All Steemit Alternative Interfaces Are a UX Nightmare. Steem Needs a URL Protocol Handler

Hi all,

This is my first contribution to Utopian and I already feel obliged to start with a compulsory apology for that title. But it is a thing close to heart.

For a new project I am working, which will hopefully contribute to increase Steem(it)'s visibility and reach, I have currently tested many of the Steemit alternatives and I can come to only one conclusion. Without wanting to take away any credit of how awesome many of the options available to us are. Busy.org rocks (the new design is interesting), Steemiz is absolutely refreshing, and Steemitstage... well let's call that the good ole' home in times of poor site performance. Other alternatives also deserve all possible credit, but they re not why this post. All interfaces only suffer from this problem.

So what conclusion did I come to? All alternative interfaces are a UX nightmare.

That not to their fault though, and even posting this under condenser doesn't necessarily feel correct as it may be that the Steem blockchain itself requires this feature.

What is the Problem?

Each time I'm navigating the blockchain's content on an alternative interface I run into internal article links, links which most often take me to Steemit. The Mother of All...

Being a good netizen, I do click links, yes. And I read referred content. But I do not want to be taken away from the interface I am using. Even less so if I happen to be logged into two different accounts.

A Possible Solution

While the most obvious solution, and laziest one at that, would be to strip internal links of the TLD and turn each absolute internal link into a relative link, this doesn't feel correct, no matter how much I think of it.

Can The Solution Be Improved?

A simple solution as above conversion from absolute to relative links may be may be the chosen solution and probably the most obvious solution. But as platforms continue to launch, we all can think of issues with relative links. What with feedreaders? What if you happen to be reading awesome articles via Instapaper or Pocket?

Would a genuine URL protocol handler which each Steembased app can identify with be the more wise [sic] solution. This would allow each interface to keep Steem blockchain based links internally and let its users experience a much more enjoyable, much more consistent experience.

If no (registered) app identifies to serve the content, the blockchain would serve the (by content creator) originally posted absolute link.

(Mixed) Documentation:

• Chrome url_handlers
• Make your own URL protocol and handler
• Asynchronous pluggable protocols implementation in ASP.net

Final Observation

Tags and usernames are ideal examples of how things could be solved and how we could possibly also write links in a near future.

I'm pretty sure many of us have experienced this problem already and hope this post can inspire at the very least a debate around the topic. While I think the solution is one to be implemented on the blockchain itself, I'm leaving this under condenser because Steemit is the main culprit of this UX nightmare.

I could have added Facepalm images to this post, or Merida .gifs, but other than satisfying Utopian's upvote bot, I do not think they would add value to this post. ;)
Edit: The poorly thought out UX explanaining image posted above seems rather appropriate actually. Source: UX lovers on social media.

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Open Source Contribution posted via https://utopian.io

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