Improving Steemit With Baby Steps Part 6: Post Order Priority
What do centralized mainstream social media platforms have that Steemit doesn't have? OK, besides strong leadership, careful planning, and overwhelming greed. Sites like Facebook and Twitter meticulously choose what their users see and in what order they see them. Steemit is in a strong position to capitalize on this tried-and-true method by giving the power back to its users.
Post Order Priority
I've already touched on this topic a little in part 2 but it's time to go a little bit deeper. In short: no one should see posts and comments in the same order. Every account should have a set of customizable variables that determine which posts are displayed first.
There are many reasons why a user might want a post to have a higher priority. Currently, the only variable is stake based. The more money the post/reply made the higher up it is on the list. I feel like I shouldn't have to explain why this tactic is fundamentally flawed. It clearly favors a "rich get richer" scenario.
Variables
Here is a list of possible variables we could use to order posts:
- Proximity (How involved is the user in your personal network?)
- Is the user a follower?
- Are you following the user?
- Are your followed/following lists similar?
- Have you upvoted/flagged each other in the past?
- Do you comment on each other's blogs?
- Are they on your favorites list (doesn't exist yet)
- ETC
- Counter-Abuse Filter
- Does the user only upvote themselves and people that upvote them?
- Does the user pay for upvotes?
- Payout (current system)
- Account value (is the user a whale/minnow?)
- Time posted (used on our feeds)
- Quantity (have you already seen a bunch of posts from this user?)
- Random (an RNG dynamic will make every post order unique)
I'm sure this list could go on and on but you get the idea. Steemit has the chance to be the first social media platform ever to give its users a say about what content they see first. This includes the feed, hot/trending tabs, and even comments.
Steemit should be employing a philosophy of, "Easy to learn, hard to master." Obviously, we don't want to assault new and inexperienced users with options like this. Clearly, there would be defaults and custom imports. Perhaps you'd like to see Steemit through the eyes of your favorite whale. Priority profiles would be public (just like viewing wallets) and anyone could use it.
If Steemit wants proof-of-brain to actually be a thing, posts must be displayed and viewed intelligently.
Steemit Virtual Government
Part 1: The Vault
Part 2: Improved Filters
Part 3: Resteeming
Part 4: Hot and Trending Tabs
Part 5: Permanent Vesting
Upvoted, keep up these posts, we need more ideas to improve Steem. Sure there are some issues right now but as long as we continue the conversation of improving it, something will catch on and can be the next 10x feature for Steem
im working on those feature sets right now actually
Being a new Steemit user, I like all these suggestions a lot. I feel a little annoyed having to either just see the big money posts, or sift through all of the crap. There seems to be no in between.
I share the same sentiment. It takes time to build a solid network.
I keep hearing talk of a change towards organizing Steemit into communities that might be similar to subreddits. I think that would be great. Another option might be to mirror Quora with suggestions for posts that are similar to posts we've interacted with or at least viewed before.
check out my re-design series i think this will help you :)
working on this as we speak, check out my re-design series. Add me and stay updated on the new UI i am proposing and slowly building for the steem blockchain.
Ah yes. Ironic I stumbled across this post. Looks like you're working with a friend of mine on the design.
shes taking my UI and UX design work and skinning it, I dont like doing design. but agreed shes definitely helped me on 1 installation, so far s o good
cool stuff in this post, def provides me with perspective. I am working on a rebuild of the steemit UI to improve its personalization. I def could use your comments on those to help me be more effective
Yeah I saw you were doing that and gave you a follow a while back. If you could pull off a superior version of the feed, trending/hot, and comment order I bet it wouldn't hard to get people using it and go viral.
im definitely going to build the UI now, I have React dev guys willing to work for me that i work with that want some extra cash. so its a thing of me getting it together asap. Ive been sick all week, so once i get better its on my friend... btw i loved the Black Mage from FFI lol
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This is a wonderful one @edicted. This priorities and variables will go a long way in helping the steemit community
I'm adding this to my #steemtips list. It helps to read articles like this especially for beginners like me.
i learned something from this as well. I need ALL OF YOU to join my re-design series when i crank them out for comments. man. would love to see your perspective
You do start to put yourself in your own bubble this way though...
upvoted
I think we have the latter too on Steemit^^
Your analysis is correct, I agree with that. But personally, unless you are capable to transform the results into programming yourself, you might do a lot for nothing here. The developers seem to have different priorities and I have the impression that most witnesses are indifferent, because the money flys in for them this way as well. Plus, they know the system well enough that they can write their own scripts to comb through the blockchain. So, unless you do it yourself (or get someone to do it for you), your analysis won't have any impact except that you're angry about it, because nothing happens...
But of course, I hope you get through and something happens about it. There clearly is need for that. So far the platform doesn't even have the basic useful selection mechanisms like selecting languages that you'd like to have or have not in your feed. Not to speak of following or muting certain tags. That would be heaven.
Anyway, keep up the good work. Maybe you can make a difference with it. I will follow you now.