Building Steem's Meme Community With Memehub
Edit: To clear confusion, you can visit the website and start meme-ing right now. This isnt an abstract "Future Project" without a product yet.
We already have the basic platform up and running at Memehub.lol.
The ubiquity of memes in today's internet culture is unquestionable.
Steemians, Memers, and Steemian Memers will be able to turn the laughs from memes into upvotes on Steem! A place where a meme community for steem can be cultivated properly and culture established.
Status
- Website
The non-Steem MVP alpha version of the website is available at Memehub.lol! Explore the meme platform for Steemians, and let us know if you find any bugs! We have deployed the website/app without steem first to get it stable prior to going live on the Steem blockchain.
This announcement is a bit premature; We are still working out minor bugs we found during the first deployment. We decided to go ahead and announce given the current environment of the steem price, Libra, and Voice. We believe the steem community needed this boost sooner than waiting a couple weeks until everything was perfectly ready to go to beta testing. SO GET HYPE FOR A MEME COMMUNITY FOR STEEM!
We are fully committed to ensuring the quality of this project but we need your help by using/testing the platform prior to going live on steem. For collaborating, expressing opinions for development, reporting bugs, general feedback, or wanna help, you can contact us on our discord server Memehub Discord
Note: Some features are under construction and not part of the MVP version. Things are still subject to change; the general goal is the best meme website with Steem integration manageable with the available resources at each stage of development. -
Steem Integration
The code is officially in development. Users will earn points called LULz for participating in meme-ing on the website. These points will be convertable into Steem via upvotes from the Memehub acct.
- Top MemesEvery day the Memehub Steem acct will broadcast a post with the Top 3 Memes of the day from Steem connected accts on the Memehub website to the Steem blockchain. With steemconnect permissions, comments with content of how many LULz were earned on the meme by the poster of the meme will broadcast from the Steem acct of that poster. Then they will receive upvotes from the Memehub acct at voting percentages: 50% for first, 35% for second, and 15% for third.
- From LULz to Steem
The Memehub Steem acct will broadcast a post, weekly, for comments from user's Steem accounts to receive upvotes from the Memehub Steem acct throughout that week.
The method for how upvotes will be distributed to users for their LULz will take the form of bidding for a share of a 100% vote from the Memehub Steem acct when at 100% voting power. The upvote percentage received out of the 100% upvote, will be calculated as the ratio of the amount of LULz a user bid relative to the total LULz bid in the round. A good analogy is that converting LULz to Steem is similar to how vote bid-bots sell their Steem upvotes.
- Top Memes
- App
Get your laughs while on the go! We have apps developed, just not deployed yet. Once the website deployment is considered finished, the apps will be deployed and announced in a later post. - Fully Live
After the MVP version of the website and app are stable without Steem and the Steem code tested on the testnet, then stable when live on the blockchain/website, we will consider the website fully live! - Post-Live Development
The first feature under construction we aim to address after the Steem-mvp version is fully live, is a voting page to gauge the opinion of the user base for what feature to implement next in the development process and proceed from there.
FAQ
- Why not just post memes straight onto the Steem blockchain?The amount of the meme community strictly focused on creating OC memes or templates is dwarfed by the amount of pure nonchalant sharing of memes. The dankness and freshness of a meme is generally more valuable then the sharer being the creator, or even who the creator is. This mentality clashes with Steemit posting principles, as we quickly found out when joining this platform. This is also one reason (of many) why Dmania has failed in recruiting and incubating the meme community on Steem. Also, it is impossible to determine the original creator of a meme, absent trusting a watermark if present or imposing restrictions that conflict with the nature of dank meme propagation.
- How does Memehub fix this?
One way to view it is that the Memehub website will work as a bridge between meme-ing and Steem. It will provide the natural habitat of memers on one side, and Steem rewards on the other. These Steem rewards will come directly through upvotes from the Memehub steem acct for that purpose and indirectly through upvotes from Steemians who get a laugh out of the memes.
This prevents Steem from being flooded by meme posts that are not by the creator. Which allows the meme community to interact naturally with Steem, without the inherent clashing of the manner in which meme communities/cultures operate and the principles of posting on the Steem blockchain. This also ensures that there are quality memes on the steem blockchain, as voted on by users, such that anyone on Steem will observe a flourishing meme culture on the platform. So Another applicable analogy is that Memehub works as a filtering mechanism for what memes end up on Steem as voted on by the Steemians that meme. - How seriously does Steem need this?
MEMES ARE THE STANDARD MEDIA OF COMEDY ON THE INTERNET!
MEMERS NEED STEEM AND STEEM NEEDS MEMERS!Every major centralized corporate social media platform that Steem looks to contend with has a meme community with its own culture as a core element. ALL OF THEM!!!Where there are memes, people will follow!
