“It is not our abilities that show what we truly are. It is our choices.”
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002)
Thousand mile high overview of earning in Web 3.0
tl;dr major companies and users are blocking traditional web ads, so micropayments via dApps are growing in popularity.
Steem.io is an amazing project. The opportunity for all to be rewarded for content they have created and published to the internet is liberating. Whilst we see medium.com as a major platform for posting articles, it's paywall quite clearly states (ref: a)
- Put great stories behind the metered paywall.
- Help people find the great stories they care about.
Point 1 in itself is a step backwards, when the world wide web is moving forwards with decentralized applications (dApps) utilising publicly accessible blockchain technology. As we veer towards Web 3.0 (ref: b) a core paradigm shift is to how publishers earn. Whilst with Web 2.0, the natural order is either paywalls or hosted adverts, the emerging trend to use ad-blockers within web browsers, more accessible Do Not Track (DNT) settings and Google and Apple themselves continuing to improve privacy (ref: c), means it is harder than even for publishers to earn. In light of this increasing clampdown, and the flowering world of digital assets (cryptocurrencies) and micropayments (ref: d) we see a world of new dApps.
Ethereum and it's smart contracts is perhaps the most widely known, no doubt in part to CryptoKitties viral success a few months back, and, yet soon to come onto market, headed by former CTO of Ripple, is Coil (ref: e). But it's Steem that wins over for it's social network viewpoint. A dApp that allows any publisher to be rewards via Steem dollars (Steem's cryptocurrency) for their content, accessible to all. Where then, these tokens are tradeable on many cryptocurrency exchanges (ref: f), and ultimately convertible to traditional fiat (traditional hard cash!)
So, what's the deal with filmreviewr.com?
tl;dr film reviewers can earn money from their reviews due to it's Steem integration
Steem is amazing. A platform that will surely grow as people become familiar with it's concept. And that is part of the problem. Even now, finding content on either SteemIt.com or Busy.org is painful. And if the weekly stats are true (ref: g), then at over 1 million posts a week now, it's gonna get near impossible.
As the owner of filmlovr.com, letting users write reviews was inevitable. But how do you encourage people to write a site that sits quietly in the corner of the internet? Paying users per article, perhaps via freelancer.com or other sites alike would be costly and quality would end up being biased (if not due to a small sample set but also the content would be audited by yours truly who may find it hard to remain impartial), and trying to split any revenue generated through traditional advertising means would a) be a terrible pain and b) highly restricted for reasons mentioned above.
The answer is to let users be rewarded due to the merit of their own content, as deemed worthy by the readers. And herein lies the connection with Steem. Help film reviewers get their content onto the Steem platform so they can earn for doing what they love. Users with a Steem account can sync their film reviews with the Steem blockchain. Other Steem linked users can also vote and on other film reviews within the site, including replies
But why use filmreviewr.com ?
tl;dr Your film review will exist in both, a site dedicated to film reviews, and your Steem account
To address the opening quote, it's about choice. Both SteemIt.com and Busy.org seem to be currently the go to places to read and write content, but both, in personal opinion, suffer from poor UX. Finding content is on SteemIt.com is a laughable internal Google search. And whilst Busy.org is some improvement, it is still the problem of all content jumbled up.
By curating film reviews, filmreviewr.com is a site dedicated to just that - film reviews. All reviews must be associated with a film before they can be submitted. This allows for a much richer UI. It is envisioned that the markdown editor will be greatly engineered towards linking in film content such as images and trailers, without having to scour the web, speeding up content creation.
Any account that has allowed the filmlovr.com SteamConnect app authorization to post on it's behalf, can create, update and delete their film reviews all from within filmreviewr.com,and the Steem blockchain at the same time (or not if they wish - syncing with Steem content can be turned off in the settings page).
Curating content for Steem via filmreviewr.com helps other Steem users find the content they want, and within a UI that is film centric.
And...what aren't you telling me?
tl;dr it's a new site so needs your help
The site is new. The ideas jotted down on a Trello board may take time to come to fruition. Examples are a unique mardown editor, better user profile customisation, tighter integration with filmlovr.com, multple outlets to post to.
It also requires a lot of user testing. This is where you, the readers come in. Early adopters will help shape the way the site progresses. And like many other apps, built on Steem, it is likely a beneficiary of 0-15% will be added to posts in the future, though early adopters will be waived.
In terms of security, the site uses SteemConnect to get granted an access token to make posts on your behalf. Currently, it does not request or get access to any financial actions. This may request your permission at a later stage if there is demand to integrate such features into the site.
But that's it. Transparency is key to trust. Any questions or concerns please leave a reply below
Why? And who are you?
I'm just an ageing software developer (LinkedIn) who loves films and working on new ideas. filmlovr.com has been an ongoing personal project for many years. It's been rewritten so many times over as I use it to learn new technologies, but it's finally found it's grounding. I want to help people discover new and unique films, but at the same time, give them a place to also share with others their own love of film. Filmreviewr.com is a very recent idea that helps to enhance this goal, whilst at the same time allowing users (filmlovr's) to get rewarded directly.
For those interested, it uses a graph database behind the scenes, so expect to see some interesting correlations between your reviews, films and other users in the upcoming months (for those who know the 6 degrees of Kevin Bacon (ref h), can see something similar on filmlovr here)
Really hope you like the site!
References:
a) The Medium Model
b) Why the Web 3.0 Matters and you should know about it
c) Apple Just Made Safari the Good Privacy Browser
d) Are Cryptocurrency Micropayments The Future Of Content Marketing?
e) Coil: Building a New Business Model for the Web
f) Steem Exchanges
g) Weekly Steem Stats Report - Monday, July 9, 2018
h) Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon