Steemit: The Next Generation
As I've been using Steemit over the last two months I've been coming up with ideas that I think could improve the user experience on the platform. I have enjoyed my time here and want to give some ideas that could make Steemit even better for us, and the users to come.
Sidebar Options
You can see the sidebar when you're on your feed and there are only two things on it, "My blog" and "My wallet." Rather than having to click on your avatar and then choose "Replies" or "Comments", why not make the sidebar customizable? People could add more options, or even choose to have the sidebar present on more screens, i.e. while you're reading an article. A simple checkbox would activate customization and the options would be added by additional checkboxes.
Rough example
Voting Power Graphic
A visual aid that I think has value and would be helpful to Steemians would be to include the Voting Power gauge that @steemchiller made for Steemworld. The graphic would help users see where their VP is at in real time. It would be available as one of the options users could add. The graphic could also be set to link to the SteemWorld site (so as to not deprive @steemchiller of traffic).
I got carried away. That IS my actual VP
Show One Post
Some authors can post a lot during the day. Most users follow an unsustainably-large number of authors. To help users see as many of those authors as possible, limit the articles shown per author to one (1) per day. Have a little icon (red exclamation mark or something) next to the author's name, so the user is aware there's more material, but if they want to move on without checking the other articles they can.
Steemit will continue to grow and succeed as many authors are successful, not just a select few. We can help ensure the attention isn't skewed toward the prolific posters by giving everyone equal exposure in the feed.
Resteems
There are some authors that produce great material that lots of people could enjoy seeing. However, some also resteem, a lot! While I am a supporter of the resteem feature, I would like to see it's value increased. In order to do that, I suggest a few different options:
1) Limit Resteems
Scarcity creates value, so set a hard limit of "resteems per day" to two (2). Once that limit is reached, the user will have to wait 12 hours to get another, and another 12 hours to get a second. Rather than just resteeming everything in their feed, users will have to make a conscious decision that these two articles are most worthy of their precious resteems.
(Note: A study could be done to determine the optimal number of resteems to allow per day. Doesn't have to be two.)
2) Hide resteems
Create an option that allows users to hide the resteems of the authors they follow. Although possibly controversial, this would allow users to see only the articles of the authors they specifically followed. Feeds get packed quickly and resteems can clog up an already busy space. By hiding resteems, users are more easily able to view the content of the authors they like and reward them for their work.
3) Resteem Feed
Create an alternative feed or tab that has "suggested" articles based on what the people you follow recommend. This would allow you to find new and similar authors without having to manually look for them. Steemit could even suggest authors based on keywords that people use in their profile (crypto, photography, gaming) to suggest other authors the user might like.
So convenient!
Implementation
I'm not a coder, so I don't know what it would take to actually get these changes implemented. I also know that there isn't a customer suggestion department where I can forward these ideas. However, if you know any witnesses that might be open to hearing some new ideas that could provide value to the users and platform, please forward my ideas on.
What are your thoughts?
Would you like to see any of these ideas implemented?
So far this morning I've read lexiconical's post wondering if Steemit is only meant to be a beta to bring people to the STEEM blockchain to establish a user base, so that it can pave the way for SMTs, and I've read yours @themanwithnoname.
Interesting how two different authors look at a similar subject but from two different sides of the coin (is there a pun in there somewhere? not sure).
To Your Post
I like the idea of the tabs that allow you to get to things quicker. If you can do it in one click from the homepage/your feed page that's better than two or more.
Second. Since I'm actually in favor of the resteem becoming much more than it is (taking over curation in general, and therefore how things get to the trending and hot pages rather than everything we do going through the almighty upvote), I'd much prefer having a separate resteem feed I could peruse. That way I could also keep track of my own stuff instead of cluttering it up with things that I resteem.
Resteem Aside
(What would really be cool is something that allows us to decide if we want to follow someone because they're a great creator, or follow someone because they're an awesome curator. Not everyone is good at both, or they'll like stuff we don't particularly want to see.
Maybe then, resteems come in based on topics or specific kinds of posts we're likely to read, with a filter system we're able to set on our own.)
Back To It
Okay, since I thought outloud here for a moment, let's get back to the idea of a separate resteem feed.
I'd like to have three feeds when I log in—one for the folks I'm following, one for my blog, and one for all the resteems. Then I could pick and choose between which ones to dive into, and none of the columns or feeds would seem cluttered. I guess if you wanted to turn off some feeds, you could add that feature, too, but since what information you get here is determined largely by who you follow, either in their own posts, or those they resteem, if you shut off any of those (most likely the latter based on what I'm reading from commenters here), you might miss out on information you really wanted to know.
