I recently stumbled on a "not so good" news; Utopian is joining a new family.
I read the content of Utopian's latest publication, and I've been sad. I'm yet to come to terms with what I read. It's hard to believe that Utopian is coming to an end. And although that wasn't directly spelt out in the announcement post, it seems most likely.
Utopian since it's inception(or since I heard of it), has been my source of joy on the Steem Blockchain. I can't talk about my journey on Steem without mentioning Utopian. This(Utopian) is a community that has reshaped my thought pattern, and consequently my life. I don't think I wouldn't have been on Steem this long if it wasn't for Utopian. There are so many good memories I can share about my journey on Utopian, and scarcely bad ones. It's a pain that all these good times I've had so far is at its end.
The eminent end of Utopian means a lot to me, and probably several other open-source contributors. This could be the end of our journey on Steem. Like I said earlier, Utopian has been the only reason I've been here. I haven't written and published regular blogs in ages. I've gotten so adjusted with being an Opensource contributor that I don't know what else I'd be doing. I've scoured the entire blockchain seeking for a nest(dAPP) to perch on. There are lots of projects on Steem, but I don't quite fancy them. Steemgigs, Ulogs, or Steemhunt are the platforms I'd most likely have delved into. However, I stumbled on something fascinating; just the same time as I read Utopian's announcement.
In this article, I'll be talking about the new platform. By talking about it, I mean I'll be reviewing the platform.
RealityHubs; A place for Reviewers.
The project I'll be talking about in this article is; RealityHubs. The project's name is fascinating, and it kind of boggles my mind. Well, the project's name isn't what attracted me to it though. It's the follow-up note that did the magic for me. That is; A place for Reviewers. Basically, my major activity on Utopian has been all about writing reviews of opensource projects. Although I delved into other areas, writing reviews was the one I enjoyed most. So when I saw this new project, which according to its description was built for reviewers, I had no second thoughts about delving into it.
The other reason I've decided to delve into this project is because of the person behind it. @knowledges is the founder of RealityHubs. I know this because he published the announcement. @knowledges had previously developed a platform "KnackSteem"; which I took interest in. My interest wasn't only as a community member, but as a supporter of its development. The project had great promises, but sadly, it didn't work out. The sad failure of that project, however, served as fuel. @knowledges is really passionate about delivering something(creating a home) for folks on Steem. So the failure of Knacksteem didn't deter him from that purpose. Thus the creation of RealityHubs.
Review of RealityHubs.
As I said in my introduction, I'll be reviewing the platform. And I'll be doing that under this section. Before I delve into my review, here's the description of RealityHubs;
RealityHubs is a social media platform where everyone gets rewarded for sharing their perspectives on products, nature, photographs, and other visuals. You can earn by creating and curating contents. RealityHubs leverage a robust digital points system called RHB that supports real values for digital rewards through market price discovery and liquidity. Reality (RHB) token is used in rewarding content on Realityhubs.com.
The project is built on Steem engine, using the Nitrous interface. It is a resemblance of Steemit, (A social media platform with almost the same characteristics). Realityhubs is created for people to post their contents and get rewarded in RHB tokens. source
The description is a little bit lengthy, but that's good. My review of the platform would start from its description.
RealityHubs(unlike Knacksteem which was created by the same person), was built using Steem Engine. I haven't exactly delved into that aspect on Steem Engine. But according to what I've read, it is possible to create your token and Steemit-like platform, using Steem Engine. The implication of this is that; the platform you create will have similar characteristics of Steemit. Virtually everything from UI to modus operandi is similar. But the kind of content which RealityHubs was designed for is much more different. However, I've been trying to get clarity about something. And that is; curation. Naturally, this isn't a problem at all. I mean, we all know how curation works on Steem Blockchain. But I'm in a contrast-and-compare situation between KnackSteem and RealityHubs.
When Knowledges built KnackSteem, it's development was modelled after Utopian. That means, there were supervisors, moderators, etc. The presence of those roles on KnackSteem meant that anything published on KnackSteem had to go through a review process. And if it met community standards, the post would be upvoted by KnackSteem. Such structure helped to curtail and control the kind of content on KnackSteem. RealityHubs, on the other hand, doesn't have such a structure. The platform is quite open. It means anyone with a Steem account can use the platform. And although the objective for which the platform was created is explicitly spelt out, someone can decide to publish whatever they desire. The platform was created for reviewers(according to description). However, I might decide to publish content that's not related in any way to a review. And someone can still go ahead to upvote the post. Eventually, it would lead to the contamination of our feeds. And the kind of content we hoped we'll be seeing, wouldn't be in sight. I'm hoping people would use the platform for what it is meant for though. This takes me to my next talking point.
