You probably got an email from a company asking you to be a part of a cohort group to test a new product or probably you received a notification from an app requesting that you test the 'beta' mode of their app and share your experience. So you may ask yourself, what is this 'beta' thing about? What does this have to do with Steemit? Let's talk about it.

What is Beta?

Depending on your discipline or its association 'beta' has several meaning. But we would try to narrow in on its meaning with regard to our present situation. Without getting into any technical jargon's I would use language we all can understand. Now when a company releases a product and says it’s in 'Beta' it simply means that they expect the product act/ perform as intended but the user should expect some instability and downtime. The user experience that the company gathers help its developers to make a better product and thus a better user experience.

The information that it gets from this 'beta' period also shows areas where the product may be vulnerable to attacks and the upgrades that are needed to tackle inefficiency within the system. In fact, lots of company usual have bounty in place for hackers to have a go at the system to test the robustness or weakness before an official product is released.

Steem has been amazing since I joined, the user experience has been good and the system shown really good stability. It has only been during the last two weeks after what was term 'DDOS' attack that the website has some instability. I have spoken to some witnesses and followed updates from their twitter page and I know that they are working tirelessly on addressing the issues.

Now what do you need to remember and what can you do?

First and most important thing to remember, Steemit.com is still in its 'Beta' mode and from what you have read above you can expect that period to come with some instability, downtime and normal flow. As a user, you play a vital role in shaping this product moving forward and you should share your user experience. Document your experience, the good and bad, for those who are technically equipped write up possible solution and help others navigate this period. I believe we share a unique and arguably one of the most powerful blockchain around, we can all chip in by offering advice and sharing our expertise to make this platform more robust, and user friendly. We should also identify 'bad apples' because they can be the source of malicious attacks and unnecessary problems. Above all, let’s throw our support behind the development team and others working behind the scenes.

Steem On, Steem On, Steem On

Image credit: @lifewithcrypto

If you found this information useful please remember to hit the Upvote and Resteem