Why I Believe That We Need an Instagram Style App: Steemstagram
Over the months that I’ve spent on Seemit I’ve come to the conclusion that there would be many more active contributors if not for the “daunting” task of “having” to write an article/blog. There are also many others who do not cherish reading and curating longer articles.
The other day I came across the account and posts of a new user @randomthoughts.
He wrote, and I quote his post verbatim:
“I'm just going to be posting #randomthoughts as I have them. I'm not a writer and don't care to write a scientific journal entry or rant longer than Gone With the Wind, so, I'm going to post what I think and have fun doing it. I hope some of you join me.
P.S. - If your post doesn't fit on a single screen, it's too damn long and likely being written just to earn a few Steem. Try having some fun, you might enjoy it. To keep up with my regular rants, follow me at: @randomthoughts”
His posts so far are on the black humor side and they did amuse me. I think that his sentiments mirror those of the grand majority of potential users who would be necessary for mass adoption.
He also promoted 3 of his 4 posts with 5 SBD. That’s how I found him.
Photo taken from the post by @future24 mentioned below
Would Someone Famous Post on Steemstagram?
Imagine an Interface or App where someone, even someone famous, could post for his daily comic strip. For example imagine if someone like Gary Larson of The Far Side posted exclusively on Steemit. What about a new "home grown" Steemstagram star? With the right platform could it be @randomthoughts? Could it be you?
Facts About Instagram
At the site Brandwatch I found an article entitled: Marketing: 96 Amazing Social Media Statistics and Facts
It’s an amazing article that shows detailed stats for all of the social media giants. From it we can glean the following about Instagram:
- There are 400 million Monthly Active Users on Instagram
- Over 80 million photos are uploaded each day
- There are 3.5 billion Instagram Likes per day
- More than 40 billion photos have been shared so far
- 90 percent of Instagram users are younger than 35
- When Instagram introduced videos, more than 5 million were shared in 24 hours
The advantages of an Instagram Type Interface/App
1.Those that already use Instagram would be relatively easy to migrate over to Steemstagram and they could bring with them their friends! (I’m using that name as there is already a project in the works.) More about that in a moment.
2.Those posting on Steemstagram may well be thrilled with receiving only a few cents for their posts. After all they didn’t spend many hours researching and writing a post! 1 cent, 2 cents, 5 cents, it’s all a bonus!
3.They will not be intimidated by the need to write articles. A lot of people just want to throw up some photos and a few comments for their friends and family to see.
The Project is Already Underway!
Here is a short article by @future24 and a video of what was presented about Steemstagram at Steemfest Amsterdam:
SteemFest Amsterdam Event Impressions #7: @pmartynov talks about SteemStagram!
The developer who presented the project at Steemfest is @pmartynov. He has not posted here on Steemit for over 3 months but I contacted him via Facebook page and he wrote me that they are in Beta testing right now. If you go to steemstagram.com you are greeted with "coming soon".
What Do You Think?
- Would an app like this take Steemit to the next level?
- Can someone assist @pmartynov with this endeavour?
- Do any of you have an insiders update on the development of Steemstagram?
I hope that you enjoyed this look into our future growth and success.
Until next time,
@kus-knee (The Old Dog)
Remember, I reward the best comment(s) on each of my posts with my "The Old Dog is Throwing You a Bone" program! So please re-steem and follow so that we can spread the wealth!
I was thinking we should build another site that is Instagram esq for pictures, and then build another one that is twitter esq for re-posting links/news or short comments, and then keep Steemit.com as the long form blogging site that it is. Build all 3 sites on the Steem Blockchain. That seems like the better solution than trying to make Steemit.com the site for all things.
My thoughts exactly. Let's get it done!
Now to start learning to code on a blockchain... :)
Hey man I'll leave that to others and take on the role of cheer-leader!
We can cheer and encourage!
Encouragement is very important and I'm sure that you'd be GREAT at it!
Yes agree ad I will post my ideas soon, I'm building up my "case" :D in 3 shorts, video, pictures, twitter if you please, a hub thats here and that's it, all projects are probably under way if you discount the twitter which will be easy :D so in a sense a first social network IE one where a few pieces are connected together.
I would use it! I'm a busy mom that just wants to post a picture here and there! Heck yea!
