Dear community,
We have received much valued feedback and many suggestions since the initial launch of Fundition, the first decentralized crowdfunding and collaboration platform.
Interest from our fellow Steemians has pushed us to keep up the hard work, and stay focused on the job at hand. We send special appreciation to those who have helped to guide us to improve the functionality of the Fundition ecosystem. We also appreciate the open and honest feedback that was more critical, as it has also helped us to improve.
One criticism we received after our introductory post was our use of bidding bots. We discussed this as a team, and we understand that attempting to promote an “ethical overlay” for Steem, while also employing the use of bid bots, could seem contradictory. That said, we also believe that, if we were to work for months (with little sleep) towards the goal of innovation, without also seeking visibility for our launch, we would also be “killing the chicken in its egg” (French expression). However, this post is not a place for drama! Therefore, we would like to give back to the Steem Community, by declining a payout for this post, which represents the collective work accomplished by our team over the past two weeks.
We are excited to present the following list of changes to you; we have made many adjustments, and we won’t mention every single thing, but we will feature the most substantial changes below.
Apisteemit solutions
What happens when apisteemit is down? Applications are down? Hmmm … Okay ...
Fundition is not affected by this trouble, since our platform switches automatically to the next node, if the first not doesn’t respond. We will develop this feature even more in the near future, supporting faster deliveries to visitors.
Changes in “Heart” payment calculations
You can easily calculate “Heart” value by converting it to Steem, because it is now tied to the current value of STEEM: one “Heart” is equal to 0.001 STEEM. (1000 Hearts = 1 STEEM)
Why change the value of a “heart”?
When we introduced the “heart”, its value was tied to USD. However, since many people noticed the fluctuations of cryptocurrency, seeing the number of hearts (given or received) change over time, we decided to instead peg the heart’s value to STEEM, which can be held as a constant in our ecosystem. For example, when a donation of 5 STEEM is made, Fundition will show that 5000 hearts have been donated. In the future, we have considered recording each transaction, in order to assure that each donation retains its value vs. fiat, based on the exchange rate of that moment.
Donations shown in both fiat/hearts
Alongside the change of Heart value, we now also display the value of donations and support in fiat currency. At the moment everything is displayed with hearts and USD currency; other fiat currencies are our priority for following updates
Project Thumbnail
We are working on improving the experience of project creation for Founders, and helping them gain more visibility for their projects. One of the things we have developed is a customized thumbnail that will make the post more attractive. This attractive thumbnail will get more clicks that redirect visitors to the project. Stay tuned for an even better thumbnail.
Loading of the platform
Since we are displaying a great deal of information (and fetching updates/account history, and so on), we worked to improve data loading speed. We made some special customizations to the platform to optimize for faster loading. If you notice any issue with loading, don't hesitate to alert our team.
Edit your mistakes
You made a mistake before submitting your project or updates? You want to change your goal? Just edit your project or updates before the the time-limit (7 days) passes.
Caution : Editing your project and updates via another Steem platform (e.g.; Steemit.com or Busy.org) can lead to issues.
Button for updates
Some people did not know that they had to click on the small Fundition logo to collaborate, or to make a new update for their project. So we added another button for adding updates to a project.
Notifying to check your chest
When you have a reward pending on your account, you will notice that the chest in your inventory will become golden, and will contain a heart. By clicking on it, you can now open the chest and redeem your rewards (transfer to balance).
Faster loading and compression of images
Images are now compressed and we transform your pictures (crop, resize) to optimize loading. Furthermore, pictures appear only when they need to appear.
Better UI and UX design
Because the UI and the UX (user interface and user experience) are not something to keep frozen, we are continuously trying new designs that will help the platform look its best.
Directing to link selection
Thanks to our member @steemcurve for the suggestion to create a direct link, in order to be able to share the “News” section. In addition, since we don't do things halfway, we also implemented a link to each section, so that you can now share any of these sections via direct link.
Push for updates
Now when you visit Fundition, you can see how much time a project still has (when it will expire). Remember when a project starts, it runs automatically for 7 days. If you do another update, that will extend for an additional 7 days.
Fundition Code of Ethics
We have created a decentralized platform, but we believe that there should be some restrictions for the protection of our integrity and our members. Recently, an anonymous user started a project related to gambling; in this case, that is one of the activities that we don’t support.
Addition of a Dedicated Help Center
We have created a decentralized help center (on the Steem blockchain) for visitors and future Funditians. We have tailored this to users’ needs, providing some answers and guides based on frequently asked questions, and with a few basics about the Fundition ecosystem. If you are not able to find an answer to your question there, please reach out to our team on Discord, and we will be happy to answer any questions you may ask.
200 Members on Fundition Server
Discord is the place where Funditians get answers promptly. We are dedicated to helping users with detailed tips. Our Discord has just exceeded 200 active members. Join us! Welcome to new team members @planetenamek as developer and @donkeypong who join us as advisor!
Appreciation note
The thank you note for Backers had issues on displaying for some users; now the issues are fixed. We are excited about the great messages that Founders are sending to their supporters/backers. Go and explore what Founders have prepared for you!
