It's hard to believe I started steem.supply just 30 days ago. In a very short time window, the project really took off the ground and, according to Google Analytics, it has been used by more than 500 users so far.
It went from 1 feature: getting the totals of the potential rewards for a user, to a pretty complex one page app (although it doesn't look, under the hood there's quite a lot going on). It now shows the comments rewards as well, it takes into account posts with declined payouts and posts with split rewards, it shows some interesting breakdowns of the data (potential growth, posts versus comments earnings) and so on.
I'm going to outline - very briefly - 3 things that are worth taking from this pet-project-turned-into-a-full-fledged-one-page-app.
1. Doing Is Learning
One of the reasons I started steem.supply was to learn more about the quirks of blockchain programming, specifically about the graphene blockchain (the one that powers not only Steemit, but also BitShares and PeerPlays). There's a slightly different paradigm in coding on top of a blockchain and there was a lot to ingest. One of the biggest benefits of this project is that I learned tremendously, creating my own PHP-based tools for it (PHP is not very popular amongst blockchain programmers and I find this a bit surprising, given the popularity of the language - read: the number of developers who already know it - and the fact that it features modern libraries, like websockets clients, just as well as Python).
2. Feedback Is Critical
One of the biggest challenges for a programmer is "working in a silo", or being isolated and now knowing exactly how to develop his products. Most of the time, we work with assumptions, imagining what the end user will do and how the app will be used. By starting the app in a very basic form and just listening to people as they started using it, I was able to build something that's actually useful, beyond my own little agenda of learning the quirks of blockchain programming.
3. One Step At A Time
My current big project is steem.city (some of you may already know that). But I just know I can't build it over night. It will need many small steps until it reaches a usable form. Working for steem.supply gave me a little bit of perspective on that. Since the user input in steem.city is significantly bigger and the app will be an order of magnitude more complicated than steem.supply, I expect it to take more than one month until it reaches a stable form. The initial launch is still set up for July 10th, when I hope I will have a minimum viable product, but I don't expect it to be fully operational earlier than 2-4 months.
All in all, working for steem.supply was a lot of fun and I'm stoked to see that more than 500 Steemians are already using it, some of them even compulsively (I'm one of those people, to be honest) and I'm happy to see I built something that gives a bit of value to other people.
This post is part of a 30 days writing challenge. The rules and the goals of the challenge are here. If you want to join, it's worth knowing that will upsteem (with full power) at least 3 articles form this challenge each day.
I'm a serial entrepreneur, blogger and ultrarunner. You can find me mainly on my blog at Dragos Roua where I write about productivity, business, relationships and running. Here on Steemit you may stay updated by following me @dragosroua.
https://steemit.com/~witnesses
Hey, you have a new user :)
I am sorry that I missed the announcements for your new projects. Busy weeks ...
Very interesting. I like that you are using php since this will be my choice too when I finally start working on the wordpress / steem integration.
Glad to see you're still around, buddy and that you have plans for Steemit too.
Big plans - travel niche site based on wordpress with some nice theme and pulling posts from the blockchain ...
Good luck with that buddy! I'll keep an eye on it. Meanwhile, I will keep you posted with what I do at steem.city too. Maybe we'll cross paths somehow.
Thanks. It is very probable that we will cross paths. At some running event if possible :)
@dragosroua
A technically conceptual question :)
Did you intentionally use the post method for the form?
Or to ask from the other way around - would it be possible to call the site with, for example:
http://steem.supply/@ervin-lemarkTNX!
Yes, and I'm using a cookie right now to store the username on further requests (try to load it without resubmitting the form after an initial call and see if it remembers) . I don't want to get involved with GET, atm :))
OK, your choice.
My question was directed to a possibility to access one's profiles at all these various tools available right now only with an alteration of a domain.
For example:
https://steemit.com/@ervin-lemark
https://steemd.com/@ervin-lemark
https://steemdb.com/@ervin-lemark
https://steemstats.com/@ervin-lemark
https://steemwhales.com/ervin-lemark
https://beta.chainbb.com/@ervin-lemark
https://busy.org/@ervin-lemark
...
Now you see why (only this minor) get request would be in order :)
Then I could automatically leech your tool along with other tools and create a composite profile page. Well, that's an idea :)
BTW - could you display one's voting power on the steem.supply page? Or is it too much out of the concept?
TNX! You are doing great!
Now I get it, and it makes a lot of sense. I will integrate it in the next version as well with the voting power. Thanks for the feedback, mate :)
Good morning.
I knew it. It is about asking the question properly in order to be understood ☺️
Excellent, thanks!
Great site! Packed with helpful info. Thank you for sharing. I'll be using it frequently.
Pretty useful link ! I was wondering how to improve myself . Always good content .
I wish that my upvotes for you worth more tho 😊
Resteemed!
Me too!
Sorry..but i don't know about steem.city, what is it?
It's a community site built on top of Steemit. Here's more info: https://steemit.com/steemit/@dragosroua/steem-city-is-bringing-communities-or-neighborhoods-to-steemit
thanks..will check that now :)
I think steem.supply is fast becoming a great tool, particularly for newer members to analyse what's working and not working for them.
Thanks, worthy of a vote for witness imo!
Awesome tool. Thanks
i use it everyday, i really like it. gives me a bit of focus and i love the posts and comments distribution.
Pretty awesome man. Thanks for sharing.
really looking forward to steem.city - first time i heard of it. will definitely check it out when it launches!
Innovative ideas you've got there! I'm not skilled in programming but I know it's a lot of work! I'm heading over to check it out...
Congrats and I wish more success!
A good project indeed that will surely help members. Wish you more success and keep it up. Following you in order to get more updates of the projects...success
Great job, well done! I use it every day now, very good to see the progress!
good luck to all of us..
soon steemit will be the best social media ever..
You're a freakin ninja! Congrats. UV RS and FLW
Wow! Thanks for making steem.supply, and bringing it to my attention. I will be keeping a tab open there. I'm really quite impressed.
When I tried to join steem.city I found a logo/page that mentioned Slack. So, you need to use slack to join? I am very interested in the project, and would probably even have to finally give up and join slack, if that's what it takes to get onboard.
Great work@dragosroua, and thanks for your concern for Steemit and all of us on it.
I am one of the 500, and use it often. Thanks for building it, it is very helpful.
Thanks for the tips!
I'll check out the site now
I too find the site useful.