After writing yesterday about the hottest new UI for the Steem Blockchain (STEEMPEAK), I realized that I should speak a little bit more why I believe STEEMIT INC is not developing the front-end of steemit.com.
Reason #1 - Focus on the Blockchain
If STEEM is to become the "Blockchain of Opportunity", Steemit Inc has to make sure that it spends most of it's bandwidth on the blockchain infrastructure. Things like scaling, hivemind and SMTs.
With those critical pieces in place, other people can come in and create a better business that Steemit Inc could do on their own.
Reason #2 - Major UI Change Incoming
Hivemind Version 1 is online and work is being done (version 1.5 and version 2) to make it available for UIs to create very powerful communities that third-parties are going to use.
Implementing communities on the website will change the user experience so much that it would be counterproductive to spend energy on a UI that will change that much.
Who knows...maybe that UI is already ready...just waiting for Hivemind to be completed.
Reason #3 - Push Entrepreneurs to Create Better Solutions
It could also be a tactic. By having a sub-par MVP front-end, Steemit Inc may be signaling to the market that there is a lot of space for improvement. In some way, forcing people to organize and compete for who can make the better front-end than them.
Your Take?
These are the only 3 good reasons that I can think of. I have faith in the STEEM blockchain and I'm still very much excited about its future.
Share below your take on why Steemit Inc might now be developing the UI as much as we would like, IN THE MEANWHILE, I highly suggest that you take a look at STEEMPEAK...it's worthwhile!
Photo by Carl Heyerdahl on Unsplash
I think the focus is on other things, those other things being hf20, SMT, and communities. They don’t have enough developers to be able to go full speed on all of them.
You also have the official steem libraries for python and JavaScript that are equally neglected.
I think it is just simply a manpower issue. Which shouldn’t be an issue with how many financial resources they have.
Maybe their operating budget isn't as large as we often assume it is. I think cash on hand needs to be considered because qualified devs in the blockchain space probably consider which chains they truly believe in and what will profit them the most, and if steemit inc is viewed as neither to them then stinc is going to have a problem recruiting them and keeping them.
Also if front-ends really were a priority then wtf happened to busy and zappl's delegations, or am I just missing something here.
The UI is not the key to retaining customers. There are a lot of frustrations in the payout system. For 2 years, there have been many changes in the behavior of the steemian with the abuse, the whales and bots war.
The speech today seems to be focused on how to make a lot of money by buying / selling votes, delegation, bots, etc.
Could there be an enhancement or other payout system geared towards the creative activity of a steemian rather than the lottery and gaming?
SMT/oracle
However, there is not any clear ETA. I agree with @grandpere that the UI is not everything (I personally like the steemit.com UI, although my preferred one is the upcoming steemstem UI ;) )
I can't think of a better reason that the first one you mentioned. They are working on the content g the book, not just the cover page.
I believe that SteemIt, Inc has become a blockchain company and that SteemIt is one platform on the blockchain. It isn't their focus they have been telling us for a long time, it seems odd how many people refuse to hear it.
Like i don't wanna give up hope i don't, i feel like if i have come this far there is a reason to hang on strong. That maybe one day all the hard work will pay off. I think the changes coming to the platform should help.
Good post. As we become more invested in the site, so we become more concerned about competitors and other sites stealing the show (EOS?) But @Steempeak is a real reminder to what can suddenly emerge on Steem and reassure us . Musing.io, Steemhunt, and all kinds of projects are just great.
I think as long as there is the potential to release rival features onto Steem, to match what other rivals might come up with, then this whole thing will retain users - no problem.
And also agree: focus on the underlying stuff. And review the payout system just in case it needs to be updated.
It would be really good to have lifetime earnings option, even if this cuts into the temporary earning potential.
We already have the best UI with busy.org - so there is no need for Steemit Inc to invest resources in that. I really hope they focus on getting Hive ready as soon as possible!
You're right boss, they need to work on the user interface so the user will be more engaged here rather than just posting stuffs then going somewhere else to associate with steemians, a community here on the blockchain will have a great impact on the growth of Steem blockchain.
Agree with you Steemit inc should focus on the core of the product which is blockchain.. as you have mentioned like like scaling, hivemind and SMTs. additionally I hope they also work on cross chain functions so that steemit can utilize the data from other blockchains and provide more power to its users>>
I also feel that many other UI products like busy.org dtube or dlive are going good on building the eco system and ui front too..
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Excllent post,thanks for sharing
Focusing on blockchain is a great decision . Blockchain is so high and secured technology. Best of luck.
update in UI this is something amazing gonna happen : )
Either way they MUST understand the importance of having a good UI for users. A simple recognition of this from steemit Inc. would be much appreciated by the community I'm sure. I would bet it has a large effect on user retention as well.
Right now new prospective users are being told why steemit is the next great thing and then they show up to only find out they should leave the steemit interface for better alternatives. Not the best first impression.
Imagine Facebook marketing their platform to everyone letting them know how great it is and then in fine print saying oh btw you should probably use that third party interface over there because ours is sub par.
Maybe they have something up their sleeve. Lets all hope this is the case.
I agree about the community aspect. Would be great if you could build followings more around similar topics and interact instead of post and hope for upvotes. I haven't been using discord but it seems that is being used heavily and it would be great if it could be tied in somehow.
Definitely focusing on the blockchain. Steemit.com is just a demonstration of how Steem blockchain can be used in an content or social networking application. Now that steemit gains it's own traction, it make sense to develop the blockchain further to allow easier adaptation
There is so much potential and different initiatives that we continue to wait for. It is hard o fully understand why they are waiting on everything. I think that even throwing a few small bones would be huge in terms of creating excitement and getting people hyped up again. People have been waiting for so long for some positive movement forward.
I usually think reason #3 is what's going on, but sometimes I go for a reason #4 - they're just fucking clueless. :)
I too think @steemspeak is the dogs bollocks, and craps all over steemit, even at this early stage. Not to give @asgarth any more work ;), but I hope that we can push steempeak as the go-to default choice as a front end for steem. Once they have notifications and messaging working on it, it's going to have everything a new user on a social media site expects.
Regarding steemit, I was told last year while I was developing my notification system that steemit was to have notifications in place by the end of last year. Well that certainly didn't happen. Perhaps they are focussing all their attention on SMT's and communities. And that's not a bad thing either. They could be a real game changer.