RE: Finding Posts Using Tags in Steem is Broken - Steemit Inc. Dev Team Says They Won't Fix it?
I discussed this.... a looooong time ago.
The biggest thing steem is missing is a proper search function.
You can't even look up your old posts if you have too many posts.
A long time ago, they were going to introduce a separate tab for resteems, however they found, after much programming, that the back end couldn't handle it. So, it was never implemented.
Similarly, you should be able to look up @ura-soul and #steem
and get a list of posts. You can't.
In fact, you are forced into trending when looking up a particular tag.
At this point, i am unsure if the blockchain handling witness computers can even do this kind of sorting. I am pretty sure that the way the blocks are made makes every attempt at sorting and searching to be the hardest possible path.
"At this point, i am unsure if the blockchain handling witness computers can even do this kind of sorting. I am pretty sure that the way the blocks are made makes every attempt at sorting and searching to be the hardest possible path."
One possible solution is to transfer this to a 2nd layer, i. e. don't rely on the raw (or base) blockchain itself to have the search function, but to build it as a 2nd complete layer through a "dapp" running or interacting on top of the base layer.
If I understand things correctly that is what "hivemind" is supposed to be. A layer that handles tags, follows, and other things that don't need to be immutably added to the chain. That might also be why the marked it as "wont fix" because they aren't going to fix it within the chain but as a part of a second project.
The last part is conjecture, but if you've dealt with many programs you know some lack social graces and this sounds like one of those issues.
That is likely, yes. It would be good if they would have explained that in the Github ticket though.. And we are still left guessing and unclear what to do with our own development in relations to such an important issue.
It sounds very plausible, from a programmer's perspective.
And yes, sorting and searching would very much need to be a layer on top of the blockchain.
OR, you just search through the entire chain for everything. (truncated of course... you hope)
So, basically building a sorted database as people access information. Is what i picture when i read "hivemind".
... i hope they are not intending to build a permanent database... the resources would get huge.
(and the only way this is not conjecture is to be sitting in Stinc and completely knowing the back end)
@Steemsql and other databases already exist as a database form of the blockchain and I use it for Steemocean.com - but yes, the resource load is high, so I hear.
This makes way too much sense... don't bother telling it to the guys at Stinc.
[sarcasm]
The 'created' paths already do display the list of correct posts, it's just that some are missing for a reason I don't yet understand. The issue with being forced into trending has more to do with the underdevelopment of Steemit.com - since it is entirely possible to default to view 'created' and to also allow for switching between the various lists, such as 'hot' and 'trending'.
I would consider developing code for this, but I hate making code that others have already made or are making. The lack of clarity regarding a features roadmap makes deciding to code for Steem difficult and is why I have deliberately stuck to creating novel features at SteemOcean.com that aren't likely to be made elsewhere.
I don't know about the processing overheads for performing such searches at volume. Perhaps they are waiting for the modularisation of the witness nodes (to allow for clustering) before proceeding with that.
The reason i haven't developed code for this is that i have never been acknowledged by any programmers at steem inc. So, since this would be code that would change a great deal the load and processing done by the witnesses,... i would never even start this journey without the go ahead from someone with the authority to implement it.
I am pretty sure the algorithm just starts at the last block, and then goes backwards through the blocks until it gets 20 and then returns the list. Which means anything that is not current runs through a lot of blocks.
There is that, too! But to be fair, there are many thousands of users and they have no real way to communicate with all of them or to know who they are.. I think the steemdev discord rooms might be the best way in to communicate - or github.. However, I rarely get replies from anyone at steemit on anything anyway.
There are 22 results combing back in the 'created' list for the tag I created for my witness posts - so I'm not so sure there's a numerical limit:
https://steempeak.com/created/urasoul-witness