Blockchain path or not?
Let me start with a short story. At the beginning of 2018, we were excited about the use cases of blockchain. If you have been a member of this community for a while, you know that we started Hashnode because we wanted to build an open and collaborative community. With blockchain tech it's possible to build a network where its users own both the code and community. The TLDR is we wanted to be that community.
We spent the next couple of months studying various papers, code and other useful content on blockchain. As things became clear we started writing code and kick-started building an ecosystem for developers on blockchain. I wrote a blog post on it as well.
As we moved further and began exploring legal feasibility we got stuck. Various countries started to regulate the buying and selling of tokens. This made it difficult for average users to deal with crypto. Note that we never had the intention to do ICO. We would have launched the project without a public sale, but with this amount of regulation we wouldn't have got mainstream adoption. So, eventually we had to put the idea on pause. That's the reason, you saw little development on Hashnode. We had channelized all our efforts to create a blockchain based ecosystem where you, the community members, would own the data & code.
However, we still have the tech ready. As we have now paused our work on blockchain, we are going to open source this so that anyone who wants to build a decentralized community can do so using our code base.
So, what's going to happen with Hashnode? Well, read on to find out!
The future of Hashnode
I can promise you that Hashnode is going to run forever no matter what happens. We have been working on it for more than 3 years and we'll continue to do so for years to come. The reason is simple - we love community building and we really enjoy interacting with each one of you. So, thanks for being a part of Hashnode.
Making Hashnode better
We are taking a number of steps to make sure that Hashnode continues to grow and attract more developers to the platform. We are more committed to this than ever. Here is what we did during the last week and what we intend to do over the course of next couple of months:
Bring reactions to everywhere ✅
Previously Hashnode used to have reactions (appreciations) only in responses. We have now brought it everywhere (posts, responses and replies) and we have removed upvotes. This is done to unify the whole system. Plus there are 17 reactions to choose from. Let me know your favorite one. 😃
Tweak the feed ✅
Your feed consists of posts from the tags you follow. They are sorted as per hot ranking algorithm. So, when you come to Hashnode feed you won't always see the recent content. You'll find something interesting to read. If you are interested in recent content, you can always visit the "recent" tab on your feed.
If you like a post, be sure to add a reaction to it so that it ranks higher in others' feeds.
Making stories first-class citizens ✅
Your feed now features both questions and stories. We have also revamped story pages in order to improve your reading experience. We will now put more effort into bringing high-quality stories to the platform.
Hashnode Originals are coming back ✅
We started Hashnode Originals (HNO) initiative in late 2016. The goal was to bring quality stories to the platform by working closely with our authors. Here is an example post from HNO series.
Although these stories were very popular, we couldn't continue running HNO because of resource constraints. Well, things are different right now and we are commited to reviving HNO series. We are already working with some authors and would love to hear from more people in the community. We'll publish a public page to invite authors in a few days, but in the meantime if you want to be an author of the HNO series, feel free to DM or email me (sandeep@hashnode.com) or Milica (milica@hashnode.com).
Strict enforcement of Code of Conduct ✅
We have published a new Code of Conduct to make this a friendly and welcoming place. We don't want to force people to align their opinions with ours and everyone has a right to express themselves on Hashnode. However, your thoughts should respect the code of conduct and shouldn't hurt anyone. There is going to be heavy crackdown on trolls and flamers and we'll approach this systematically this time.
Adding Moderators ✅
We are going to roll out moderator privileges to a set of Hashnode users. They will work along with our team to enforce the Code of Conduct and moderate the community. As a token of appreciation, they will be given a new shiny moderator badge which will appear on their profile and every time they post something.
Hashnode Evangelists Program is back ✅
Hashnode Evangelists work closely with us by being a member of our internal Slack channel. An evangelist's profile picture always has a green border which acts as a badge. We are also working on a new beta site exclusively for evangelists. They will test out the beta/cutting-edge features before we roll them out to everyone else.
Mobile apps
We are working on releasing mobile apps for Hashnode. The iOS app will be shipped first. In the meantime, we'll continue to work on the Android version. We are targeting to release the app sometime between Dec 15 - Dec 31st.
Performance and PWA
We are coming up with a bunch of performance enhancements and PWA features in the coming few days. Here is what the current lighthouse audit says:
Our target is getting 100 in all these areas.
Hashnode APIs and Open Source
We will soon start working on a pending feature request which is Hashnode APIs. We are excited to see what you end up creating with those APIs.
We have always believed in being open and transparent. That's the primary reason we explored blockchain in the first place. Now that the blockchain plan is on hold, we may think of open-sourcing Hashnode in future. There is no clear timeline about that yet. But if there is any development regarding Open Source plans, we'll let you know. 😃
We are going to implement a number of tweaks throughout the platform in the coming days. Feel free to explore and let us know what you like and dislike. You can always DM anyone of us at Hashnode. We're always here for you 🙂.