Where there are people, there will be a demand for dank memes!
The subreddit r/memes has 4.9 million members; Lets give them something better than reddit karma! Let's give them Steem!
The "Memes" facebook page has 16 million followers. Facebook is creating globalcoin but lets give all these memers Steem instead!
The @Epicfunnypage Instagram acct has 13.6 million followers. Lets give these Instagramers Steem for looking at memes!COMEDY IS UNIVERSAL!
There are vast communities of memers on pintrest, 9gag, memedroid, 4chan, etc that only make money for the companies that run the platforms with their meme-ing. Lets give them value for their effort in spreading laughs and smiles.LETS GIVE THEM STEEM!
What are some other PROS of the Memehub website?
- Users do not have to have a Steem acct to use the website which allows for mass adoption of memers, before converting to steemians. Since the signup process is what the average internet user is accustomed to, the transition to using Memehub is effortless. (One of the deployment bugs we are currently working out is the sign in with facebook/gmail options)
- Without a Steem acct, users will not be able to convert their LULz into Steem. This is how the meme community gets funneled to and incorporated into Steem. Naturally, the memers will want to get the value of their LULz, hence will create a Steem acct to do so. This opens them up to the entire Steem ecosystem in general, in a stepwise manner via memes. Thus establishing a solid meme comunity core element for the Steem blockchain.
- By creating a hybrid community where Steemians and not yet Steemians interact via meme-ing, we strongly believe that this will facilitate the conversion of memers into Steemians by its own nature as well.
- Aside from what has been listed, this provides a platform for Steemians themselves to enjoy and share memes in a non-chalant manner and still earn Steem for it.
Everyone needs a laugh; Everyone enjoys a laugh; including Steemians.
I am a Steemian that loves memes!
How can I help?
- Start using using the website: we need people posting and voting on memes to get the ball rolling on various levels.
- SPREAD THE WORD!!! Tell all your meme loving friends about how soon they will be able to get paid for laughing at memes!
- Delegate to Memehub: The higher the reward from a Memehub upvote, the more incentivized memers are to become steemians.
- Follow Memehub on Steem: Get updates on development and a daily dose of dank memes once the Steem integration is live.
- Upvote Memehub Posts: helps us spread the word on Steem and helps increase the value from Memehub upvotes to memers as rewards.
- Upvote the Posters that produced the Top Memes (Once Live): you will get a good laugh from their memes, it supports the thriving of a meme community on Steem!
- I will make the source code open-source at the appropriate time:
Devs who love memes or just love the benefits of Steem having a meme community and want to contribute can do so. - We are looking for support: from the large players in the Steem community to help us cultivate the meme community for the Steem community on a platform that provides the best medium between the two. @steemtank @oracle-D @therealwolf @dtube @blocktrades @utopian.io @aggroed @enginebloc @theycallmedan @themarkymark to list a few that I know of given my experience on steem so far, that I would like to see interested in this project. I know @justineh at some point made a popular post on memes that were steem related, so maybe this user would be interested in support the project. Also, the meme contest hosts on steem currently, @fibra59 and @richtvns.
- We are looking for support and feedback:
From the Steem community at large. Tell us your thoughts and opinions in the comments! Obvisously your thoughts matter to us! Resteem to get more of the community involved! - Anyone can get in contact with us through our discord:
For collaborating, expressing opinions for development, reporting bugs.
Memehub Discord
Interested in seeing this move forward, but I am a bit gun shy these days about throwing down on "future" projects.
Hoping you are successful
I understand hesitation. You can play with the platform yourself at memehub.lol
TRY IT, If you post honestly constructive feedback, we will listen to it and upvote! We want the best meme community for steem that can be built!
We are just working out bugs and working on the steem integration rn.
Good luck on this one, memestagram and dmania has always been some of my fav STEEM dApps... I use @memestagram almost daily even
But hey, the more the merrier 😅👍🏽 #resteemed
Honestly hadnt heard of memestagram until today. After reading the post of their announcement, here are some major differences I see.
Memestagram is taking 7.77% (STEEM) of author rewards for its service. We take 0%.
Its not accessible for non-crypto users.
ALL posts go directly to the steem blockchain.
They give upvotes based on a lottery, not merit based/free market like Memehub.
Their acct only has 1094SP to give out its upvotes, we have 67,000SP currently.
They are a lot more and more details than I laid out but I am sure they will become evident over time.
I’m sure many haven’t heard of them, seemed to lose steem after last years bear mrkt, while dmania str8 up died:
As for the rewards, as a developer I believe the 7.77% is ok and you should consider taking a share of returns yourself Incase the bear market returns. Developers should be compensated/incentivized directly, that’s JMHO
All posts should go directly to the STEEM blockchain, again, my opinion. Doesn’t necessarily mean it should be visible by every party on the blockchain.
