The fact that Steemit has gone through an update last night, might not be a surprise any longer for most of you, but it surely was one for me this morning. When I opened my laptop and entered the site I had the feeling that I just traveled in time to an older version of it, if it has even been one, but having finally a long awaited feature...which is live notifications.
Right from the beginning I will point out that this update, in terms of UI is crap. Yes, communities are finally live, you can explore them, you can join the ones you like, and you now have different types of feeds. It's starting to get somewhere, the old Steemit. Again, the UI and the design...disappointing, highly disappointing.
But lets move one, and you know me, I got the eye for detail, so I'm not gonna point out the pros in this post, for the update, but the flaws. I'll let others talk about improvements and I'll do the messy job of a critique. First thing that I was excited about was the notifications that seemed to be copied in design from facebook messenger with that red background, but still, I was happy to see them.
Soon after that I got from excitement to disappointment when I realized that they actually don't work. The badges appear and disappear, but when I opened the icon multiple times, on a five-six hours time frame, I noticed that it was displaying the same old notifications that I got when opened the page in the morning, and that's not cool. Steemit devs, watch out, or you'll make Sunny angry.
I don't understand my blog anymore. Yes, I'm not joking. On one hand I have a blog tab where some posts are displayed and next to it I have a posts tab that shows actually all of my posts, so what's the point to have two tabs? I really don't get it. Then there's the communities tab where I can see all my subscribed communities, but to access posts from these communities I have to get to what once was my feed... You've made things complicated, Steemit.
Next on my list of complaints is the #ranks that we have now... Really? Did we needed such a rank that hard? I mean, we already have a reputation score that is completely useless, because we know reputation is earned highly subjective, and some managed to bake some of it with tons of Steem poured on bid bots, and now we want our users to be ranked. I assume that the rank is given based on the SP one holds so you kind of made things easier for whale hunters, but not too much of improvement.
I would have ditched public wallets and reputation scores instead, and I would boost interaction this way, making people connect with each other, no matter what the other guy has in his wallet or what number wears rank wise, but I'm not deciding changes for Steemit.
Another facebook stolen feature that we have is the last time you were online, but in here you will find it under the name active x hours/minutes ago. Without even asking, I am sure that it only refers to the last post that you made, and not other type of activity, such as comments, or wallet transfers. I don't see the point of it for now, but who knows what will it bring in the future, to connect with it. Maybe offering some retirement STEEM to hibernating users...???
Another feature that I discovered, but tried only on eSteem, and don't know how to check if it really works, is the ability to reblog your own posts. If that can be possible and you guys can spot what post I've reblogged today, let me know. This is something similar to self votes, so..., I'm not a fan at all. I only hit that reblog on eSteem out of curiosity, but don't know if it really works, and wouldn't do that again.
Now that I finished with the flaws of the new update I can reveal what I like about this #newsteemit. I like communities...finally, and that's a great improvement, and that's what probably everybody is excited about. It's a sign that the platform is maturing and that we can finally find people alike to connect with much easier. Thumbs up for that Steemit.
And thumbs app for bringing the flag button back. This way I can flag the bible every time it spams my posts and report it to the community. I hate this type of spam and I truly feel like a ban for such users wouldn't be an act of communism at all. It's in the hands of Mr. Sun to decide for that though. I don't see any violations in banning bad actors of the blockchain and refund their Steem on their way out. Wanna be part of a revolutionary social media platform? Behave... If we wouldn't have laws there would be a total chaos in the world.
I know some are exaggerated and some work against us, but quite many are created for ensuring harmony and balance in this society. Allowing spammers, plagiarists, and abusers it's like not punishing theft, drinking and driving, and other crimes, in a normal society.
Bottom line, the recent update is definitely an update, it needs more work to it, and PLEASE a more futuristic design ASAP, but at least we kind of have the final product of communities, and that's a good thing. What do you think about "Steemit 2.0" do you like it or not? What would you change to make it better?
Images courtesy of pixabay and unsplash and free to use
Thanks for attention,
Adrian
Posted via Steemleo