I am confident that it will become a reality built on the Steemit blockchain! Fantastic!
Perhaps as one of the applications it would be convenient. Sometimes a lot of short moments, short phrases or just photos. I want to share them , but do not need to delve into the detailed likeness of my instagram. M s must be different. I don't quite understand the idea. And will not work piling up?
Good points. Thanks for your input.
We absolutely need apps like this. Ease of use is completely mandatory in this day and age.
You're right!
I use instagram every day to share pics of my work in progress or other things and It works for me. Under the pics I ever write short comment to explain my pics. So, I think to have an app that work in the similar way of IG is good to take steemit at the next level. As @jrcornel wrote, I think build different apps is better then put all in the same container ^_^
I agree with your points. My wife keeps in contact daily with friends from all over the world via Instagram.
Thanks to Instagram I sold some of my artworks in Europe and Us ;)
Fantastico, complimenti! Vedendo quello che fai hai meritato tutto!
Ti ringrazio!!!! Detto tra noi, ho più collezionisti "aglofoni" che non italiani e devo dire che ne sono felicissima ^_^
Per il mondo del Art e fashion noi "aglofoni" siamo afascinati con tutto che viene dal Europa.
The very point would be "where to store the images". A good answer could be that ipfs seems to be the best companion for a blockchain: https://ipfs.io/
Is not the first time ipfs is used for similar things: openbazaar is making use of ipfs too, also for storing images of products, and it rocks https://openbazaar.org/
Great points and I'm certain that within the community we have the capacity to pull it off!
I have been wondering why we don't use BLOB base 64 encoded data for images embedded directly in the blockchain? I use a Google chrome extension called SingleFile to save while webpages as single HTML files and all images are included in this way.
This is a post about using a MySQL database for the images but it relates to this idea and was the quickest related link I could find on Google:
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/34111390/displaying-blob-image-from-mysql-database-into-dynamic-div-in-html
Being honest I am a bit skeptic about both :
Putting a Hex/base64 representation right into the blockchain would make the ledger to explode in size. Since a blockchain works because there are many copies of the public ledger, this would make the life impossible to anyone which wants to keep a copy of the ledger using a home computer. Sure, a 100TB ledger is still accessible today in acceptable times, if you have quite an infrastructure. But, this will lead to a centralization of ledgers, in the hands of a few people which has 100TB of space on a very fast storage. For reference, consider BitCoin only stores a few data about transactions, and is more than 100GB right now.
https://blockchain.info/it/charts/blocks-size
And each time you look to the past transactions, you need to parse all of them. If you go from some Kb per transaction to Megabytes per transaction, 100GB would become 100TB. And to parse 100TB to find what you want is not as easy as it is with 100GB.
The second idea, to use a SQL server, could work better , until you don't want resilience. Again, the main advantage of a clockchain is decentralization: which means, there are copies everywhere of the same ledger, and each item is the same within each copy. Using a local sql server would mean that ledgers have no such a copy of the data, or worst, they could put THEIR copy of the data (=image) in THEIR sql server. Until mysql is not going to be distributed and decentralized, it doesn't fits very well with a blockchain.
This is why I was thinking to ipfs: it allows you to store any content inside a P2P ledger, similar to the one you use with torrent, using a distributed cache of hashes. Each entry has a fixed size URL, so that, you could store the URL into the blockchain, and the content into IPFS. In such a case, the blockchain would keep into a predicable size, and the content would be distributed AND impossible to manipulate.
and... 23 days later! He responds:
(I have been using the Busy app on my phone and apparently I was not getting notifications about comment replies)
I truly appreciate your detailed and reasonable response and agree with everything you said. I really want to see this IPFS implemented because managing my images and the URLs to them is of great concern to me. If I take the time to post content I care about, content I actually want to be accessible forever, I do not want to have to continue keeping my images hosted in the same place with the same URLs forever too! What if the 3rd party image hosting changes the URL scheme or shuts down, what if I change hosting companies myself, what if I am no longer physically present?
Thank You for Being You,
@aaronsuncamacho
It's simple to post an image or video on Steemit, so you don't have to write much. I think it would help to have a stored signature to personalise your posts. I have to copy mine from elsewhere. I know not everyone likes to write or read long pieces, but there's room for all types.
I do the same with the signature. Have you looked at or used Busy.org?
