Hello fellow Steemians and steemgigers! Today I want to share with you some of my suggestions to make the Steemgigs condenser a little bit more fun and easier to use. I was thinking of submitting this using the Utopian condenser however I realize that Utopian is too restrictive and I feel I can get my message through better using my own way of presenting them. Besides I will be covering a lot of elements in the platform which I can present my suggestions more effectively using my own style. Let’s get right into it then.

For those who do not know what Steemgigs is I suggest you read the article below and please don’t miss out on this great opportunity:

https://steemit.com/steemgigs/@surpassinggoogle/the-grand-picture-the-detailed-faq-s-for-https-steemgigs-org-and-all-the-answers-please-bookmark-this

STEEMGIGS “UN(Dis)talented-Editor” Suggestions

One of the most exciting feature of Steemgigs is its “untalented editor.” To be honest I would have been using this editor for all my post if not for one persistent flaw that I always encounter which I will discuss later in this post for now let me just share some of suggestions that I think will make the “un(dis)talented editor” the ultimate editor in the STEEM.

First I would like to have "word count functionality" for the editor, similar to that seen in busy.org editor. This will help the writer to monitor the word count of his work. If you look around in steemit you will see a whole lot of contest that Steemians can join. In most of these contests they have minimum word count requirements. I have not participated in these contests but I like to monitor my word count as well. There are times that I get a little overboard and write articles that are too long. I know that a lot of my readers do not have the luxury (and internet connection) to read too long articles, for some, they might feel it too cumbersome to read and others might get bored so I tend to limit my words to about 500 - 1,000 words is just about right for me (I must warn you this article might have way more than that 😂). Conversely, sometimes when I feel uninspired to write long articles I look at the word count to remind me that my production is slow. Whatever the case is I think having a word count is a very useful functionality and will improve the experience of the user of the editor.

The next feature that I wanted to have incorporated in the editor is some "spelling, grammar and dictionary/thesaurus" for the editor. I think there is already the spelling functionality built in chrome however I am not sure for other browsers though it is always good to have it around especially for those whose native language is not English. This will help them to avoid embarrassing typos. The same can also be said with grammar checker. "Dictionary/thesaurus functionality" will enable the user to use a more precise and accurate word to describe what they are writing about. I admit that I always use Google to find the meaning of words that I seldom encounter or don’t know its meaning. It really increases the ease of use of the editor if this functionality will be built-in.

Another function that I wish to be included in the editor is the "subscript and superscript functionality." I do a lot of research in the internet and I see lots of scholarly papers that use a stylishly formatted way of citing their sources. They usually have a number "superscripted" beside it and the number corresponds to a numbered footer located at the end of the article. This will greatly help in the formatting and styling of the post that is meant to be a study or a research or report, stylish and functional. If implemented teachers might use the platform for submissions. Incidentally I have seen many students in the Philippines using Facebook as a medium of some sort of project that is graded depending on the likes and comments they receive from the platform. I cannot see why not we can’t do that also in this platform.

Since I mentioned above scholarly work let us up the ante and suggest another functionally that I think would benefit a lot of writers specially the students. A Mathematical Equation Entry mechanism incorporated would also be awesome! As what I have said in the previous paragraph I do a lot of research especially about Blockchains which more often than not presents some mathematical interpretations of a set of function. I also see this in many statistical studies that I encounter online. I think having this Mathematics Equation Tool really adds value to the use of this platform and depending on how the user will use it will surely open up a whole new breed of unique contents specially in the field of science and mathematics.

To help in making contents that are more presentable and compelling I would also like to suggest "Tables and Columns creation capabilities." Although these capabilities are already in place using simple HTML commands it would really help people who don’t know its syntax to create tables and columns. I have seen many great contents in steemit that tries to present a group of data sets that they want to show their readers but was not able to present it elegantly because they don’t know or having difficulty to use HTML commands (This is especially true when using mobile phones) . With an easy to use tool that creates on the fly tables and columns they will be able to use present their topic more clearly and more effectively. I have been guilty of forgoing articles and ideas that I want to share in this platform because it lacks this capability or it is too cumbersome to do so. I end up not posting it or present it in a different way than what I originally intended it to be.

