My informal Witness update and brainstorming log - March 1, 2018

in #witness-update6 years ago

Hello My Fellow Steemit Community Members,

Today I wanted to take the opportunity to start a new series of posts which are essentially my brainstorming log of things I want to achieve. Informally, I guess you can consider this my witness update and a placeholder for some of the projects I am working on and conceptualizing. On several occasions, I sit in my home office at my desk (when I should actually be working) and think...

What else can I do to contribute to Steemit and the communities I support?

During a few of the PH events that I attended before moving back to the states, I always found myself talking to @surpassinggoogle for several hours at a time about this one topic. He and I both suffer from the same ailment of wanting to always do more and constantly coming up with more ideas and projects than we can sometimes manage - I'm sure several witnesses and community members are in the same boat.

Often times, because of this, starting one project and being able to finish it becomes a difficult task. There just is not enough resources, time, and sometimes skill (at least in my case) to complete these projects in a timely manner. Often times I am working on several projects at once on top of my real life responsibilities. Time management becomes an issue.

Below is an update and a list of various projects I am currently working on. Also listed are some potential activities and proposals that I am laying the groundwork for.

Existing Project Updates:

KuyaBot - This PH Community bot which I created a while ago serves a support function to all new users of Steemit in the PH community. You can find and interact with KuyaBot in the PH Discord Server.

Updated Features include - Channel moderation, Cryptocurrency price updates and analysis, Steemit profile displays, and additional interactions to channel conversations.

Ongoing Updates and Features currently in the works Include:

  • Chat/Voice Activity Count and Economy System - this integration is currently in process and is a feature that allows KuyaBot to Reward active users with Ranks and Titles as well as Digital Pesos (which are paid randomly for activity) which can be banked, traded, and used to purchase boosters and items within Discord. Digital Pesos earned can also be used by community members to purchase upvote percentages on their Steemit Posts by sending an equivalent amount of Digital Pesos to KuyaBot with the users post url. This will encourage members to be active participants in the community by way of a reward system. Admins and MODs will also be able to distribute Digital Pesos from the community bank to members for activities, prizes, and rewards for their contributions to the community, participation and attendance at events, and rewards for PH hosted contests.
  • Random SBD/STEEM Giveaway - This feature utilizes the activity count mentioned above to select 3 random users from a list of registered PH Discord community members and rewards them for their activity. Drawings are done on random days and determined by the bot to ensure that users are not just showing up on the days of the drawings to ensure that the system is fair.
  • Gambling and Additional Games - This system will also tie into the economy system mentioned above. Users can elect to gamble or play games to earn (or lose) additional Digital Pesos which they can use for the various activities mentioned in the first bullet point.
  • Additional Server Moderation and Community Interaction features Examples of code I am adding for this feature include removing Spam and deleting links which are posted in non-upvote and promo channels. I am also working on integrating cleverbot features into Kuyabot for more clever interaction with the community.
  • Translation Services - Currently the Server uses a translator bot powered by google translate. My plan is to reduce the number of bots and consolidate so that KuyaBot can accommodate functions from all bots currently supporting the server.

I am currently sourcing for help to complete coding of these features - if you are interested and available, please contact me on discord or steemit.chat

WhalePH - This bot provides auto-upvote support to users who delegate SP to any of the bots I have created.

Myself and other memebrs have already started to delegate SP to this bot to help upvote posts and content created which is focused towards projects, contests, and initiatives geared towards community involvement in the PH community and growth. As contributors to the community, those who sponsor, lead, host, or donate to community-related events and activities will also receive auto-upvotes from this bot. Random posts are reviewed regularly to ensure that the bot is not being abused. Steemit community members who support the PH community through charity events, sponsorships, event and contest hosting, and various other activities are added to a list which the bot curates from.

UpvotePH - Like @banjo and @minnowsupport, this is a bot dedicated to the Steemit Philippines | SteemPH Discord Server for up-voting registered members posts. It is a community bot deligated with a small amount of SP to give new members a tiny boost on their Steemit posts. About 10% of my monthly earned SP will be delegated to this bot on a regular basis so that I can continue my focus on helping minnows to succeed.

