The Steem ecosystem is on fire. This place is developing by leaps and bounds.
I wrote a post the other day explaining why centralization did not stand a chance. It was in reference to @reggaemuffin creating a new Markdown Editor which is open to all applications to use. This is the value of open source.
Yesterday, I was chatting with 
At the same time, he also is putting in to have 
TokenBB
This is a project that I really loved the first time I heard about it. They went silent for a long time while doing the development. This is one of those applications that will not garner a lot of attention on its own but will drive the experience of the users on many of the applications.
Forums are a great way to develop community and drive user engagement. Because it will be placed on individual applications, we will see the topics surrounding those that the users are into. Using Actifit as an example, the topics will be exercise and nutrition related. It is not a site where politics or investing ideas will be discussed.
TokenBB is a forum that enables monetization. I am going to presume they will be releasing their own token which will enable users to be rewarded through a couple different mechanisms. This client also enables developers to monetize their site. According to their articles, this is something they will be working out as time goes by.
One of the more common complaints about Steem is the use of bidbots and how content gets buried unless one pays to push it ahead. This tidbit should put some people at ease.
Upvote bots have no effect on visibility within the Tokenbb forums, so it will be a more organic, interpersonal experience. Communication is really fast too and almost feels like realtime engagement is happening.
Any post made in the forum will not reflect bidbot assistance. This will allow the community greater control over the posts that receive recognition.
For the moment, payout is in STEEM. However, the plan is for TokenBB to be able to all tokens created on Steem-Engine. This will further enhance the rewards that one can earn for content.
https://steemit.com/tokenbb/@thecryptodrive/tokenbb-registrations-now-open-calling-all-forum-owners
They also have a new front end that was listed in another post.
https://busy.org/@reggaemuffin/new-project-tokenbb-frontend-a-forum-client-for-the-steem-blockchain
SteemBay
Another project that I thought was a great idea when I heard it but drifted from the radar is 
We all heard of Ebay, this is the same idea. Peer-to-peer auctions on the blockchain. What a perfect marriage.
One problem: not a great idea on a blogging platform.
While they were in operation over the last year, and did have auctions taking place, the results were not as good as they could have been. Using a script through the comment section is a tough way to go.
This no longer is an issue.
The team opened up a site to hold all auctions. It is recently released and still in beta but it is a great step.
https://steembay.steemtool.de/auctions
This is the progress so far.
Not a bad start and they do have an aggressive plan to upgrade the site even further. Their road map was contained in the post about this.
https://steemit.com/steem/@steembay/big-news-steembay-ui-beta-goes-online-open-source
We know the impact Ebay had on society. It was a way to monetize everything that was stuck in a closet or garage. The only problem, like all centralized entities, is they took a portion of the profits. Couple that with transaction fees charged by PayPal and you can see how users were giving away a fair portion of their profits.
This does not exist on Steem. By using this currency, there are no transaction fees. As long as one has Resource Credits, he or she can transact without a service fee.
We are really seeing interoperability among the things being created. This is the power of open source. By developing something that can be used by applications across the ecosystem, one development can affect dozens of different platforms.
Communities
I had to throw this one in since it is garnering so much attention.
Yesterday, on the State of Steem with 
While there was some dispute between the two of them, the Communities feature is just around the corner. Shredz7 said it will take a month or two while Jarvie said he was told a week or so. It seems that Shredz7 was just guessing how long it would take to integrate in.
Either way, it sounds like the Communities, in terms of the programming is done. Now the only thing to wait on is it to be integrated by the Steempeak team and the testing to start. If the bugs are at a
minimum, we could see this feature rolled out in the near future.
Steem Development Curve
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