Frontend Test - Steemit(Review)

Steemit is amazing in many ways. In other ways it sucks. Let's get started with my "review" after using it for a week.

Unique Features

Steemit offers some unique features that no other front end yet provides. The most important and most prominent of which is the internal market. The internal market lets you sell your STEEM and SBD for the other token. It's something that I use to convert my coins around. It's really easy and doesn't have any fees. Thats why I love it and use it a lot. Somehow steemit.com is the only front end with that feature. With the upcoming(hopefully) launch of SMTs, more sites will need to implement markets so users can convert their tokens around.

It's also one of the few sites that let you log in with your keys as well and shows you all the private keys when you log in with your master password(not safe). If you don't feel comfortable using steemconnect, you can log in here with your keys.

They also offer transferring to and from your savings while most other front ends don't. I don't know where else you can do that. It's a safe way to store your funds in case you are hacked.

The Good

Steemit is a good and easy way to interact with the Steem blockchain. It is probably where most people start. You can post, comment, manage your wallet and do all things that you would need if you are just a basic user.

Using the wallet offers some nice security feature either as it won't let you send to exchanges without a memo (and if I remember properly, to accounts that try and impersonate exchanges with close names).

They don't take a beneficiary % either so you get to keep all of your post earnings.

The Bad

Theres a lot that steemit is missing. Having used many other frontends, steemit leaves a lot to be desired. You can't see all the voters on a post, the design is pretty bland and hasn't changed since I first joined over two years ago. It also bugs out on me sometimes in the wallet screen.

The mobile version of the site is just terrible, (someone accidentally transferred almost 1,000 STEEM because they were using the mobile site, luckily they got it back because it was sent to someone who was nice). I've made many mistakes posting comments and won't even make an attempt with root posts on the phone because of this.

The max of five tags is a nice way to start, but can confuse users when they see that theres other using many tags because theres other frontends that don't limit tags.

The wallet history also doesn't go back far enough either. It only loads a few transactions and if you want to see the history of a very active account, it's near impossible on steemit.com.

Overall

I think that steemit is a great first step for someone trying to use the STEEM blockchain, but it shouldn't be the only site they use. It doesn't offer everything but it does offer some unique features that gives people reason to use it even after finding other frontends.