Updates to this bot include a blacklist for members who have been found abusing the service or upvoting posts which are considered offensive, abusive, and lacking in quality. Identification of blacklisted content creators is a manual process so I am currently looking for a process to help automate this function.

WhaleSong - This is a Steemit community pay-4-vote bot and work has been put on hold in lieu of other projects I am working on. Like most other pay4vote bots, WhaleSong supports the entire Steemit Community by upvoting posts based on the amount of SBD/STEEM sent to it. With a mixture of delegated and leased SP, I want to ensure that this bot is providing both guaranteed profitability and substantial returns to all users of the Steemit community including investors. Aside from helping investors and users profit, I also plan on donating a portion of the funds earned to charitable events, causes, and new projects championed by the SteemPH community.

I will eventually get back to deploying this bot and adding it to @yabapmatt's bot tracker. For now, though, I think the pay4vote bot market is already saturated enough with options to already be able to provide enough support to the Steemit community.

SteemitPhilippines.com - Work on the official Steemit Philippines | SteemPH website is ongoing. Currently a temporary page has been setup where community members can find information on the organization and our mission and goals.

Development Plans and Projected Features:

  • Consolidation and addition of all Steemit tools - The plan is to incorporate into the site various features already created and deployed by members of the Steemit Community. Tools include those created by @justyy such as his delegation tools, AnonSteem by @someguy123 and other Account creation tools, embedded Steemit.Chat now hosted and maintained by @followbtcnews, links to helpful tools like Steemvoter by @penguinpablo, steemauto by @mahdiyari, and a number of other useful links and tools created by other Witnesses and developers.
  • Bot Tracking - specifically the PH specific bots. The website will have a tracker and status page that allows users to see voting windows, payouts, and earnings as well as a feature mentioned below for picking random posts that were previously upvoted for a 100% vote from WhalePH.
  • SteemConnect Integration - I will be integrating SteemConnect to allow users to sign in using their Steemit accounts. This will further integrate and allow users to connect through this portal to Steem.
  • Direct posting - Since the site will be running on its own node (eventually) this is a feature of the above integration and will serve as a portal that SteemPH members can use as an option to connect and post to the Steemit blockchain.
  • Shop - This serves as a store where PH community members can post their creations for sale as well as buy SteemPH merchandise for SBD/STEEM.
  • Events and Announcements - What good is having a page if you can't use it to connect your community members. Regular updates and calendars will be added to highlight meetups, charity events, parties, and other activities so Community members can stay up-to-date and in-the-know of all activities on the horizon
  • More to come!!!

SteemStart Beta - I announced this a few weeks ago in this post. SteemStart is a place where people can make their dreams come true. A place where people can post their ideas, designs, and their ventures, and hopefully make them a reality. It takes a page from other crowdfunding and kickstarter sites and uses the technology behind Steemit to help aspiring entrepreneurs get their projects noticed and off the ground.

Work is still ongoing and because of my limited coding knowledge, things are progressing slowly. I am learning as I go and work is starting to pick up now that I am sourcing more experienced help. I hope to have an update on our progress in the next few weeks and be ready to launch shortly after. More to come on this initiative as I reach the next milestone!

Projects, Proposals, and Activities I have already started to Lay the Groundwork for

SteemPH Gold - Currently named PH Elite, I wanted to start a group within the organization for members who truly contribute to the PH community. Like SteemPH this is not limited to just Filipinos, and people living in the Philippines, but to all people globally who contribute to or support Steemit Philippines and the Philippines Community.

I came up with this concept while I was observing our upvote-and-promo room. I noticed that we had several people who were registered and sitting idle in the PH server who constantly use the bots and services that our community provides, however, did not participate or give anything of value back to the community. I still want the service to be available to all and do not want to discriminate against anyone who uses the services and of randomly kicking people out, I decided to create a separate group focused on those who are truly active and supportive of the Philippines.

