Programming Diary #32: Launched a project in stealth mode

Summary

This post describes my programming activities during the last two weeks. Work has focused on bug-fixes and minor enhancements in the Steem Activity Monitor (SAM), work on time-based filtering and tag-following in the Steem Conversation Accelerator (SCA), and design work for a new project that I hope to release in May.

Background

A fortnight ago, in Programming Diary #31, I said that my goal for the next two weeks was to continue work on tag following for the Steem Conversation Accelerator (SCA).

I also mentioned that I would probably continue some small revisions of SAM (the Steem Activity Monitor), even though that was intended as a toy, not as a long term project. Additionally, I reported that work was still needed to finalize the latest round of changes from @cmp2020 in the Steem Curation Extension.

Finally, I didn't mention it before, but I had an idea a month or two ago that I think could have a substantial impact on the Steem ecosystem. I don't think it would be appropriate to talk about the details of that yet, but I hope to release an MVP in May.

During the past fortnight, I implemented the SAM changes that I had discussed, did a little bit of work on tag following in the SCA, and I started working on design activities for the May MVP. Let's check the details.

Activity Descriptions

SAM

SAM has been updated with a pause button, a menu of API endpoints, and with a fix to the problem that background service workers terminate quickly during idle time.

Additionally, I was concerned about the possibility that people could download it to check it out and then forget about it, which could send unnecessary traffic to the Steem API endpoints for indefinite time periods. So, I changed it so that it starts in a "Paused" state after installation and after browser restarts. This way, if someone forgets about it, the network traffic will stop automatically whenever they restart their browser.

It still has at least one cosmetic problem that I'm aware of, but I'm done making modifications for the foreseeable future. Here's what the latest revision looks like.

As an aside, as a result of this, I also learned some more about the time lag between when a block is produced and when it gets marked as irreversible. This is covered in the post, Another blockchain puzzle: Last irreversible blocks. TL;DR: Because of the random 21^st witness and order shuffling, it's not as simple as just waiting for the next 15 witnesses to confirm the block, which had been my naïve understanding.

Steem Conversation Accelerator (SCA)

I did a very little bit of work on the SCA, but I got somewhat distracted from tag following. Mostly, I've been working on filtering posts by display time in order to restrict the activity list to just posts that are currently relevant.

I can't show you what it looks like right now, because I managed to get it into a broken state for the time being^😉.

A stealth mode project 🤐

Obviously, there's not much I can write about a stealth mode project except that I think it has potential for considerable impactful to the ecosystem. During the current interval, I started working with the AI assistants on planning and design.

I had this idea a month or two ago, and there's a reason why I chose May for the release. At the time, it seemed like an easy goal. Now, it's almost January, and I'm not so sure. So, we'll see...🤞

Looking ahead

So, going forward, I am done with SAM for the time being.

For the Steem Curation Extension I still need to work with @cmp2020 to get his staged changes finalized and implemented, and after that I need to deal with the fact that we now have a "Hide Resteems" toggle in condenser along with the preexisting "Show Resteems" toggle from the curation extension. I'm not sure of the approach yet, but those need to come into harmony.

For the SCA, I need to fix the broken activity list in the current dev branch and continue work towards tag following.

And for the stealth mode project, I need to continue with design and begin implementation.

Priority-wise for the next interval, I will focus first on the SCA and second on the stealth mode project. I thought before that I might have tag following ready to release by mid-January, but now I'm thinking it'll be the end of January.

Reflections

Interesting signals for 2025

In addition to my own development initiatives, I see a few other things that are potentially interesting for 2025.

• Some of the witnesses were reportedly working on an initiative to burn STEEM with funding from the Steem Proposal System. Not sure where this stands, but perhaps will see something during the coming year.
• I'm looking forward to seeing the final results of EverSteem from @etainclub. This concept might also be useful for the Steem Curation Extension, but I will wait for a while before pursuing that so that EverSteem can get off the ground first. One thing that I do want to learn this year is how to pass messages from other extensions to the Steem Keychain in order to execute transactions from an independent browser extension.
• There's some recent exchange action that might change the financial landscape for 2025: Binance added STEEM to "binance earn", where it's currently paying >40% (h/t @steemchiller & @faisalamin); and bitunix added perpetual futures contracts for STEEM.
• The Trump election win (or more specifically, Gary Gensler leaving the SEC) might open some opportunities up in the crypto space for US-based investors and businesses.

Steem as a free speech platform?

When Steem was launched, one of its big selling points was that it was censorship resistant. During the 2020 Witness Wars, the blockchain's reputation on that front took a hit. However, it really does resist censorship. Even posts that were "censored" during the witness wars can be retrieved if someone is willing to put in the effort.

Meanwhile, in the Jack Dorsey days, Twitter launched the bluesky platform and at protocol with a goal of decentralization and data self-ownership. After that, Elon Musk acquired Twitter and declared himself to be a "free speech absolutist", so Steem seemed less relevant as a free speech platform.

Recently, however (and I don't know all details), I'm reading about aggressive moderation on bluesky and reach reduction on Twitter (IMO, Facebook is a non-factor where free speech is concerned), so I'm wondering if Steem should be reimagined again as a free speech alternative to these platforms.

Bluesky and Twitter both separate the "reach" layer from the "speech" layer. On Twitter and other centralized providers, both speech and reach can be limited. If I'm understanding correctly, reach can be blocked on bluesky but speech is difficult to censor, just like Steem. However, it seems that may be somewhat easier to access speech that has been moderated on Steem than it is to do the same on bluesky.

Ever since the "Witness Wars", I've been reluctant to advance Steem as a free speech platform, but maybe it's time to turn that around again?

On a side note, has anyone checked for reward farming on the part of the censored accounts? I have thought for a while that this might be a fairly easy way to hide abuse tactics from general view(?).

That's it for the current update. Let's wrap it up now.

Conclusion

In the past fortnight, I have focused on bug fixes and minor enhancements for the Steem Activity Monitor (SAM), worked on time-based filtering and tag-following for the Steem Conversation Accelerator (SCA), and pursued design activities for a new project that I hope to release in May.

Looking ahead, my priorities for the next interval will be to continue improving the SCA and making progress on the new project.

Beyond my own work, I'm also keeping an eye on some interesting signals for 2025, like the Steem witness initiative to burn STEEM, new exchange placements, and general social media developments around free speech for social media platforms like Bluesky and Twitter.

Overall, I'm satisfied with recent progress, and I'm looking forward to seeing what the new year has in store for the Steem community.

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Thank you for your time and attention.

As a general rule, I up-vote comments that demonstrate "proof of reading".

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Steve Palmer is an IT professional with three decades of professional experience in data communications and information systems. He holds a bachelor's degree in mathematics, a master's degree in computer science, and a master's degree in information systems and technology management. He has been awarded 3 US patents.

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^{Pixabay license, source}

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