Introducing Mangosteem - Steem Powered Web Chat

mynameisbrian (73) in mangosteem • 7 years ago

Mangosteem Chat (alpha)

What is Mangosteem?

Mangosteem is a public web chat application powered entirely by the Steem blockchain - no private servers and/or databases involved! Simply login via Steem Connect and begin chatting on the blockchain.

Since messages are posted to the Steem blockchain all chat interactions are votable, thus the chat community can easily reward valuable contributors and discourage the trolls.

How it works?

Mangosteem chat channels are hosted by Steem accounts dedicated solely to serving as the channel chat archive. Each message posted to a channel is saved as a comment on the host account. Anyone can host a channel, but at this point in time the process is not automated. If interested in adding a new channel please get in touch for details on how to do so.

Development

The Mangosteem alpha release is a bare bones product meant to gauge interest in a chat application run on the Steem blockchain. Depending on how the product is received further development shall proceed in the following phases:

[Phase 1] New foundation

The alpha release was developed with speed in mind. The first phase in development will be a complete rewrite of the application utilizing the proper tools, resolving known design flaws, and fixing major bugs.

[Phase 2] Additional (nice to have) public chat features

There are numerous small features absent from the alpha release that one might expect from a chat application. Phase 2 will address this by adding features such as:

Notifications
Channel Grouping (i.e Favorites)
Chat channel custom urls
Ability to edit / delete posts
Display votes and/or payouts on messages
Improved editor support for markdown, image and video posting, emojis, etc.
Improved cross browser compatibility and responsiveness for mobile devices
Admin features
Add custom channels within the app
Filtering of non-mangosteem comments
And more...

[Phase 3] Keeping things private

In order to be considered a true chat application Mangosteem will eventually require private messaging. Phase 3 will explore possible implementations for direct messaging and private groups, ideally minimizing dependencies on any private databases.

Contributions

Interested in getting involved with the Mangosteem project? Feel free to reach out on Steemit, Steemit.chat (@mynameisbrian), and eventually on Mangosteem ;)

Feedback

Yes please

Come Chat At Mangosteem!

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7 years ago by mynameisbrian (73)

$770.41

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kevinwong (76) · 7 years ago (edited)

Great work, finally!!

Edit: oh wait, will this add to a new blog entry visible on the likes of Steemit or something like that?

Edit 2: Nevermind, figured it out :) this is awesome to bring over existing communities / chat groups from anyone's telegram / whatsapp. I think it's okay in some ways for it to be like a glassroom.

Feedback: Ok in most cases, people chat with quick successive one-liners. Since the Steem protocol has that 20 seconds / comment limit, I think it might be possible to make it a smoother experience by grouping multiple one-liners after the first before posting it on the blockchain.

For example: I typed this and pressed enter --> this gets posted into the chain, hence begins the 20-seconds timer before the next comment is possible. So in this timeframe, any text entries will be grouped and posted as one larger comment by the end of the time limit.

$5.43

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mynameisbrian (73) · 7 years ago

Thanks for the feedback @kevinwong.

Currently the UX is limited by the design, but I think you have made some great suggestions. Many robust chat features will likely require a private server acting as liaison between the app and the blockchain. Unfortunately that is not something that I can set up in the near term and without careful planning.

$0.62

9 votes

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gokulnk (63) · 7 years ago

@mynameisbrian Keep up the great work. I have made some suggestions to MangoSteem in my post.

Suggestions

Make the process of creating a channel easy.
Ability to use the slider while up-voting a chat.
Simplify the process of creating a channel. You can actually have a bidding 4. system to create a channel and use that Steem for the development of the project.
Make the channel description more visible.
Allow editing of chats for at-least first 5 mins. Since it is a comment it can be edited for 7 days.
Threaded reply in chats could be great.
Ability to sort the chats based on popularity like we can do in comments.
Ability to make a comment a sticky post for the creator of the channel. He can use this for promotions etal and if anybody is thankful for the channel they can upvote that particular comment.
Work around for the 20 sec comment/chat posting limit.