About a month ago, all I was hearing is
"COMMUNITIES are going to be in HF20"
"It's gonna be GREAT!"
Cheer Up ;)

PS: You're a Programmer? DO SOMETHING!!!
They are paying people Handsomely to improve the platform, Every Day!
I've been here twice as long as you have and I see progress every week.
I'd say look under the steemit tag more often, lots of news there. I just know
lots of "connected" people, for the most part. Check Utopian .io