Somewhere To Submit
There is actually supposed to be a place to submit ideas, depending on what it is. I get confused, though, as to which they are, but I believe steemitdev is one. There's a tag that's supposed to be for such things too but just like every other tag, I'm not sure how well it conforms to just Steemit upgrade ideas.
And Cut
And, we're also still waiting for Hivemind or Communities, which is supposed to make our lives "better" at some point. It's a UI fix, so if they are truly working on it, that can drop independent of a HardFork.
@glenalbrethsen As was said months ago Steemit inc is aiming to strengthen the steem blockchain by growing the steem ecosystem. Even though Steemit is a major player for the steem blockchain they may just be looking at the bigger picture by trying to focus on SMT's.
And it looks like a really big picture. I get why they're doing it, too. It will probably be the single most effective thing they can do to get more people to use STEEM. SMTs are meant to bring entrepreneurs to STEEM, which in turn will bring more people—consumers—to STEEM.
I'd hate to see the social media platform we're creating, even with all it's current warts, get lost in the potential stampede of smart media tokens. Of course, if I can manage to figure out something to do and then successfully launch my own token, I will undoubtedly be singing a different tune. :)
I'm not very in-touch with the plans for Steemit, etc... I have heard of SMTs coming, but don't really know when or what that would look like. I get the idea of tokens and that it's probably something like the way ERC2- tokens are issued on top of the Ethereum blockchain, but that's as far as my information/suppositions go. I'll have to research it more as it seems that is becoming a trend. I've read a few other articles that mentioned SMTs recently.
That's an interesting idea. Like you could have check boxes to "follow author's blog" and another to "follow author's curation." That's intriguing. And I hadn't really thought about the resteems clogging your own feed. I hadn't been doing it as much recently after I realized that I didn't resteeming for contests. I stopped doing most of those contests because I didn't want people to stop following me because the contests I resteemed (and lost) were clogging their feeds. After that I stopped requiring the resteem for my contests because it's only fair. :)
There probably is a place to submit ideas. I haven't found it though. That's still one of the downsides of having a decentralized system. There's no customer service department that is tasked with making sure the customers are happy. In a way, we're the customer relations department, so posts like this are how we spread ideas around. I might have been able to submit it to utopian.io, but I believe that's for specific projects you want done. I think I've seen them flag people for misuse (even though it was a development project) because it wasn't in the right format. I don't know. I figure we do the best we can and see what happens.
Hiveminds and Communities?! That sounds interesting. Haven't heard of them. I often get in the routine of posting and commenting, and I don't do much exploring on what is happening in the big-picture. That might mean more authors to follow. ;)
As always, thanks for stopping by and thanks for your insightful and illuminating comments. :)
SMTs, or Smart Tokens, are down the line (unless they push them up), so we probably won't see them for a while yet, but the idea as I understand them is they will actually sit on a person's own website and allow them to monetize it through the STEEM blockchain.
What I'm guessing they hope that will do is increase STEEM accounts (either the SMT will be attached to one automatically or you'll have to have one opened in order to use the SMT—not sure which is meant to happen), so that sites that already exist independently can tap into the STEEM blockchain and become a peripheral part of the STEEM ecosystem.
I'm afraid a side effect of doing so, however, might mean that the UI updates we're all looking for will become non-existent, as opposed to at least promised (even if there hasn't been a whole lot of updating, anyway).
Hivemind/Communities is the same thing (I think Hivemind is the github codename). What it's supposed to do is make Steemit much more topic-oriented rather than a throw it on the wall and see what sticks shotgun approach. If it ever happens, it's supposed to improve post visibility, thus increasing the chance for rewards.
I do quite a bit of reading, and not just from the creators I follow. If I have questions about things, I'm finding I need to run a search of some kind, because I'm probably not going to find that specific of a post looking through corresponding tags.
Yeah, it would be cool to have things topic-oriented, or topic and feed oriented.
SMTs could provide a huge boost for Steem. The downside is it could become a lot harder to level in Steemit. If the prices go higher, you get less for each payout, so the amount of time necessary to level increases. I almost think they should have pegged STEEM to $1 and had SBD float. Then you could progress at a better clip.
Oh my gosh, Steemit Powers That Be, I am BEGGING you to implement everything suggested here about the Resteems. They are killing my feed! I've been missing original articles right and left by people I really care about because I kid you not, probably half to three quarters of my feed is resteems. I would absolutely love to see a "hide resteemed articles" feature so I could at least get through everyone's original content first!
I wish it were up to me. If so, I'd implement it right away for you. You can share the ideas around and see if it gets in front of any witnesses or influential people.
Although it's not my preferred option, you could choose not to follow certain authors in order not to see their resteems. You can bookmark their feed and check in with them from time to time to see what they've posted.
Im with you on that one!
Yes! Im with mtnmeadowmomma!
