A Series About My Experiences On Steemit, What They Do Better And What Minds.com Can Lern From That (III)
WOOHOooOOoo, I got an upvote by bill boss @ottman himself for my first article in this article series. The second one https://www.minds.com/blog/view/829437940775768064 has not received that much attention yet, but I am confident the masses of Minds will appreciate that one as well - just as they will appreciate this latest one for today. So, here they are, five more suggestions from the comparison between Steemit and Minds:
1. Barely any difference between the types of content
What I really liked was Steemits simplicity - at least on the surface. Below with the two(!) currencies and the markets and the plenty of complex rules, pitfalls, off-shoots and the entire environment of applications, the thing was, well still is, bombastically complex. But on top, just for blogging, sharing, voting and commenting, it was/is a minimalist wet-dream. Like the dashboard of an old car.
Minds is a bit different. There is much more to select and click and depending on the content you intend to create (or consume!), you have to go elsewhere. That increases the complexity of the simple usage of the site in an unneccesary way, as I think. Especially the difference between writing a "new blog" and writing a "status update" is artificial. Both is basically the same, just that you have different editing tools for the two and apparently, status updates are treated differently when it comes to their appearance in other users feed. I ask: What for?
Why not making both the same, respectively, taking the blogging element and declaring it also the status update element including all the powers you have with the blog editing? I also see no problem to get my status updates to other users feeds. After all, they are supposed to be both important and debatable as well. So, let them spread, it would only increase the likelihood of interactions and that is a good thing.
What would change for status updates is their handling of the tag/categories as described in the first post of this article series. So far, status updates don't have that, but why not simply add a 20th category called "status update"? That would beat the problem of categorization to death immediately. And perhaps, the developers will follow my tag/category suggestion and allow two freely chosen ones, It won't hurt when status updates are defined a bit more closely.
Another aspect that would change for status updates is when they are comprised of an image/meme or video. Steemit fixed that problem simply by making the first image the title image and if there is only some meme without text, it will be the title image for the preview as described in part two of the series . The same goes for videos: Your blog post only contains a video, so it's the videos image that is appearing as preview image to the blog - aka the status update, then.
I strongly believe, merging blog posts and status updates, respectively replacing the latter with the first and abolishing the blog as a seperate section would simplify the usage of the site and create more interactions in a significant way.
2. A hover box for usernames
When you are on an article page on Steemit and you click on the username of someone who wrote a comment (or the article itself), a small box opened with some basic information about the user. To specific, you got three different information sets about that user: his chosen name (e.g. Bill Ottman), his official nickname (e.g. @ottman) and his motto (e.g. "I love this article series"). If you click on the names you are being brought to the users personal site and - this is the important one - there is also two boxes with "follow"/"unfollow" and "mute"/"unmute".
This is very convenient. On Minds, you click on the name and you go directly to the users page to for example subscribe him, because you liked his comment. This can be annoying, since you are now on another page and you have to go back first and - extremely annoying - find his comment again to reply or upvote it.
Of course, one might throw in to that "Well, get used to it, just comment first and then go to his page", on which I would give back sourly: "And what if there are several users I'd like to take a look at?" The idiot might should back "..then open a new tab in the background!" Which is when I replie in a tone of superiority: "So, then let me translate that to you: Minds has a systematic which forces users to open several tabs just to lose time, their overview and finally the browser crashes and they have to start at zero. Great system, really!"
What is to take away from that: Build it in! That box will save many lifes, trust me.
3. Automatic transformation of URLs into images
Minds does a great job as I think by offering an upload function for images&videos. Steemit does not have this and it can be annoying sometimes to go to an external image cloud services to upload there and then copy the link to the image and paste it in the text box. That can be outstandlingly annoying when your preferred cloud hoster is down for whatever reason and you have to find another one first, because the second choice only allows certain sizes or whatever.
That's a compliment for Minds given the fact that the site usage efficiancy is by far below the one of Steemit. Nonetheless, it would be great to have this automatic URL to image function as well on Minds. It's just convenient, while the current system (well, as far as I found out..) demands me to find an image on the web, then download it to my computer and then reupload it to Steemit. A process even less convenient than the one on Steemit, because you have to do more clicks and loading efforts to get where you want.
The example of Steemit shows that it is easily possible to add this auto-transformation and Minds does it well with the uploading. But only both at once are the killer app. That's why: Do it, Bill @ottman!
4. A menue system inspired by the watering can - or is it Feng Shui?
Not sure if this is a false impression, but I feel like I have to scroll endlessly when editing my content. There is a menu at the top with all sorts of functions, but I do have to go to the bottom first to publish or save a draft. I find that annoying. Having all on in one place is much more convenient, because of the scrolling which costs time and also the memorizing, because in my mind at least, every item has a subset of information elements and I have the feeling that the Minds one is much fuller than all the others - and I do only have limited space for each item. So, it could be that Minds is too much for me to fully understand, memorize and therefore appreciate it. Not sure, but I would say, other users will have the same problems.
That's why you really should put segments, menues and options more together. Users don't like complexity, they like it simple. As there is no need for seperate blogging and status update elements, so there is no need to have five different notification tabs, a vertical menu bar, a horizontal one, groups AND channels (where's the difference??) and so on.
Simplify the system, because you will need it. Blockchains are a major source of complexity and the more complex the given system already is, the more users will be confused and rather go elsewhere.
5. Nobody needs the "Trending Hashtags" box
Steemit shows the way here as well. Instead of having categories AND hashtags, there are only tags. The box on the start page of Minds is not necessary, because the trending topics only reflect the least common denominator like chart music. Do you like chart music? Surely not. You can listen to it because it's the least denominator and therefore completely void of any controversy, but as an individual, you have your own taste and you have your own interests.
It would be much more interesting to have an individualized tag selection, from which you get the fresh content of your choice directly into your feed. This is probably the most efficient way to get interesting content into your feed. Yes, it increases the bubble, but you still have the boost to break that occasionally.
On Steemit, I was advocating for a similar system, but unfortunately, the administrators seem not to be too interested in innovations and improvements. I have the distinct impression that this is different here on Minds. If I had any say here, the individualized hashtag selection for your own feed is something I would put on top of my wishlist.
In short, these were the suggestions of today:
1. Replacing status updates with the blogging function.
2. A hover box for usernames with basic information and options.
3. The automatic transformation of URLs into images.
4. Simplify and merge functions and reduce the number of menues.
5. Replace the trending hashtags with a personal selection of tags.
More to come tomorrow.