75% of translations are done
Localization is really important for us; while working towards perfect English and French versions, we have achieved 75% of the translations for these first two versions. And with our recent Ambassador program, we will be proud to go quickly towards introducing Fundition in your spoken-language.
Raising awareness
Fundition is already becoming a global community. Our hope is now to raise the awareness of Steemians about the Fundition platform. We have created an account that will support the community with comments, and increase users’ understanding of the platform.
We have also started to seek out Ambassadors, who will be selected to represent their language’s users on this platform. They will be hard workers, who engage with the community, collaborate on projects, and have the goal of making the world a better place.
Leaderboard
All Funditians have a special place for us, and they add great value to Fundition (and to the Steem blockchain). Many share hearts around projects that deserve their love, and we are grateful. To show our appreciation for those who share the most, and to gamify giving, we have made the Heart Leaderboard. One of the ten people who send the most hearts each week will be chosen at random to receive a special reward from Fundition. Bidding bots are not allowed.
Main goals
According to our roadmap, we will work even harder towards reaching our target of delivering the most amazing of the friendly DApps.
Permitting updates to campaigns via other platforms
We are also inspecting a good way to permit updates to Fundition campaigns via other Steem-based platforms (such as Busy, Dlive, Dsound, Dtube).
Optimization and killing the bugs
Did you expect everything to run fine? Thousands of lines of code! Obviously, having some mistakes in the code development is normal. Please let us know where you see any bugs or problems, and we will try to fix those lines of code.
Smartphone applications/platforms
When the localization will be done (soon), we will start our beta for mobile apps. We have already made some successful trials on both Android and iOS.
Crowdin translations
Next week we will start our Crowdin translation campaign, to give our Ambassadors access to the translation.
Credit card payments
Some news from our potential partner Coinbase: they changed their widget system, and offer a new way to pay with their platform. We made some successful payment tests, and will keep you informed when payment via credit card will be available.
Your feedback and suggestions are important for us; we are always happy to listen to your thoughts, and ready to implement changes if we believe it to be appropriate. Please continue to collaborate with us, and help make the STEEM coin even more valuable, with the community that we share in common. We know that your time is valuable, and we appreciate the time you spent reading this update!
See you at the next update !
Join Fundition / a community with heart-based giving at its core.
Visit Fundition.io
This is great! I'm excited to give this platform a test once my materials are ready. Best of luck and keep up the good work.
Thank you @distantsignal :)
We are waiting to welcome you when you are ready :)
After using Kickstarter unsuccessfully several times, I am very excited to see fundition here on Steem because it gives me hope that many of us will have the best opportunity to fund projects that make a difference in the world together!
I mentioned fundition at https://steemit.com/dlive/@jerrybanfield/3ffc3520-426a-11e8-836a-b9befc1a6029 as one of the 25 reasons I think we are on our way to being the #1 blockchain and I will resteem this update!
Hi @jerrybanfield,
I am really grateful (first of all on my own name but also on behalf of my team) for the support you have given us since the launch of our platform.
And I also enjoy seeing Fundition in your top 25 reasons to think why Steem will be number one blockchain (too bad for the white screen) :) and over time we will comfort you with the idea that you had to help us and the reasons to have us promoted and encouraged.
Thank you for your kindness.
Cheers,
I love you guys
Oh i love the first update! Especially the appreciation note in the chest is the cutest thing ever! (I know that's there since the beginning but anyway :D)
But one thig that came to my mind: Isn't the Leaderboard a bit...strange? Because the user with the most SP show up every time doesn't they? Or is this just for Backers? That's not really clear to me :)
But you are doing such a great work on this, i love to see this growing!
Haha yeah it wasn't present at the first launch that's why we included it this update :)
No you are wrong :) Even if some big users will probably be on the top, we calculate each donations and each support to display the leaderboard. And as you can notice your lovely drkent is the first without being a big whale.
Thank you @misomaniac
A lot of work done! Very happy to be part of this adventure but even more of the @futureshock adventure in general ! Concerning the bids bots part, we see the results and that allowed to pass the information to all the steemians.
I think that there is no problem to put forward this type of project, especially since here the goal was not to win SBD but to put forward the message.
I love the new feature that allows to publish a beautiful image that redirects to the fundition project. It's that kind of extra that makes the difference. And I see that the team has been able to isolate many small details to improve to offer a better user experience, so I congratulate you all for this work accomplished!
While waiting for the next steps, let's keep this beautiful project alive :-) !
See you soon!
The whole team and I are happy to count you among us.
I agree, but we can at least say that we tried.... However, we will not make the same mistake twice.
Yeah there are often small details, which accumulated gives another impression to visitors and users. And we will continue in this way :)
Thanks coupine
Hey there! I love the idea here. I was looking into using fundition instead of hyperfundit or kickstarter. I did notice the discord link is totally blank though. I went to the server and nothing was there. I'm going to check out the other links.
Hey @omitaylor;
I hope you visited https://discord.me/fundition
Amazing.. This is so amazing.
It sounds like an interesting project, will look at your website;-)
Support! I believe crypto brings a new way to crowdfunding and support will never concern about the money goes to the hands of agencies!