Plenty of changes abound this week on Whaleshares. Entire list of technical changes can be sourced here, but I will mostly be reviewing my favorite changes in this article.
Friends
This is likely my favorite feature of the update, Friends. Any user now has the ability to become 'friends' with another user, further allowing them to engage in a more "unique" relationship.
Each user now also has the ability to create special "Friends-Only" Posts, which are only allowed to be interacted with by friends. No more spammers giving you their unasked for opinion, if that's an option you like to take.
Pods
Pods, are very much similar to groups, though they have the ability to be much more. A pod can simply be a group dedicated to sharing a certain type of content, or perhaps even working to a larger goal. Currently, the potential for pods is limitless.
At the moment, whaleshares is mid update, and there is so much more to come for pods, but already there are pod posts, pod members, and a section labeled "Coming Soon", under the Pod Token Page!
Flagging Removed
One of the decisions made during this fork, was the choice to remove flagging from the platform altogether. From the start, we have worked to redesign flags in a way that it can be used in a more effective way, without causing harm to legitimate users.
I can only assume the decision has been made to scrap flagging as it just wasn't feasible. Flaggers still flagged for vengeance or hatred, regardless of any imposed penalties. It did help a bit to have the 3 times cost, but not as much as I would have thought originally.
Bandwidth Limitations
Perhaps the most controversial feature released in this fork. Bandwidth limitations have been brought back in full. I do not presume to know the exact reasons for this, but I can imagine security is at least part of the issue. Right now Whaleshares is getting a pretty decent amount of attention, and there of course those who seek to harm it.
Just a few weeks ago, we had an account go rogue, posting comments of max length on everything it could find. This will likely not be much of an issue going forward. This also makes me wonder if this is a limitation introduced for the time being, or for longer. Only time will tell on this matter.
Being a platform with little to no rules, we must have some way of enforcing spam limitations, so I can understand this. The only other solution I can think of is banning accounts, and noone wants that!
All in all
An excellent update, giving hope to many for the future. Great work team, we can't wait to see what you come up with next!
I am really excited about all the updates... bandwidth limitations are necessary for handling sustainability and scalability issues.
Edited: Was the trending page removed? I can't access https://whaleshares.io/trending
Yes me too, I am absolutely loving it, even simply as an idea to the future :) Thanks for jumpin in pal! I do really hate the bandwidth honestly, but it's really only a matter to very new accounts. Here's hoping it won't be forever!
The problem is that since we don't have delegations on WLS we need to figure out a way to help newbies... Even though WLS is very cheap atm and newbies could just buy some, I think that in order to get a lot of users we need a better mechanism to manage network resource allocation... Maybe something similar to EOS, but with a decent minimum amount so that new users can engage and users with more resource requirements can just purchase WLS to power it up.
Fully agreed with you there. I created a new account the other day for pods, and thankfully I had some stake to send to it because it is a bit debilitating, and no matter the value of token, I don't think users should need to pay to use the service minimally. I am near certain the values will be adjusted over time.