One of the best things about steemit is that you can build your own UI/UX and pull data from the blockchain directly.
There's no reason something like this can't be made. I'm eager for the UI/UX to get into the 21st century...although the beta level we have now helps us all get a little more steem before we hit millions of users. :-)
And remember, in five or ten years, people will be like, "I kinda miss the old crappy steemit UI".
That's true. I just don't have the technical skills right now to do that. I could learn, but not sure if that's the direction I want to go right now.
I use busy for posting, but I do most of my navigating on Steemit proper. Maybe I'll try switching to busy and see how that goes. No decisions yet.
Ha ha, true. They'll come out with a "Steemit Classic" skin for it.
I think these would add to the user experience though.
I have tracked my voting power, but lately as I've been getting more SP, I've had a vote that still counted for something, even at the lower levels. I had $0.01 as my point of reference, so as long as I was voting there, I thought I was ok. Also, I like spreading some votes around so people get recognized. I let it run too low and now I'm working on recharging it. Going to get it back over 80%.
Your resteems are really good, so I'd say you're doing a good job there.
Thanks for your input!
I'd like to see a way to favourite users. (You'd be on my list bro).
I'd also like to see a viable way to drill down into a users posts, all the way back to their first. Trying to find my own to refer back to is a nightmare.
Anyway, a good post @themanwithnoname
(Wow, your name is a long one to type for a man with no name!)
That's a cool idea. And thank you!
Yes, a way to quickly scroll through or search just your own posts. Sometimes it's nice to be able to link to previous posts.
I tried getting "@ " as my username, but it wouldn't create a link for that. ;)
“@“ would have been a very cool name though 🤪
Some great ideas there. I hope some get implemented by Steemit but moving forward we will see many improvements on other access points to the STEEM blockchain. Have you used any of the others?
Yes, I have switched to using Busy to post. They give a small boost for doing so. They also have easier editing tools, so if you forget how many asterisks to use, just use their buttons.
What other apps have you used?
ESteem is a phone app that I use when Steemit goes offline. It was a lot better than Steemit but the development seems to have slowed a bit lately. Then you have DTube for video content and Dmania for memes, steepshot and Zappl for photo posting. I’m sure there’s others as well.
I haven't tried ESteem because I prefer to do things on the computer. It's easier to type and scroll. It's easier for me to do pretty much everything on the computer. That being said, I might have to check it out. They have emojis on there. :)
I do need to expand my use of the other apps. I feel that's one thing that has slowed my growth. Maybe adding videos or more real-time photos would help. Thanks for the suggestions!
You have dreamt up some great features here which would certainly enhance my experience.
:)
I wrote a similar post here the other week which may be of interest/
off to scan the rest of your blog now ;)
Be happy.
xox
Thanks for stopping in. As I posted on your article, your ideas are really good. I hope they notice and get them implemented.
Have a great day!
I know the feeling... mine is at 50% atm xD
Tottaly agree with you on this part, when i first joined steemit i reestemed a lot in the first days, since than i only resteemed 1 post which i actually think has some utility...
I checked out your page, and yes, you do know the struggle. I'm trying to get back up there, but I like to vote, especially for people who comment on my page, so it's easy to blow through the 10 votes. Starting to use Busy so I can slider and still give people recognition without killing my VP. If you don't know what that's about, you can read my article on it.
I try to make sure that whatever content I'm producing is going to be relevant to the people who follow me. Don't want to waste their time.
You're doing really well for only being one month in. It has taken me two months to get here. You're also getting some really big votes on your posts. That's awesome! yoo1900 alone is a huge find for you. Congrats on that!
I appreciate you stopping by! Thanks for your comments.
That yoo1900 was a total surprise, i wasn't even believing in what i was seeing xD
I don't upvote comments, i normally go to the commenters blog, read their latest post and if i like i upvote, still my upvote is only worth like 0.02 so it's not that much...
Hey, you take it when you can get it. I had some random guy throw me $20 and I almost went through the roof. :)
Don't worry about the size of your vote. It's the sentiment behind it.
these are great suggestions!!! way to go on your creative thinking... steemit people, take a gander!
also, are you using @ginabot yet? she is fantastic and has changed my steeming experience. as far as keeping up with comments, mentions, etc...
seriously really great feedback :D
Thank you! I'm glad they struck a chord. Hopefully they get in front of people who can do something about them.
Yes, I do employ her services. I especially like that she lets me know when you fine folks comment. Then I can respond to you quicker.
hehehe same here ;)
Sorry, I had stepped away...otherwise I would have seen your comment right away. :)
Agreed on many points. Ive long wanted a way to get just the posts that I have written myself in a search, so maybe that could be an idea too.
The search function here could be better, I agree. Sure, let's add it to the list!