Steem Trek (My Journey on Steem) Part 2.

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Hello Steemians! I think I need a new salutation. I will stick with this one for now though. Please pardon my playfulness.

A few days ago, eight days ago to be precise, I decided to start a new series where I will talk about some dApps on the steem blockchain. I titled the series "Steem Trek (My Journey on Steem)".

The intention of the series was basically to talk about my experience on several steem powered decentralized apps.

In the first publication in this series, I gave a brief history of my startup on the steem blockchain. I talked about how consistency against all odds was key to my progress on the blockchain. The first project I reviewed was Steemit. The reason was absolute. Steemit was the first dApp on the blockchain. In fact, steemit paved the way for other steem based project to be developed. Steemit also exposed me to other decentralized apps on the blockchain.

The next immediate project I found out through steemit was Utopian. At first, I thought utopian was just a tag. I don't think I was the only one who thought that way too because even right now, people still use the utopian tag carelessly. I later got knowledge of the project through a utopian mod at the time. I met him through steemit(see why steemit is a great platform). He put me through the basics of Utopian and in no time at all, I made my first utopian contribution. As time progressed, I began to fully grasp the concept of Utopian.

Through utopian, I got to know a lot of open source steem based projects. One of those projects is what I will be discussing in this article. I apologize for making you think this article will be about utopian. I have written some articles about utopian before. Links to those publications will be available in the links sections below.

In this article, I will be talking about another great dApp on the steem blockchain. According to the developer, the project is 2 years old. That means it had been existing even before I dreamt of being on the blockchain. The project is STEEMGIGS. The project has been redundant for a reasonable amount of time now. It's safe to say that the project was on sabbatical leave. But in recent times, an effort has been made by the project owner to resuscitate the project.

Before I advance further in this article, I would love to commend the resilience of the project owner, @surpassinggoogle.

@surpassinggoogle is one of the most humane persons I came to know, on the blockchain. Newbies now, may not know him so well. But when I was a fresh out plankton on steem, @surpassinggoogle was one of the persons that made staying on steemit worth it. You can recall that in my last publication, I said steemit was difficult for me in my early stages on the platform. Well, @surpassinggoogle was one of the encouragements I had. He encouraged newbies then through #untalented competitions where everyone was a winner. He doled out huge upvotes to encourage young steemians, of which I was a beneficiary. The reason I'm commending him is because of his effort in ensuring the projects under his wings don't suffer, despite the many challenges he is facing right now. Honestly, I have never seen someone so strong willed in achieving set goals even in the face of serious challenges.

Furthermore, I will love to commend the efforts of @tobias-g, who has almost taken Steemgigs as his project and ensured things are in place and the platform is back online. I checked out the platform today while creating this article and I must say that a lot has been done and more updates are coming.

The talking points in this article are

• What is Steemgigs?
• A general overview of the concept of Steemgigs
• How the platform works
• A very brief review of some of its features
• Suggestions & where improvements can be made.

I hope you have a wonderful read.

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What is SteemGigs?

Steemgigs is a platform founded by Terry Ajayi popularly known as surpassinggoogle on the Steem blockchain. The platform is modeled with the likeness of Fiverr, which is a platform for freelancers. In other words, you can refer to Steemgigs as Fiverr on the blockchain.

General overview of the concept of Steemgigs.

Steemgigs like I earlier stated is a platform built on the Steem blockchain for freelancers. Basically, the idea for Steemgigs was birthed from Fiverr. But, coupled with blockchain technology, Steemgigs becomes a better platform if properly utilized.

Steemgigs is characterized by the slogan "Everyone has something to offer." This slogan is something I get excited about anytime I read it. It portrays the mind of the project owner who strongly believes in the innate ability of people. That statement suggests that everyone has something that can be of service to someone else.

Freelancing has become a big thing in the world today. With actual jobs becoming hard to come by and companies seeking less staff size, freelancers have now become relevant. Aside from that, the existence of freelancers also stems from people who wished to be self-employed.

