Utopian: This is Now Getting Serious!

Utopian.io is the only platform rewarding Open Source contributors and it's doing it with Steem!

In this post I am going to show you the latest updates made on the platform and how to be rewarded for contributing.

If you have visited Utopian.io before please refresh the site few times to clean the cache of your browser until the new changes show up.

What is Utopian.io?

Utopian.io enables everyone to contribute to Open Source projects by providing Ideas, Code contributions, Graphics or Social exposure and be rewarded for that with Steem.

A project is Open Source when its codebase is public. Steem is Open Source, WordPress is Open Source and there are so many other Open Source projects out there. Most if not all of the Open Source projects are hosted on Github.com. Utopian offers a full integration with Github, allowing you to link your contribution posted on Utopian with an Open Source project hosted on Github.

The Utopian Weekly

The most important update is going to be the Utopian Weekly. The Utopian Weekly is a newsletter about the best Open Source projects around Steem and in general the most ground-breaking Open Source initiatives. The Utopian Weekly will be published under the official Utopian account: https://steemit.com/@utopian-io. Go there and follow @utopian-io.

The newsletter will be 100% Powered Up. The author rewards will be used to upvote the best contributions on the platform.

I have to thank @codewithcheese and @transisto for this idea. At the begin I wanted to split the author rewards for the Utopian Weekly with all the future Utopian Power Delegators in order to attract more delegations, but @transisto made a good point about this:

If the point is to fund development why give the reward back to those who gave it?.

That's why I decided that Utopian is going to fund itself by providing quality contents every week and use the author rewards to upvote the best contributions posted on the platform.

100% Powered Up

All the contributions posted on Utopian from now on will be by default 100% powered up. This decision comes from 2 facts:

• Utopian does not want to attract users looking for easy returns. Utopian wants to grow a community where people actually collaborate and use their power to upvote other contributions.

• Simplicity. There is really too much to say about STEEM, STEEM Power and STEEM Dollars and for new-comers they are really hard to understand. Utopian has only one and that's STEEM Power. Users who want to power down and liquidate their STEEM Power can still do it via the Steemit wallet, but Utopian does not know anything about that and will not encourage the users to do so.

The Begin of the Next Big Thing!

Utopian now provides a way to categorise contributions. This change is important to let the users understand the platform better and enhance the quality of the contributions.

Contributions can now be categorised like follows:

• Idea/Feature: This is the most important category. Soon Utopian will provide a way to fund ideas with Steem. Funds will be then split between all the contributors, meritocratically, based on the upvotes received on their contributions for the idea/feature.

• Code: Code development

• Graphics: Graphic design, layouts, logos and any other kind of graphic contribution.

• Social: Spreading the word about the Open Source project with social networks and similar tools.

Thanks to this categorisation all the contributions can now be filtered based on their category in the Utopian homepage and on the Project page.

The Review System

Utopian has now implemented a review system. When creating a new contribution it will go to the blockchain but won't appear in the Utopian feed until a Steemit/Utopian community member with at least 55 points of reputation will verify it.

Few posts have been added to the Utopian feed recently of a really low quality or spammy. Utopian is the place for contributing to Open Source projects, not for sharing stupid contents.

The review system wants to enable collaboration between the Utopian members. This is why even if you have a reputation equal or higher than 55 you won't be able to review your own contribution but another user with reputation equal or higher than 55 will do that. Instead you can verify contributions made by others and allow them in the Utopian feed if they meet the standards.

If a contribution does not meet the Utopian Standars, users can advise changes to the owner of the contribution using the comments. This is where collaboration becomes a fundamental part of the platform.

Contributions not yet reviewed are still visible by everyone, under https://utopian.io/all/review but only users with reputation equal or higher than 55 will be able to verify them and allow them to appear in the main Utopian feed and to be voted on Utopian.

For now I am personally reviewing any new contribution and providing help to early adopters.

Tags Are Back!

Thanks to @yabapmatt and @codewithcheese for having brought this to my attention. Tags were removed from Utopian because they were necessary to filter out the contributions. The system has completely changed now and tags are allowed, up to 4, when writing or editing a contribution. The default main category still is 'utopian-io' and all the Utopian posts will fall under this one.

Project Link on Contribution Details

Thanks to @antonchanning for this one. Now a link to the project related to the contribution is shown on top of the contribution details.

Paste the Github Url

Thanks to @gotgame and @codewithcheese for reporting some issues with the Github field. Now you can paste the Github repository URL directly or still search by repository name. Just some healthy UX improvements.

What's next?

• A way to fund ideas. This is going to be a ground-breaking change. Utopian will allow everyone to propose new ideas. Members can fund ideas and the funds will be shared with all the contributors who have contributed to make the idea a reality, meritocratically, based on the number of upvotes received. The begin of a new, shared and meritocratic economy.

• Mass adoption. As many of you know Utopian was originally based on the new frontend (not yet released) of Busy.org. The guys from Busy.org gave me a lot of support and motivation. A special thanks goes to @fabien and @ekitcho. I am always following their updates since they are working on few incredible features to make the adoption of Steem easier. Utopian is already integrating the most secure authentication service SteemConnect V2 provided by them and supported by Steemit. More integrations of their tools will also be soon implemented in Utopian. I am also working on a landing page, on an emotional video and better wording to make the platform understandable and adoptable also by new-comers.

• More specific features based on the contribution type, such as a way to directly link Github pull requests, branches, etc.

Who am I?

11 years Senior Software Architect - Javascript Full Stack Developer, focused on ES6, React.js, Redux, TypeScript, Node.js, and DevOps.

Follow me on Steemit: https://steemit.com/@elear
Follow me on Utopian: http://utopian.io/@elear
Add me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/puccidiego/

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Your Help is IMPORTANT!

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