The lottery thing is a handout, and another incentive to use the service. Totally negligible in my book as reddit/facebook/Twitter users who post memes are not incentivized by tokens and yet they still produce tons of content a la memes
Your SP balance irrelevant if you can’t execute on the project. Matter of fact all those numbers are mute...
Just bring your best game to the table and everything will be ok!
Don’t worry about the competition.
I’ll be testing this out tonight
🍻
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It’s Friday. When I’m back home tomorrow, I will give a full response to this. Each point deserves a very serious response.
Okay, Im finally free enough to fully address this :)
- Rewards: You are correct that a project has to make money somehow for sustainability and maybe taking a percentage from the users is the right direction for some projects. But I personally do want to take from the users like that; I dont think it is good PR; it doesnt feel right if I can generate revenue through means that doesnt do that. Thats why I went with an Ad based model as the core, which is feasible for Memehub since it is not exclusively accessible only to steemians or even crypto users in general . I also have other ideas for future revenue streams that are not at the expense of users.
- Posts: I see several issues with posting directly to steem with memes.
- Not many people, or whales, are down to use their cherished voting power to upvote memes, even if they are OC and dank. Even if they do it once or twice; its not likely to be something thats done on a continual basis. If whales dont upvote your memes and its just small SP holders then u wont get much value. Thats where Memehub comes in, the memehub acct is the whale devoted to giving out steem upvotes for meme-ing.
- It restricts profit to the 7 day period. With the Memehub model, users continue to gain LULz indefintely for a meme post. So memes that end up at the top of the website on the global time frame will really get their worth.
- Steem values original content. Most memes shared on the internet are not being shared by the creator. Part of the reason I set up Memehub the way I have is to provide the natural habitat of memers that will mesh well with the way steem works.
- Lottery: The point I was aiming at earlier about this is that a lottery is not merit based or it wouldnt be a lottery. On Memehub rewards are not given out randomly, they are given out for merit. Whether the user posted a meme that made it to the top daily or they gained LULz by voting and commenting on memes. You are right that memers are not given any value for meme-ing on reddit/facebook/instagram etc etc and I addressed that in my post and propose we give memers steem instead of them just generating value for those platforms and not getting anything themselves for it.
- SP: "Your SP balance irrelevant if you can’t execute on the project" correct and I would say the converse is true so "If you can execute the project then your SP balance does matter" Memehub can be a great site but if we dont the SP to give out upvotes with a real value then it just defies the point of the project. Wait until everything is live, your meme makes the top daily and you get a 67,000SP upvote from the Memehub acct, then come back and tell me how moot the SP thing is.
Memehub is bringing its best game to the table. We are not worried about any competition in the meme space cause we firmly believe our design is exceedingly better and that that will play itself out over time.Bruh, lol, it's not that serious. I'm entitled to my opinions. Actually started to read this rebuttal then realized how long it is. Rest assured you wrote (all that) in vien cause it's Not gonna happen.
"gotta address this" lol, address what ? I was literally saying: don't worry just bring your A game 🤣 or...
Focus on your development.
Have a day
Im not saying u arent entitled to your opinions? I also didnt write it just for you to read, but for anyone that reviews the comments. You dont have to read it. The "what" to be addressed is the reason why our design deviates from the opinions you expressed.
O—K thanks for that then 😊👍🏽
What a world
How do u mean that?
We've had Dmania, Meme.lol and here comes another Meme platform!!!
Please prove the ownership of this platform, its solid goal on Steem because things feel suspicious about Dmania, the scammed dicegame and this!!!!
Havent heard of meme.lol since I been on steem. As a memer, I think dmania absolutely sucks. How do You propose I prove ownership?
Also, what makes this suspicious to you so that I can address it. Theres no alternative motive here except to create a meme community on steem as I laid out in the post. I even plan to make the code open source once its secure and debugged enough to do so.
First, who is the real owner/creator of this project?
My name is Jeremy Meek. My personal steem is acct is @aninsidejob. This is a one man show currently. I completely own it, designed it, and funded it. I cashed in my btc to hire a pro dev team to code the foundational minimum viable product of memehub (web/apps/steem integration) and fund the Memehub acct to give out rewards. I go to Virginia Tech in the USA for computer science and plan to be able to work on the site myself after graduation. It is a MERN stack application which is what I’m learning as well as the steem JavaScript libraries.
