on busy.org, just take a look. I need to learn how to add arrow to gifs because it's not clear visible, you need to find small plus + and than add photo
Thanks for mentioning the two alternatives. I've heard about busy.org but didn't know it was a steemit alternative. :-) Love your pictures, by the way! Very expressive.