Another feature that I think is sorely lacking is the edit functionality. One of the main reasons I am reluctant in using the “untalented editor” is the fact that once it is submitted and posted editing the work done is too complicated for me. I tried to look for the edit function for the “untalented editor” I can’t find one and I am lead to believe that there is none. Some may think that it is okay since one can edit the work using Steemit editor right? Unfortunately when you try to edit using its default editor you will be presented with a code ridden text that looks more like a HTML code. I think this is one of the weak spot of the “un(dis)talented editor” that needs to be address pretty soon. I think one of the barriers why Steemgigers and Steemians are using other condensers Is the fact that it is hard to edit post that are written in the said editor.

In addition to the difficulty in editing there is another feature that is lacking in the editor. The internal scroll functionality that most of other STEEM editor has.*** I find it difficult to scroll all the way up just to call formatting or styling function*** in my work when using the “un(dis)talented editor.” This difficulty is amplified when working on very long articles or of need lots of images, videos or links. I keep on going back in forth just to call the commands for the formatting. It would be nice to have internal scroll in the content working area so not to waste so much time going up and down the editor’s page.

One of the most frustrating experiences I had when using any of the posting mechanism Steemgigs has is the errors has been a common complaint of its users the “error in posting” you get publishing your work. After many hours of working on your post you will be shocked to discover you can’t post it. What makes it worse is that it does not specify what needs fixing to enable you to post. Sir Terry already discuss this in his post in Steemgigs what is causing the problem (The problem stems from uncompressed images). You may read the article here. I recommend that the system should have a function from the very start that tells people that the image they have uploaded will cause errors or better yet have an internal mechanism that will compress the images to sizes that will not cause any posting problems. This will lessen the possibility of error during posting and would lessen the footprint of the images.

There is one function that the “un(dis)talented editor” I really like if only it was working: the justify alignment is not functioning. I have tried it several times but I think the function is just not working. I hope the developers will be able to work on this as it is a function that I wanted to use before. It might be not that much of an issue but It would be nice if users will be able to use this since it was included in the menu of the editor. This will enable users to have a more balance formatting of their article. In lieu of this function I have been centering some of my post. However some post are not really wonderful to look at when using center. I really hope they fix this soon.

Other Steemgigs.org suggestions

Most of the things that I write about in STEEM it is not written to be shared in Steemit alone. I intend these articles to be shared to other social media platforms such has Twitter, Instragram, Facebook, Linked and Google plus. In this regard I would like to suggest sharing links menu be added to the Steemgigs.org condenser. Since Steemgigs.org main purpose is to find or advertise your gigs I think this is a must-have for the platform.

In line with the suggestion that I have suggested in the last paragraph I think it is also to have promotion functionality within the steemgigs.org condenser. This is similar to post promotional bots that is prevalent in the Steemit website. This can be a paid service form Steemgigs and will be a good source income to help maintain and improve the platform.

There is also a need to improve the visualization of the link when steemgigs.org links are shared. I observed that when I share links coming from steemgigs.org it does not present a picture or a short summary of what the link is all about. Although alternatively you can always use the Steemit.com link it is better if we can share steemgigs.org link since that is the platform that we intended to promote. This will be an effective tool to make people curious what is Steemgigs is all about.

To help improve the visualization of the interface of steemgigs main dashboard I would like to suggest a magnifying effect on the different gigs present in the platform whenever the mouse passes over the pictures of the service offered. This is more for an aesthetic effect than any else. This can be an additional paid feature for the site where people will pay SBD/STEEM for them to be able to use this special feature and get more of the client’s attention.

I can see that there is a wallet feature in Steemgigs and I think a very important feature since we are building a freelance marketplace. However I have some ideas on how to increase its use-case. First why not include other currencies in the built-in wallet such as BTC/ETH/LTC. This will enable Steemgiger to use other cryptocurrencies in Steemgig.orgs.

Since there will be multiple currencies in Steemgig.org why not also host an integrated exchanges where people can exchange their currencies. I believe having an internal exchange is in line with the design concept of steemit of having a wallet and exchange integrated to their platform.

Lastly why not have an escrow service that will help resolve trust issues and help in the proliferation of scammers or clients that does not pay. Having an escrow service will help resolve payments and delivery disputes Again like the other two suggestions this can be a paid service that can help in the operational cost of steemgigs.org.

Thank you for taking the time to read my suggestions fellow Steemians and Steemgigers. Until next item chiao!
— ankarlie💕💕💕

P.S. I forgot to mention I still want emojis 😍😍😍 in the platform so please include them in future enhancements sir Terry.

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