The services of freelancers are being sought on daily basis. This high demand led to the development of several platforms where people can hire the services of these people. The commonest of these platforms is Fiverr and Upwork. These platforms have been effective over time, but, they have a persistent issue which is not so cool. Freelancers that are hired via these platforms get ripped off of their actual wages. It is understandable, considering the fact that the platform paved a way for your services to be hired. This is the advantage of Steemgigs over this platform.

Steemgigs as a platform for freelancers, not only provides a means for freelance services to be advertised, the platform is provided for free. Personally, I'm excited about this, being a freelancer, I opted not to sign up on those other platforms based on the service fee attached. Please don't judge me. Everybody likes free things and we are excited at the slightest opportunity to get something for free.

Steemgigs is laced with different categories. Eight categories to be precise. The categories were carefully thought out because each one cuts across specific important needs in today's world. Inside these major categories are sub-categories that make a user's gig more specific. I took time to peruse through all the major categories and this validated the official Steemgigs slogan "Everyone has something to offer".

The concept of Steemgigs is an amazing one. Being a freelancer now, I appreciate the platform even more. I'm positive that with the renovations happening, the platform will become relevant again. Before creating this article, I created a gig. I haven't had any request for my services yet. The reason for that, I'm not quite sure. But I think it's because a lot of people are unaware that the platform is back. The developer needs to find a way to get people using the platform actively again. I will share my suggestions later on in this article.

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How the platform works.

Steemgigs mode of operation is peculiar to its purpose.

Like every other steem based app, users are required to login with their steem account. Steemgigs uses steemconnect login protocol and this is a great thing for folks that are skeptical about their security.
When logged in, users are blessed with a splash screen of gigs created by other users. What's cool about this is that you can select the category(subcategory) you are concerned about and see posts in it. It's just like constraining your feeds on steemit to a particular tag. At the top write on the webpage, there is a create button. Clicking it opens a drop-down menu of things that can be created on the platform.

• Gig
• Custom request
• Testimonial
• Untalented
• Surpassinggoogle.

Wow! That's quite a lot of things though. I didn't really use the Steemgigs platform before it's brief hiatus, but, I ventured into the website a few times and I know aside creating a gig, the other options weren't available. I checked out what the options are for, and they are quite important.
Creating a gig is like creating a steemit post. But this time, you are creating in form of an ad.
There is:

• The title bar.
• Category & sub-category
• Post reward payment method
• Pricing
• Requirements
• Delivery
• Portfolio

While creating a test run gig, I had issues with some operations. Some segments in the post editor forced users to be more descriptive while creating their gigs. Without these requirements met, the gig will not be published. I totally understand the need for a user to create a very descriptive gig, but it shouldn't be forced. What if I just want to be concise, and don't have to say too much? I was okay with the fact that I had to describe my gig with a minimum of 300 words. But I wasn't so excited when I was required to be descriptive in other segments, especially the pricing. In my test run gig, I had to engage in content padding so I could just meet with requirements and publish the gig. That was poor user experience for me though. Aside from that little issue, everything else was positive for me.

Overall, I like how Steemgigs works. I hope to see more improvements in the coming development updates.

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Very brief review of some of its features.

The review of Steemgigs's features will be very brief for one reason. The platform is still under serious developments and a lot of things are not in their place.
The only feature I can talk about right now is the User Interface.

Steemgigs User Interface (UI).

Steemgigs spots a good looking UI. Again, it's not the best looking UI I have seen on steem based dApps.

The landing page looks nice. However, it needs to be more beautified. You may ask, of what use would beautification be? Well, having a great UI with catchy graphical contents has the potential to attract prospective users. Currently, the landing page looks very basic. Someone might think the platform isn't a serious place. That is not to say that it is bad. I'm just saying that it can be improved.

The main page after a user logs in still spots a basic UI. The color scheme is the same as that on the landing page. But, I'm impressed with the way contents(created gigs) are displayed. The posts are displayed in a grid format which is really cool. It gives room to entertain a reasonable amount of posts in one view, without having to scroll.

Overall, the User Interface of Steemgigs is not bad. It is not great either. I hope the project owner thinks about resigning the webpage. But I don't think that will be happening anytime soon as there are more pressing needs.

