A new post editor for STEMsocial; more about our proposal

I was not planning to write any update about the development of the STEMsocial app before at least 15 days, but this post was in order so that I could clarify our request to the DHF and demonstrate that it is appropriate.

However, whilst I was planning to do so, it turned out that the timescale was also perfect for an intermediate development report, as I deployed two days ago a first version of our new post editor.

At the same time, I naturally got rid of the summernote editor that dated back from the very first version of the app (October 2018). We can hopefully now say goodbye to all incompatibilities with other front-ends (up to potential bugs that will/may appear in the future).

In addition, I fixed a few bugs, with the Markdown/HTML support (thanks @dexterdev for your help), the display of the rewards and I have deployed a new awesome banner in the footer (thanks @glass.wolf).

As an illustration, you can either check our GitHub repository and the commits made after Apr 21^st, or have a look at the screenshot below.

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A few words about the next development plans

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Earlier today, I have locally started to clean the app from any mention of Steem and SteemSTEM, replaced steem-js with hive-js (see here) and moreover removed several packages and methods that are not used anymore. I will make use of the next few days to finish this cleaning task.

Moreover, on the editor side, I would like to add a toolbar allowing in particular for font manipulations (boldface, italic, etc.) and image upload. Moreover, I would like to have automatic link to any new article posted through the app in the user blog, as by default, new articles are posted in the STEMsocial community.

This will come, but in due time. The next report is expected in 15-20 days… And as shown in our 2020 roadmap, all developments scheduled for the April-July period will be achieved, much ahead of schedule!

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About the proposal

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In our proposal, we request 120 HBD / day during a year (as this is the timeframe expected to finalise the app). This means roughly 3000 HBD/month.

The funding is expected to be collected on a dedicated account, @stemsocial-dev, from which the developers will be paid for the work effectively done during any given week. The hourly salary is to be discussed, but we can imagine something like 15-20 HBD/hour and we will enforce that half that amount will be powered up. For now, there is only one developer working on the app (myself) but this will hopefully evolve. I for instance hope to officially get our designer (@glass.wolf) on board, as well as @mobbs (global design discussions).

In addition, our request includes some funding for 18 months of earlier work on the app, which will be spread over the entire funding period and has been evaluated at 250 HBD/month (the past is the past, let’s just make it nicer without doing the exact maths). Please note that this corresponds to more than a thousand of working hours. Moreover, this amount will be entirely powered up.

It is likely that we won’t use the requested 3000 HBD every month. After completion of our 2020 roadmap, we will either use the left-over for further developments (if needed), or return it to the DHF. The exact details will be discussed if relevant and in due time.

Furthermore, as we hope to become independent of the DHF at some point in 2021 (we will actively start working on this once an MVP of the app will be available), there is no current plan for renewing the funding request after the summer 2021.

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Why should you trust us? Well, see for yourselve. The best way is to investigate what we have done during the last three years, then make your own judgement! Let’s just mention high-quality curation for more than 3 years and in various languages (currently English, Spanish, French, German and Chinese), a meetup inside the LHC at CERN and another one at Virgo Labs.

If you like what we do, please consider:

• Supporting the funding proposal #91 through Hivesigner, or PeakD or Hive DAO;
• approving our witness (@stem.witness);
• delegating to the @steemstem account (or trailing it).