I’ll be doing an AMA with @steemQA in the next couple days. I am all in on this project and have the community’s best interest in mind. This project is a result of me, an avid memer, being disappointed by all the meme related steem stuff really not being adequate for memers. I understand hesitation in trusting me given a lot of the money grabbing projects and scammy stuff. But Memehub is here to stay. You don’t have to believe that cause I will show it.
hey, nice work on introducing a new platform Jeremy. Do you have any plans or ideas on how to encourage the memehub users to holdd onto their steem? Otherwise this just becomes another way for users to extract from the system.
Do you have any ideas for making it a sustainable business? To allow you to fund the development and maintenance of the project.
My approach is trying to keep flexibility so that Memehub can adapt. If getting memehub users to hold their steem turns out to be a concern, then we could implement a minimum Steem Power amount to be held by the user before they can exchange their LULz, or something to that extent for example.
Since Memehub is accessible to non-crypto users, the ad based model becomes feasible for sustainability. I have other ideas for monetization such that it is not at the expense of the users, steem, or memehub itself.
@theycallmedan Here is where I provided some info on myself
I say “we” when talking as Memehub cause I do view memehub as separate from me and it might one day be composed of more than one person and the dev team I hired
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Do an AMA.
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How do you propose I do it? You can message me on the discord server and I will answer any questions you or anyone else has :)
I love this idea as well 👍
Doing an AMA with @steemitqa in the next week.
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Great
@horpey Here is a link to the AMA
https://steemit.com/steem/@askme/ama-building-the-steem-meme-community-with-memehub
Will check it out, thanks.
Lol, dmania shut down long ago, no scam involved they just couldn’t afford to keep the service running. Not sure how they fit in the same sentence as MagicDice 😒
Memestagram has the torch right now, pretty nice service on steem with its own meme generator
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Our site has a meme generator as well ;)
No, Dmania scammed somehow! Equilibrum reported how Zombie was gaming and rapping rewards after the report Ned withdrew the delegation.
I read the post pointing out the problems of dmania. I spent a lot of time thinking of the best way to do memes for steem. And I really think I have hit the sweet spot. I just gotta hammer out all the bugs and get it going.
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@horpey Oh, understood. But still not sure how dropping your project after losing delegation should ‘somehow’ be considered a scam... it was a choice,albeit a bad one. Still nothing compare to the MagicDice debacle or even worse: dLive 😩
@donald.porter the post I read laid out details on he kept the dmania votes to accounts by him. So he was funneling the rewards from all the delegations to himself thus why people removed the delegations. After not being able to collect on it, the scam was dead.
And that is only one problem of many. As a memer and absent any of the delegation whatever. Dmania sucked as a meme site.
I come from 4chan/reddit and been meme-ing since 2007
In one of the comments on this post I also pointed out some of the issues of memestagram has that we don’t have.
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I really hope this takes off my love of memes we’re hurt by the death of dmania, memeit.lol and memestagram! Let’s make memes on steem great again
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I am fully committed to the quality and success of this project!! Just need steemians help with testing and using it for it to take off! The only way it will fail is if steemians refuse to use it continuously! But I will keep trying to get the community on board, Memehub isnt going anywhere!
SO START MEME-ING ON MEMEHUB!!! :D
Meme Hub huh? This may convince my little brother to finally pursue this blockchain. Thanks for sharing
That kinda thing is part of our hope, by providing a solid meme community element for steem that it will help increase its appeal and legitimacy as a social media platform :)
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haha, Im doing an AMA this week if u got questions, concerns, etc :)
Is your name a Tolkien universe reference?
It is, character from the Silmarillion.
I thought so. I got a thing about people who are big LOTR fans but havent read the Silmarillion.
Yeah, its a very dry read at parts but if you love LOTR there is a ton of great info in there.
Excellent Project, I really seeking like this platform, I Join soon.
Thanking you and Best of luck
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@acidyo thanks for the big upvote! Here is a meme just for you ;P
This is a good idea! I missed meming for real.
Cool to see you take a 0% cut. However how will you pay for servers?
I think you should add ads like Steemit does. A-ads if you want the privacy for both you and users.
Another thing that would be cool is steem engine tokens.
The new HF will be affecting post rewards and Steem engine will allow for more ways for memers to earn!
Wish you luck. I'll join in after I see how memhub does. Dmania hurt badly...
Don't want the same mistake again.
I look forward to seeing ur memes on memehub!
Since the site is accessible to non-crypto users, this makes an Ad based model far more feasible; which there are ad spaces built into the site. There are also other thoughts I have to monetize this project such that its not at the expense of the users or steem or memehub itself.
I have thought about the steem-engine token thing and have started looking into it. I will eventually make a post deliberating on this in the future with my thoughts and to get community feedback.
I know dmania and other meme related projects have left a sore spot but Memehub will heal that wound over time.