Functionalities

Currently, there are not many functionalities to write about. For now, many functions are unavailable. But there are hints of what we should be expecting on the platform. I will list them out starting with the basic ones.

Wallet

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This feature is very vital for any steem based app. I hope it will be a more advanced wallet where users can power up/down and even delegate steem power. Basic wallets are becoming extinct on steem dApps.

Settings

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I really don't know what the content of the settings menu will be. But, I know whatever is related to settings, should be highly important. Maybe the settings page will be where users can edit their profile.

These are the two major features that are missing. The other features that would be seen on Steemgigs are;

Dashboard.

I have no idea what would be displayed on the dashboard, but I can't wait to find out.

Messages

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Great! With messages, users would be able to interact amongst themselves on the platform. I love the idea.

Cart

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This suggests that buying and selling transactions will be happening on the platform too. Knacksteem which is also a steem dApp is doing something similar called the Knackstore. I'm not certain if their operations would be the same, but we will find out soon.

I don't know how long it will take for these functionalities to be implemented, but I hope it's soon.

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Suggestions & where improvements can be made.

The first suggestion I will making is directed towards the UI of the platform. Like I said in my review, the user interface is quite basic. Not bad but basic. It will be great if more colors were added to it. Animated slides and catchy phrases adorned in fancy fonts. I know how attracted I'm to apps with amazing user interface, and, I'm certain this effect doesn't work on only me. Furthermore, Steemgigs needs a new logo. The current logo, in my opinion, is of a low class.

My second suggestion may lead to a total overhaul of the platform. I don't know how feasible it is to implement this feature.
I imagined if there was a peculiar profile page on Steemgigs where users can advertise their gig, portfolio, and hiring price. This way, users wouldn't have to create a gig every time. If someone needs their services, he just checks out the category and browse through the portfolios of all the freelancers in that category and makes his choice. Another way this can be implemented is if there is a time frame a user's gig can be displayed on the feed. Gigs older than a month should not be shown on the feed. Then a user is eligible to create a new one. This way, it shows the freelancer is active. Right now, with the way the platform works, freelancers will have to constantly advertise their gigs and this may be considered spamming. Personally, if my idea was feasible, it would have been good, if the platform functioned in that manner.

If the idea of a personalized profile isn't bought, and users will still have to constantly create gigs, it would be great if they weren't forced to meet certain post requirements. Let them create their gigs in their best possible way. I like the idea of different content segments though, so that can remain.

My third and final suggestion is about how to influence the platform so it becomes very active again. I know the platform in its current state isn't standard for use. But it's not too early to start putting a word out there about the platform. I don't know how the project owner plans to make the platform active again, but I know social media campaigns on the blockchain and off the blockchain will have a tangible effect on the platform. Social media campaigns off the blockchain will yield tangible results especially if it's targeted to freelancers. The idea of a free platform will surely thrill them. For this to be done faster, the project owner could create a contest with a reasonable amount of reward. The task will be to spread word about Steemgigs both on the blockchain and any other form of social media. Imagine a scenario where over 50 to 100 persons are bombarding social media with one common subject. It is bound to be recognized.

These are my suggestions for the platform. Hopefully, the project owner gets to read this post.

Summary.

In this post, I've been able to discuss about Steemgigs, share my own experience and my opinions. The concept of the project is amazing, it always has been. Being a freelancer, I know the importance of this platform and I'm hoping it becomes a great hub for freelancers.

Once again, I must commend the effort of the project owner, team members and anyone who is working tirelessly to ensure this platform is fully back on its feet.

I apologize for the length of this article. I had to cover all possible angles in one post. I want every project that I will be discussing in this series to be covered in one post. In my next article, I will be talking about Steepshot. I will try to be concise and straightforward.

Thanks for reading.

Links

• Project repository: https://github.com/steemgigs/steemgigs

• Project link: https://steemgigs.org

Resources:

• The images used in this article are screenshots from my and mobile phone. Other images used, are properly sourced.

Series backlinks:

• Steem Trek. (My Journey on Steem).

Github profile:

https://github.com/HarryHeights