I've tried it. Still a bit limited for formatting posts, but has potential. The design looks better than Steemit. I've also tried eSteem and ESteem8. We have a few options, but I tend to use Steemit most of the time for now as I'm used to it.
I also use Steemit. Busy was buggy for me when I tried it.
I used to use Instagram but stopped for two reasons - they stopped putting the new posts at the top and started manipulating the feed like fakebook, and secondly they are owned by fakebook...
https://www.instagram.com/sift666/
But I used to like being able to share my photos and would do that on Steemit if it was fast and easy.
The Old Dog is Throwing You a Bone For Your Nice Comment!
Please check your wallet!
Remember: I reward the best comments on all of my posts so continue to follow me and tell your friends!
Many thanks, nobody has tossed me a bone on Steemit and it's much appreciated!
I was following you before, and I'm a full on fan now :)
Fantastic photo. Thanks!
I like the cut of his jib. I am going to follow him. I have long thought the same. There is a certain amount of navel gazing in blogs that is popular with other blog writers. Nothing wrong with a short post at all
I like your style @meesterbom!
And I like your's old dog, finding such gems and raising such topics!!
Hmmm - not sure we need this - not another photo posting site.
I fear this would increase spam a lot here. We have such apps like Rabadaba to me simply a spam platform. There are other pure photo sites working on apps, if it is just an add-on here all fine - I love it how it is now .
I wouldn't want Steemagram posts showing up in my feed or in the new Steemit posts. The market for users however is HUGE. My wife is on Instagram with her friends every day for 10 minutes or so. In fact so are most people that I know! @uwelang I've NEVER used Instagram but I'm The Old Dog! And don't tell me that you wouldn't like to see lots of pictures of beer! Lol
Ive never heard of Robadaba.... I'll have sniff.
That is true @kus-knee - there is a huge potential in general - I am on Instagram as well but the question is do we want this here on steemit? I prefer pictures of Beer with a story behind at least. I think Steemit is possessing a niche sector and doing well - to add other services like this could for sure attract new users but I am not sure if steemit is ready and able to handle the new crowd and the discussions that might start then, other people, other views and approaches towards a platform - but I might be wrong. Just my 2 cents
Your 2 cents are very valuable! Have you looked at or used busy.org ?
not really yes - on my to check list though @kus-knee
Exactly feel the same way ! EXACTLY !
Agree with you I just hope it doesn't become a fractured chain because there are people here and people there and the chain has to accommodate to everyone, i should work tho good idea, thanks :)
Maybe it should be like busy. org? or a different platform on the chain :D
Like like busy.org. Do you use that?
Never :D I'm out sorry cutting it short :D
I like the idea but I don't like the name, sounds a bit desperate and uninspired.
Your probably right but it does tell the world what they want to do. I'm sure the community could come up with other names. Gram o pay! ? :)
Hell No ! Don't use anything with gram in it, kilo would be much better :)
Yes it does sound weightier!
lol
KiloPic, a bit trollish :D
TonOpiC sounds retarded :D
TonO
Tonit :D
dunno my hard is spinning away :D can't think of anything :D
True that :) any ideas :)
MilliPix
Pill- uminati
Micro-P
lol
please don't :D but I havent read anything so don't take my comment I will get back to you later :)
resteemed this great post
This post idea and title caught my eye, stopping in to let you know that.
It is almost like an offbranch idea like the "communities" are coming, I am thinking, people that would gravitate towards more of an IG app for ___ reasons.
It is a good idea, clearly it is working for IG.
I know we do not talk much, but I appreciate your work on here, and wanted to say that also.
Hey wow, thanks so much for the visit and the kind words. I lived for many years in a Toronto and your name is so familiar to me from real estate circles.
That's neat on both counts.
It is funny, I was a bit of a pioneer out this way for all my use of social media early on in real estate.
I never thought much about it til I was in a Real Estate Board course and part of their template for the social media course featured my work across the board LOL, this is a true story.
You are welcome my friend.
I like to TRY ane encourage people when I can and sometimes that means doing random Steemit #Drive-By's / #DriveBy's to do it.
Feel free to test the alpha version of @steepshot app!
https://steemit.com/steemit/@steepshot/announcement-steepshot-ex-steemstagram-android-alpha-test-version