Hello Steemians
This article is actually a list of features which I would like to see in 2018 (inspired by this post). Shall we get started then!
1) Notify @mentions:Â
Steemit being a social platform, I think this basic feature is very essential. I would really love to know who mentions me in their posts and I guess every other Steemian would want this too. There are some paid services for this, but I don't think anyone should pay for this basic feature.
2) Comment should lead to Comment
Clicking on comments opens up the full post instead of the specific comment itself. I think this might be one of the reasons that authors rarely reply to my comments! 😄
3) Ability to filter author articles vs. resteems
A profile page on Steemit is the showcase of a Steemian's work. We want that our visitors should be able to easily find the articles written by us. But under the heap of resteems our own work gets lost. Resteeming is a good thing, and it also helps the visitors know what kind of interests and opinions we have. But it should not get in the display of our own work. Therefore we need some simple filter options like, "Wall" for resteem+our own posts, "Blog" for only our own posts and "Resteems" for only resteems. Â Of course you can find better names for the filters!
4) Bookmark articles
Sometimes we really need to read an article but we just don't have enough time at that time. Sometimes we like a new post, but we want to wait for 20-30 minutes before we upvote it. Sometimes we permanently want to keep some articles saved, like trading tips, Steemit resource articles etc. All these things can be done by bookmarking. Yes, our browsers have this option, but it is much better and sorted to keep Steemit bookmarks on Steemit only and not spam our browser's bookmark menu.
5) Emoji
C'mon why don't we have them till now. Even Goggle's lazy Blogger has emojies, then why not Steemit. On a mobile it is easy to add emojies, but on a desktop it is kinda difficult. You either get low quality emojis like this one 😔 on Windows touch keyboard, some offline files (sometimes malicious files) or copy-paste via other websites, which is usually not very effective plus time consuming. So much effort to add some emojies, not fair...
6) Messages
Yup we need them. So that if someone flags me, I can ask 1:1 why he/she flagged me, instead of making it a public drama!
7) Search
Well search feature is something which really needs to be improved on Steemit. I am breaking it into further points:
a) Ability to search and sort our articles by title, month, votes, earnings, views, comments etc.Â
An active Steemian might make 1000+ articles (some probably 10,000+) on Steemit in just one year's time. Now, how does he/she find their articles written probably 7-8 months ago without scrolling the huge wall of their own posts and resteems. No, don't even talk about the main search option, just scroll down. And if you want to sort your articles, well, you don't have many tools built in. This option can be very useful for the viewers too, like when they want to gather evidence about a random Steemian who writes about "How to beware of crypto scams", but promoted Bitconnect few months ago!!
b) Ability to search your followers and those you are following easily in their respective pages.Â
Sometimes you want to catch up with your old followers or see posts of those you are following but can't remember their full names. This search option will make things easy.
c) Removal of Google search and better native search option.
Don't you think Google search is a big misfit on Steemit. Steemit is basically an ad-free platform (at least till now), but then why do I get these results when I search for "fuzzyvest"!!
And searching for a particular article is almost always a time waste. You know what's funny? If you need to find a particular Steemit article or Steemit articles on a subject, then you get much better results on the main Google site and not on the inbuilt Google search in Steemit. Try and you will know.
 8) Uploading Images from the device
The image option in the Steemit editor only allows image links to be added. Adding images from your device is not that easy as it should be. The alternative is drag and drop or using the raw HTML or Markdown editor, which I suppose not most people use. Between how do mobile users add images by drag and drop?
9) Faster and easier onboard of new users
This is of course a widely known issue. But it strongly limits the capacity of Steemit evolution to a new age social media platform. Accept it or not, numbers are what ranks a social media platform. And on Steemit, we haven't been able to make the onboard faster. In fact if you see the Bitcointalk thread of Steemit, you will find a lot of people complaining about this. There are some opportunists as well, who offer these kind of services under the given conditions.
I won't say if this kind of service is good or bad, but certainly one should not have to pay $15 to make an account on Steemit and have their private keys passed on by a middleman, no matter how honest and trusted he/she might be.
I sometimes suggest those people to get help from Steemit chat help channel, but I don't know how much that helps. One thing that can really help Steemit as a community and business is the presence in the virtual reality space. I made a detailed article on that here. I am sure every Steemian will like the idea.
 10) Show more love and peace
This is not a feature request for the devs, but for the Steemit community, especially whales. Please help maintain love and peace on this platform. There is a sense of negativity going on, good authors leaving. There are lots and lots of quality posters (not me, just an average Joe), but they just don't get votes, no matter how much they try. If we can get just a bit more positivity, then I am sure everyone will benefit.Â
What features would you like to see on Steemit this year? Post in the comments. Who knows they might get implemented this year itself!
Regards
Siddartha Gupta
Page dividers by @aleister
