Testing the New Busy.Org
I responded to the invitation of busy.org to be a beta tester of their new platform. You can read more about it here
If you want to know some of the new things that will be included in this new version, check their wiki here: https://github.com/busyorg/busy/wiki/%5BND%5D-Tester
So let's jump into it, shall we?
The Text Editor : 7/ 10 (Revised to 9/10 -> See top comment by @fabien)
To be honest, this is the one thing that is the most important for me: a well functioning text editor. This is the first thing I tested and it' been just a charm to work with. It's beautiful and easy to work with. So why am I giving it a 7/10? Well 2 things.
The text isn't auto-saved. So if by mistake I were to click and lose my page, I could potentially have all that I have written lost. This is one of those features that I LOVE on steemit.com
The ICON to submit a post is not ideal. I would use something much more self evident than a small icon of a pen on the top right. I like the obviousness of the blue button that we have on steemit.com
Apart from those 2 things. This is a really cool interface to work with.
Navigation: 7/10
Navigating Busy.org new interface is easy and pleasing to the eyes. I like the suggestion box on the right side of the navigation. It helps discovery of new authors and content.
One thing that becomes to be clearer and clearer as time go by is that I can't wait for communities to be implemented. I don't enjoy the trending section. Too much stuff that I am not interested about. But that can't be a criticism of busy.
I like that the icons under the post are big enough for me to jump directly to the comment section of a post.
But I think the interface miss the point...I wish the app was different enough from steemit.com to justify it's existence.
The image thumbnails are beautiful and it would make it a perfect platform to post photos, outbound links with a short commentary "a la facebook". An "Album" function would be wonderful. If all interactions happened in the newsfeed than I think we would have a winner here.
Bottom line, the experience is too much like steemit.com in my opinion.
Conclusion
In the next few weeks, I'll make a point of using busy.org for most of my interaction with the STEEM blockchain. Whenever I find something to review, I'll post a blog about it.
Thank you for your review! It's great to have you testing the new Busy :)
About the editor your post is not lost when you close the page, it's saved automatically in your drafts, you can manage multiple post drafts and they are synchronised across devices, you have the same drafts if you login in your desktop or mobile. There is an indicator when the draft is saved near the button "Publish", but we probably need to make these more visible.
I'm also waiting for communities :D, i'm sure it will help a lot content discovery and it's something we want to integrate when possible.
Now we mostly been working on the user experience for the same use case than Steemit. We definitely need something different and your idea of posting directly from the feed, it's part of the things we want to do and the way we tend to go.
I will make sure your comment is top so that people know there is a draft function. (it's a really good idea)
I'm really glad to know that you are looking to differentiate from steemit.com. You've been doing an amazing job and I can't wait to see what you'll come up with in the future.
i shall check it and if found better, i shall use it.
The text is autosaved. It's in the drafts afterwards.
Edit: And you can access drafts from different devices.
thanks. Good to know. I didn't see that.
That's a plus feature, Steemit.com should take notes.
I rather use Steemit myself as I am already used to it and I find it easier to navigate myself looking for certain posts. The trending page is something I often find kind of hindering myself as well, cause a lot of the same authors keep showing up.
I agree with your point. It's too much like steemit to justify it, but it will be nice to have an alternative to steemit.com whenver the website is down from a DDOS attack or the variety of other things that can cause a website to crash.
nice post my friend and thanks a lot for sharing with us your experience about busy, well i think busy.org is fantastic alternative to steemit.com, i experience it once the steemit.com is down and i am impressed with it's performance, i feel much better browsing experience while using it and another think which i like is their notifications they also give us notifications about latest news of cryptos, blockchain and bitcoin and it's great for us because we also stay updated about what's going on latest in cryptos, so all in all it's fantastic development and surely strengthened the steem blockchain, stay blessed my friend and have a fantastic week ahead.
Hello man! If Steemit was not down last Friday and earlier today, I would not have discovered busy.org at all!
As I was not able to access steemit, i went on busy.org and tried it out! For a first time, it was hard for me to understand how it works but less harder than when I joined steemit though!
I am planning to use it more and adapt to it, as we never know when will the next downtime of steemit be and having this alternative is very useful.
Thanks so much for your review!
really need a community type of platform like subreddits for steem
it's coming...it's coming
I am failing to understand what the purpose is in creating alternative steemit like platforms. Why not work on making steemit better? How is this good for our community? Are these just experiments to create ideas for steemit?
The more interface the better. Some interface will focus on photography, other on blogging, other on micro-blogging(like twitter). The more choice and entry point to the blockchain, the better. (more users)
Will this end up diluting our community by spreading out users on to different interfaces based on there category? Maybe I'm wrong but "together we are strong" no?
No, it only increases the value of Steem! The power of a currency lies in how many people use it/invest in it. This is an opportunity to get more people to invest their time into creating value for Steem! Steemit isn't for everyone, a less blog oriented platform could draw in new faces!
Ok ya I get it now. I just posted on busy and I figured out what its all about now.
good, for when steemit.com is down.