PH Gold is a subgroup of the SteemPH Server that is hidden to most. Membership is by invite only and all people who want access must fill out a Registration form (taking a page from @sndbox). The registration is reviewed by the Admin/MOD/Witnesses of SteemPH to determine eligibility. Once granted access rights, the subgroup will be visible to the user and a one-time registration fee must be paid to the PHGold bot. A majority of mine and other members SP will be delegated to this bot to help upvote, promote, and support these users posts. In addition to this, members will have special access to events, parties, and other premium features associated with SteemPH.

Upvoted posts are regularly reviewed by a team of curators and automatically added to the SteemitPhlippines website by the PHGold bot. On a regular basis, the bot will select 3 random posts who will receive a 100% upvote from WhalePH.

This project is in its infancy and I expect it to grow as we proceed. Updates and the official launch announcements will be shared soon!

SteemCenter PH - This is an ambitious project similar to Steem Park and expands on the idea of teaching and making an impact to the community by providing a physical space that is geared towards Steemit. The plan is to create a colorful and dynamic billboard for the Steemit community in an open environment where people can gather, collaborate, develop, and spread the word about Steemit. My vision for this is to locate a central location in Metro Manila which is accessible to the surrounding areas where people can go to learn and teach each other about Steemit.

The facility will look and feel like an open office where people can gather comfortably. It will be fully funded and maintained by Steemit earnings and donations and self-sustainable. The plan is to hire or invite Steemit volunteers who will serve as local curators and teachers who can support registered users who visit.

We will have stations set up so people can access Steemit, create and post content, and collaborate with one another. I'm looking at donating some excess studio equipment and carving out space at the center so registered guests can create and edit media content for @dtube upload. Current work is ongoing to design the concept, but below are some quick ideas of what I am thinking



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The center will have a number of subsidized vendors who will accept SBD and STEEM as a form of payment for food, drinks, and other goods. It will also serve as a venue for future Steemit Philippines Meetups.

This, of course, is just the start. Eventually, we will expand these centers to the various provinces of the Philippines and partner with other organizations (similar to our partnership with the Red Cross) to help promote their activities and brands using the Steemit blockchain and at the same time partner with them using the center as a meeting place to help the Philippines community and spread Steemit even farther.

More to come on this. I will share the fundraising efforts and an official announcement once we progress a little further with our concept and proposal.

My Final Proposal and project that I am building the groundwork for (for now....) is the Steem Marketplace. This is an eBay like service where people can buy and sell goods as well as their own creations. The site itself will be built on the Steemit Blockchain and allow people to post items for sale or auction. It will have a user rating system to hold people accountable and an economy using SBD and Steem as the form of payment.

I recently signed up for eBay and made my first sale and once that Sale had completed, I was surprised by the number of Fees I was charged. Luckily as a first time user, I got all the fees removed. I wanted to create a place where people could sell their items without the worry of needing to pay posting fees and advertising fees and on top of that a separate paypal-like fee for processing payments.

Instead, my idea is to allow people to buy and sell for free. Everything earned from the sale goes to the user. There are no fees that we will charge. The only fee that we the operator get is a percentage of the post earnings, which in turn, is also a bonus that the seller can earn from assuming enough people upvote the post.

Plans for the site are currently in the works and more updates will come soon as we consider every angle and build out the concept.



As you can see I have a lot on my plate and the ideas never stop coming. There is so much potential to help the Community grow and so much possibility to expand on ideas already in place. These are just some of the things I have spent my sleepless hours on; this on top of the other activities I'm involved in. As mentioned. If you have a passion, skillset, and even ideas that can help contribute to the completion of any of these projects, I am always looking for help. I thrive on the creativity and the passion of the Steemit community and am inspired every day to do something new.

Thank you for taking the time to read my long but hopefully inspiring brainstorming log and pseudo Witness update. I hope you enjoyed the read. Please let me know your thoughts in the comment section below. If you would like to participate or contribute to any of these projects and activities, please don't hesitate to contact me on discord or steemit.chat @cloh76 or cloh76.witness.

