Earlier this week, @steemitblog requested input from the community for their 2018 roadmap. I can see why @ned said in his SteemFest presentation that one of the biggest reasons that Steem was going to succeed was because of "you" (speaking about us - the community). The input from everyone here on how to make the platform better has been incredible!

I decided to go through all of the posts and comments from the community and compile a list of what I thought were the best suggestions. I also added many of my own as well, which include a ton of ideas that I have collected over the past year and a half. Many of these go back to the Steemit Wish List in 2016, as well as tons of GitHub issues I have read, and conversations I've had with various Steemains.

Attributions

Many of these ideas have been floating around and being discussed for a year or more, so it was hard to attribute them to a specific individual. For any of the recent recommendations that I pulled directly from the #roadmap2018 discussions or a recent conversation, I cited whoever made the suggestion there. (Keep in mind, whoever suggested it for the roadmap isn't necessarily going to be the person who originally thought of the idea.)

If anyone feels like they see their original idea here and want to be credited for it, please just leave a comment with a link to where you originally posted it, and I will do my best to ensure it gets attributed.

Paraphrasing

Most of the ideas here are my own paraphrasing of the idea that was shared. If you don't agree with my characterization of your suggestion, let me know in the comments and I will do my best to address your concerns.

So, without further ado..

@timcliff's 2018 Roadmap Top Picks and Recommendations

[Image source - Pixabay]

Top Priorities

• Streamline Account Signups
• Communities
• Balance bandwidth between positive new user onboarding, and system limitations. Possibly introduce fixed limits on operations based on SP. (Accounts with 0 SP may only get 1 per day or per week.) SMT creators will need clear info on how much SP must be vested in order to provide the necessary bandwidth to their communities.
• SMTs - Let's tokenize the internet!
• Standardization around content and it's meta data; include ways for front-ends to filter content from different platforms ( @jesta @noly )
• Fully functional Steemit app for iOS/ Android (not just a wallet app) ( @d-pend )
• Better third-party developer support and documentation ( @zombee )
• Traditional currency gateways so non-crypto users don't have to use crypto exchange to buy Steem Power and cash out their rewards. I understand there are regulatory issues. Partner with service providers if necessary. ( @smooth @stellabelle )

Important Changes

• Allow editing of posts after 7 days with posting key only
• Remove the 20 second limit on comments (maybe one per block)
• Change the 30 minute early voting penalty to 1 to 5 minutes ( @blocktrades )
• Scalability / Optimize the steemd resource requirements ( @drakos @smooth )
• Allow users to filter out resteemed content when browsing a user's blog
• Signup a friend button ( @gold84 )
• A moderate deduction of voting amount per post/comment and per vote. This essentially implements a slightly non-linear rewards curve as a factor of the number of comments as well as the number of voters, while keeping the curve itself still linear. (Helps discourage comment and upvote spam.) ( @smooth )
• Allow platforms (or users) to set the percentage of curation vs. author split for their posts/comments instead of being hard-coded to 75/25 ( @jesta )
• Integrate promoted posts into main content areas such as trending page or feeds; designate as "advertised" posts ( @noisy )
• Machine learning solutions that pick up on the user's behaviour to make recommendations. ( @liberosist also see post from @imwatsi )
• Add website perks that can be paid for with STEEM/SBD
• "Lock In" investor rewards type / an investor class - investors can get a fixed rate of return on SP without needing to participate in curation ( @clayop)
• Referral / affiliate program ( @dana-edwards @tuck-fheman )
• Onboarding of influencers ( @liberosist )
• Allow users to save and delete post drafts
• Improved notifications ( @bitcoinparadise )
• Offer hosting for avatar and cover images in Settings page
• Marketing (more articles about Steem in mainstream media outlets)

