Someone on Discord (@didic) asked me to explain this in layman terms. Since I suspect others might appreciate that, here is my response:
It's quite simple. It's basically going to be a database that tracks certain things on Steemit, and which will be "pingable" for information. Rather than requiring you to always ping the current nodes, which are sometimes slow, overworked, and that you can't make changes to. Hive will actually allow rapid developer changes, because it won't be hosted on nodes that basically mirror witness functions.
So if someone has an idea for a change in hive, they could suggest it, and code it, and it's in. Rather than requiring a witness micro-fork.
And it'll be faster, because it'll also be limited in ignoring the money side of Steemit.
It sounds like they are hoping a new UI/UX will be built off of the features they offer. And I can see that happening, based on this post.
@didic then had the following to say:
So that all sounds good. I am not used to seeing you respond positively to Steem dev related stuff.
That all sounds good.
My issues with Steem Dev stuff is mostly that it's... slow and bad.
This looks like a great step in the right direction.
I mean. The witness situation (both lack of knowledge and the consensus required, and lack of a central leadership) leads to things happening way too slowly on the development front.
This will allow interested parties to bypass it.
And hopefully finally give Steemit what were basic expected features to any such site about a decade ago.
Nothing bad I see here. All good.
So, following the above. About damned time. Good to see this coming. Looking forward to new condensers built off of it, or integration into busy.org.
Like all of it. LOL
What?
Thanks for this really thoughtful comment. You're clearly unbiased and willing to call us out when you feel we're not living up to expectations. Thanks for all you do for the Steem blockchain!
I'd say that it's the opposite. Since I've put so many hours into Steemit, and am one of the people taking care of a Steemit-based community (on Discord), I'm quite biased towards the platform. So yeah, when I think things are bad, you guys should listen :P
And am glad to see things finally looking very promising :)
Nicely explained.
People keep shouting that steem will replace Facebook and other social media but as you mention, it lacks a lot of expected functionality to even compete with those platforms not to mention the head start and funding they have.
Lets hope these developments are a step in the right direction to maintain the growth in users and also to keep the new users here.
SteemThat already has a good jump on a good UI. Check it out!
Any Steem based application that doesn't use SteemConnect or direct steem login is a red flag for me. That and linking to the steem profiles of founders can instill more confidence for the new people joining the website.
Not to mention social networks in particular need people on them to convince people to come. Why post here when there are 60,000 active daily users, and of which, say, 5% are interested in what you want to discuss, while if say, on reddit 5% of the active users are interested in the topic, you still get millions of active users.
But yes, the basic structure definitely has to be put in place first, not just so people will come here, but so we wouldn't bleed users so quickly, just because they can't make heads or tails of this site.
I think this could happen, but not immediately.
Exactly, this is the beginning of a lot of construction work over these foundations. But once we programmers finish doing a lot of relevant stuff, you might expect to start seeing the awesomeness of this update.
Cheers for the simple summary mate. The community appreciates it.
It's nice that it had! I'm usually sitting there sad when longer comments (yes, often mine, but that's what I tend to post) sit at the bottom. So it was nice to see some appreciation from the community <3
Thanks for explaining it to those of us who are not too technical!
I definitely feel like Steemit is often overly convoluted and there's always room for more people spreading correct and clearly-written information, especially since misinformation spreads so quickly on the platform, so I'm glad to hear it helped :)
Yeah, it can be pretty difficult to understand all the ins and outs of Steem and Steemit if you are looking at it from the eyes of a regular social media user. Therefore all the technical details explained in layman's terms is a great thing that will stop people from misunderstanding, and as you mention, potentially spreading "false"/misunderstood information to the rest of the community.
Have you tried busy.org?
I mostly use busy.org, but it still lacks most of the functionality discussed. It just presents most of the same functionality in a nicer way. They also currently are again having issues with image previews of posts made there on Discord, which is quite a hassle.
Im glad You've just cleared this issue i was wondering about with regard to the image preview not working on discord when i post through busy. Thanks @geekorner 😊
Cheers! And thank you for your words! Have you checked out oneplace.media ?
Definitely looking forward to whatever is next for steem and social media. And we're also leading the way!