I would also appreciate your support to help fund some of these projects by Upvoting and/or Resteeming this post and voting for my witness account cloh76.witness. I may not be the most skilled witness, but I do what I can with what I have and I'm learning every day.


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Thank you for all the effort that you have for us. I'm looking forward for SteemCenter PH. I can be one of your teachers there :D

And for the next meetup . . . where having this on March 17 :) You can checkout my last post. Looking forward having you in the next meet up.

Yea... I heard about the Single and Mingle meetup at Valkyrie. I loved going there on occasion - Most of the tie I went to Revel and then made my way through Pool Club then Valkyrie!

I sent Luvabi some SBD to purchase a few tickets for giveaway and will buy some more as soon as soon as I can afford it.

I would love for you to join the SteemCenter PH team and help some new minnows out on their journey. You would be a valuable addition.

Just give me heads up for SteemCenter PH team. I'll be more than glad to teach my fellow minnows in surviving the waters of steemit :D
And when are you planning to go back here? You missed a lot of meetup already :D
Thanks for SBD for the ticket giveaway :)

Will do!!!

think the idea is great!! will support:)

Thanks @regine. I'm also open to any feedback and inputs the community might have

Geeesh. Got enough on?

I love them all, except from the gambling part, but as per usual I'm here if/when you need anything.

We do need to sit down about the website, get the design and logos sorted etc, info etc.

If we can get that game bot to work for now that would be great, just so we know now if the kids will even give it a go, if they do we can always improve it.

As for the black list....

@themarkymark how do you manage your blacklist? tips please?

The blacklist is a very manual and subjective process. There is no real secret sauce, it's just time and identifying patterns.

I know you spent a lot of time researching and identifying the people to blacklist!

Thanks @bearone. I actually figured out the blacklist. The code is fairly similar to buildawhale and other bots!

Website design - definitely need to get cracking on it. It's an added layer of complexity because I'm trying to program it in javascript and connect it to the Steemit blockchain and steemconnect, which I am relying on using guides from some of the other witnesses.

Hi @cloh76. Here I am again. I'd like to participate and contribute in your projects. I just dont know where to start. You have a lot of brilliant ideas. I never thought these are even possible by just a mind of one person. Hat's off. Thank you for the help sir

And by the way @cloh76, do you still have enough time for yourself? Kidding. But this seems sound forever.

I'm always happy to get some help. When you find something that you are interested in and want to join, let me know. Ideas, Feedback, Input, and Suggestions are always a good start!

Ohw. Actually, this gets my curiousity. I've been following some respectable pinoys too. I've been seeing @whaleph to their upvotes. Who doesnt love to be whale! Who doesnt love phils! I am a pure pinoy and if I got chance of luck, I'd like to meet @whaleph and join with its journey and growth.

Just keep on contributing and being a positive influence to the community! we will review your progress and eventually you will be included on the list!

Sure. It's always my pleasure to contribute and be a positive influence as I can. Thank you so much @cloh76.

The SteemMarketplace is an interesting project. I am looking forward to this one.

I'm excited to get it going as well. I'll keep you posted as it develops!

Awesome.

I will be a good venue especially for those valuable outputs from steemians because after 7 days, you can no longer make use of your output except as a resource for everyone only so having a marketplace would be a good place.

This is the best place for the creatives.

Yep. Typical buy/sell windows on other sites are 7 days as well, so it works out perfectly. The difference is no fees and the extra cash you can make on top of what you are selling!

The difference is no fees and the extra cash you can make on top of what you are selling!

Thats the best part. This project is really promising. I have high hopes on this project.

Good luck on this endeavor sir.

Thank you for having so many wonderful initiatives and projects dedicated to share them with the whole community, God bless you and give you lots of light so that your brainstorming continues to be successful.

Then why not talk to the world?

lol. Nice feature!

Thank you. I think I like you.

Good post, thanks

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