What kind of content can/should be published on RealityHubs?
Like I said earlier, the thing that sold this platform to me was the followup statement to the title. A place for reviewers. But what exactly would you be reviewing? Here's an excerpt from the announcement post;
The platform is created for anyone using products, seeing the beauty of nature, and taking pictures. Realistically, everybody can partake in Realityhubs.
Pretty short description. But if you read the article, the description was expatiated. According to the project owner, we could write reviews of the following;
- Products
- Nature
- Photograph
- Other visuals.
The aforementioned categories are quite broad. But I still think it is limited. I think there should be more stuff on that list. My opinion stems from the idea of what "reality" is. And if we're to be writing reviews about realistic stuff, it goes beyond the things listed on that category. If I had the privilege of making a suggestion, I would say that there shouldn't be a parameter for things that can be reviewed. But, if there should be a parameter, that list doesn't do it for me. If we're being realistic, there's a lot of stuff to write reviews about. There's; sports, movies, games, foods, culture, locations etc. There are lots of things that can be said of our reality. And we certainly have our reviews of them. So setting up a parameter of things to review doesn't do it for me. But then, I think the project owner is trying to create a consciousness in our minds of what we can do on RealityHubs. Anyway, I hope I'm correct about my assertion.
Furthermore, still speaking on reviews and parameters, I'm quite excited about the opportunity to write reviews of hardware products. Being a member of Utopian, I've only written reviews of Opensource software. And I've done pretty well in that regard. Now it is time to venture into something a little bit different. I can now write and publish reviews of cool tech and stuff. I could turn out to be "MKBD of Steem".
So far, up until this point, I've done a review of the platform's concept. Not much has been said about its physical component. And that's because RealityHubs is likened to Steemit(in terms of physical properties). What that means is that you'll have your typical Steemit UI, as seen in the image below.
Then there's the post editor. Once again similar to that of Steemit.
Then there's a wallet. Which is highly expected. But in this case(on RealityHubs), the wallet isn't a separate entity from the blog.
The notable difference between Steemit and RealityHubs is the currency;
Reality Tokens (RHB).
On Steemit you earn Steem. On RealityHubs, you earn Reality tokens(RHB). Earning reality tokens is the same thing as it is on Steemit. You write and publish a post(review). The post gets curated by the community, then you earn reality tokens. However, there are other ways you can get some RHB tokens for yourself. The first way is by participating in the ongoing airdrop campaign. The airdrop campaign is split into three tiers. 300,000RHB has been reserved for this purpose.
The first tier of the airdrop campaign is the one you'll most likely be interested in. It only requires you to resteem the annoucement post, and leave a comment. But you have to do it within the next 14 days. 2 days have already gone by, so there are 12 days left. Don't be left of this gift.
Aside from participating in the airdrop campaign, you can also purchase some reality tokens on Steem Engine.
The price is quite fair at the moment. It's a great time to delve right in and invest some redundant funds.
Please ensure to read the announcement article for more insight about how you can get some RHB tokens.
There you have it. My review of RealityHubs.
Summary.
In this article, I've been able to review RealityHubs. The concept of the project is great. And that's typical of anything @knowledges tries to put forward. However, I hope He buys my idea about extending the review parameters beyond what is listed in the announcement post. Although it may seem like something of selfish interest, it's not. The way for this platform to grow in value is by the influx of tangible users. But what if some of those tangible users were limited because of the laid out parameters? That wouldn't be good right? Yea, I'm sure you think it wouldn't be good too.
After all said and done, I'm excited about the platform, and I can't wait to publish my first product review. And hopefully reviews about other things.
PS; I'm still sad about the transition of Utopian. And although nothing is for certain until 31st of July 2019, I'm hoping that things only getting better for Utopian, and the opensource community on Steem. The comments on that announcement suggested that Utopian is going out for good. But we may be surprised by the announcement come on the 31st of July. Well, whatever happens, I'm glad to have been a part of this community, and I wish every member of the team better journey ahead.
Thanks for reading!
Links
- Repository: https://github.com/steem-engine-exchange/nitrous
- Project link: https://realityhubs.com
Resources:
- The content of this post was created based on my knowledge of the project, and mostly from my experience. The images used are screenshots of the platform on my device. Other images gotten elsewhere have their source links provided just below them.