Good Changes

• Show related posts while users are reading a post ( @smooth @anarchyhasnogods )
• Show 'dollar' amounts in currency based on the user's location ( @ellievallie )
• Other social reactions besides upvote/downvote (JSON/UI level) ( @riseofth )
• Some mechanism to support a 'lost password recovery'
• Allow users to set a minimum amount to allow receipt of STEEM/SBD transfers that include a memo
• Full wallet history that is easy to navigate, filter, and understand ( @connecteconomy )
• Provide classification and filtering of posts based on content's language
• More info in the user profile, along with "interests" area so we can find like minded people ( @masscollective )
• Better tools for searching for content ( @muphy )
• Add a conversation history between users
• Add a way to lock in SP delegations (so they can't be removed) with an expiration date ( @slavix )
• Add better tools to prevent copy/paste spam
• Easier posting interface ( @connecteconomy )
• Allow users to crop and resize uploaded images
• In site private messaging (possible integration with steemit.chat)
• Introduce gamification to incentivize desired user behaviour
• Give suggestions for other accounts that users might be interested in following
• Add Verifications Page - Confirm identity via Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.
• Integrate a tip button into the UI
• More ways to connect than just "follow" i.e. Friends, etc. ( @georgemales )
• Allow users to change the color of their profile text to work with different backgrounds ( @glennolua )
• Embed video implementation like twich, kickstarter, facebook etc. ( @hoodaim )
• Confidential transactions ( @bitcoinparadise )
• Support font sizes and colors
• Improve the UI layout - Condenser must look good, sexy and attractive. ( @drakos )
• Generate sitemap.xml for steemit ( @jesta )
• Allow users to specify multiple beneficiaries on posts
• Allow users to create a library of bookmarked posts
• Warn before transfer to negative rep account
• Beneficiaries Payouts should be made in whatever method the author of the post/comment chooses (50/50 SBD/SP or 100% SP) ( @jesta )
• Reintroduce the challenge operation - Challenge a user's authority in case of potential loss of posting key. The challenger pays a fee to the challenged which is depositted as Steem Power. Until the challenged proves their active key, all posting rights are revoked. ( @gtg )
• Separate voting pools for downvotes vs. upvotes
• Some type of smart contract that allows a delegator to split the awarded curation rewards with the person they delegated to, to allow people to 'hire' curators
• Categorize posts within our blogs ( @wadepaterson )
• Be able to recharge voting power by burning STEEM or SBD ( @bitcoinparadise )
• Private transactions, possibly at a cost ( @riseofth )
• Allow users to include a "resteem reason" which would show to their followers when they resteem a post ( @enginewitty )
• Improve navigation / menu structure ( @geekpowered @boucaron )

Ideas to Consider

• How to get STEEM/SBD listed in more exchanges
• Deep revamp of reputation and curation into a better voting/reputation/curation/web-of-trust type system ( @smooth @lextenebris )
• Revenue models that can be partially shared with investors, users, and application owners ( @ats-david )
• How to 'fix' downvotes/flags
• How to measure user retention and identity retention issues ( @surfermarly )
• Ways to introduce gamification
• Market the Steem platform to the crypto business world as a platform to use for their social media efforts ( @bronevik )
• Long term content rewards (not necessarily from the "rewards pool"). Possibly related to advertisement revenue sharing, signup conversion referrals from users landing on the page, etc.
• How can we better onboard new users so that they do not get discouraged and leave?
• What problems could be fixed with a more advanced and consensus based reputation system?
• Rethinking content storage ( @jesta )
• Worker proposals / steem budget proposals ( @furion @jerrybanfield )
• How to do a better job allowing content discovery, so good/quality content gets upvoted and bubbles to the top?
• On chain 2FA ( @mughat )

Wish List / Nice to have

• Daily leaderboards display
• Improve onboarding process with interactive tutorials
• Sticky Posts for mods/admins
• Make external links distinguishable from internal links
• ‘simple view’ to show title only with no picture or preview text
• Ability to use scroll wheel to adjust vote slider
• Allow user-provided anchor links & targets
• Allow users to choose the image that shows as the post's thumbnail
• Add support for polls
• Allow users to select which image is the cover photo
• Built in emojis dropdown
• Have a CCO image library to chose images from
• Display a "Resteem" count on the post preview, possibly including the list of people who resteemed ( @connecteconomy )
• Allow users to schedule a time for a post to be created
• Pinned favorite posts in blog
• Show last edit time of post
• Create a custom 5xx page
• A dynamic key system to create a key pair and grant it permission to specific operations ( @jesta )
• Website skins ( @geekpowered )
• Bigger buttons ( @geekpowered )
• Ability to un-resteem ( @geekpowered )

Thanks Steemit!

I understand this is a really big list, and obviously only a portion of it will actually get implemented within the next year. None-the-less, I really appreciate Steemit giving us all an opportunity to provide them with input on what we think is important! I hope that this list and all of the ideas that we came up with, will help give you some good inspiration for what to include =)