It’s no secret that it’s hard for new authors to get noticed and build a following on Steemit. In addition, Steem is getting flooded with spam and valueless posts. That’s why I am developing Steemfilter, a website which can contribute to solving this problem. First, Steemfilter can help new Steemit users find more meaningful posts. It could also prove useful for established users wishing to support new community members and for whales to discover new interesting authors worth voting.
Currently it’s just a proof of concept. The load time is weird (more on this later) so be patient please. What matters now is whether the project’s central idea, namely to determine certain criteria to filter out possibly less relevant posts, can be valid.
How it works
Steemfilter loads new posts starting from about 15 minutes old and processes them using the following filters:
1. Language detection
Steemfilter uses Google language detection algorithm to filter out non-English posts. No offence intended to non-English authors — later I’ll add custom filters including language.
2. Short post detection
It’s rarely possible to convey something of value in a twitter-like fashion. I believe a good post should be at least 1000 characters long. I know some good photos and videos could be filtered out, so I’ll think about a separate filter using early votes and comments to predict more interesting short posts containing photos or videos.
3. Plagiarism check
Currently I’m using a workaround — instead of direct plagiarism check it just checks if a post wasn’t marked by @cheetah bot. Maybe not all 15-minute old posts get this bot’s attention. Later I’ll incorporate plagiarism check into the code directly.
4. Post with no images
The last check so far is to make sure the author took time to put to her/his post at least one image. Again, I know some posts could be cool even without images, so later I’ll tweak it in the same manner as above.
Technical details
The code is written in PHP and uses official Steem API. The website runs on a WordPress install and can use all the rich functionality of this engine. I can replace the site design easily using ready-made WordPress themes. After things get more stable, I'll make a custom theme.
This is my first Steemit-related coding project, and I still have to solve the site load time problem — API requests take quite a lot of time despites the site is located at WP Engine, one of the fastest WP hosting platforms out there. Any advice on it would be greatly appreciated.
Future plans
I’m already using Steemfilter on my own to support new authors and find interesting posts to vote for. It works.
The closest steps I’m considering is adding customizable filters, especially for tags and languages support. The closest next step would be a possibility to load fresh #introduceyourself posts.
If the project proves useful, I’m thinking about adding more complex text analysis tools like readability tests, topic detection or English grammar check to filter out posts translated with Google.
How you can help
- Try using Steemfilter for a while and share your experiences to help me polishthe algorithm as well as the look and feel.
- If you’re an experienced Steemit coder, I will be happy if you answer a few questions I can’t solve on my own yet. Just leave a comment here if you’re willing to help and I’ll connect to you on discord.
- Resteem this post so that it could to reach more people and get more feedback.
Credits
Edit: the tag #introduceyourself wasn't my intention, looks like Steemit adds it automatically.
Hi @vitkolesnik! @holbein81 is sending you 1.0 SBD tip and @tipU upvote
:)
@tipU - send tips by writing tip! in the comment, get share of the profit :)why tipU and not regular transfer?
because with regular transfer you have to go to your wallet, click transfer, type in all the data and use your private keys to sign the transaction - all takes time.
With @tipU you just write tip! ;)
edit: oh, and it upvotes the tipped post / comment too (and the user that sends the tip).
It makes sense - i will give it a try
Oh cool, thanks for explaining this. Good to know.
Hi @digitalplayer! @cardboard is sending you 0.15 SBD tip and @tipU upvote
:)
@tipU - send tips by writing tip! in the comment, get share of the profit :)Thanks @holbein81!
Love the members of the community which help eachother !
The new improved version of Steemfilter is rolled out today, here's what's new.
That's pretty cool! Especially the functions to hide all those spam posts. Maybe you could add an option to have a personal (or somewhat global) blacklist.
I'm pondering about adding a reputation < 25 filter.
Welcome here on steemit @vitkolesnik. I hope you will enjoy your stay with us. Already nice picture. Thank you!
Wow, father to eight and still time to be creative! I would like to read how do you do that. Steemfilter on.
Hahaha, yes hard to believe!)
No shit, I feel late to the dance here. 8 kids bro. You are a jedi master of babymaking!! Nice to meet you and I love the sound of your program. Steem on my friend!! @steveblack
Thanks! Try to use steemfilter though, you're a new member and your feedback is valuable.
Copy that, I sure will. I am just out the door right now go volunteer at the salvation army free meal line I help manage 1.5hrs/5days a week. Its good to give back.
take care and I will let you know when I get back online.
Cheers!!
Hello @vitkolesnik I checked out your Program, it gave me a bunch of post I can look at, but I couldn't find a search bar where I can put in the type of posts I may be looking for. That would be cool. It works good :)) but a little more functionality I think would make it killer. like for non dev types like me.
I hope this helps you my friend.
Cheers!!
Thanks for using the tool! there will be custom options later.
Congratulations! This post has been upvoted from the communal account, @minnowsupport, by vitkolesnik from the Minnow Support Project. It's a witness project run by aggroed, ausbitbank, teamsteem, theprophet0, someguy123, neoxian, followbtcnews/crimsonclad, and netuoso. The goal is to help Steemit grow by supporting Minnows and creating a social network. Please find us in the Peace, Abundance, and Liberty Network (PALnet) Discord Channel. It's a completely public and open space to all members of the Steemit community who voluntarily choose to be there.
Great work. Very intelligent. Good luck with it.
Thank you!
An interesting and helpful idea. I applaud you for helping those of us who are new and enjoy writing and reading excellent content.
Thank you!
As someone that basically just curates currently I think this is going to be really helpful. I am definitely going to check it out, will send any feedback I have your. Thanks so much for this.
Thank you! Stay in touch.
In my opinion, functionality such as this will be critical for the long-term success of the site.
I tip! 1.0 my hat to you!
Congratulations on a great start!!
Exactly. Thanks for your appreciation and for the tip!
hi vitkolesnik , very happy to see you. i am wishing you the best and hope your are enjoying steemit. i am the best voter and follower, and hope you too follow me in this community.
This post recieved an upvote from minnowpond. If you would like to recieve upvotes from minnowpond on all your posts, simply FOLLOW @minnowpond
Great!!
Hi, @Vitkolesnik, Let me welcome you to Steemit. Hope you gonna have fun with our community. Feel free to follow me @rightuppercorner Have a great time @rightuppercorner
you're a bot.
This post recieved an upvote from minnowpond. If you would like to recieve upvotes from minnowpond on all your posts, simply FOLLOW @minnowpond
This post has received a 1.04 % upvote from @drotto thanks to: @banjo.
Great! I post absolutely nothing of any value, basically pure shit but I'd like to read some actual quality on here so let's hope this gets rolling!
I liked your photo from 1977 a lot. Btw it would be filtered out because of a lacking text part. Maybe I'd make an exception for photo contests .
On the other side, I would really like to read about your childhood and it could add value to your post .
This might be a helpful tool. But I don't see whales using it to find good posts. I believe they will always stay and promoting their own inner circles. Because that is what is more profitable for them as well 😓
Time will tell )
True. Let's see. Anyway I wish the best luck
Interesting initiative. Thanks for sharing.
Great initiative !
Great job!
very well sharing, Upvoted & Following you @vitkolesnik
Go on man will see how you will handle it. The idea is great though !!!
Collaboration with the new app in the making would be ingenious. Thanks for the energy given to us.
You're welcome!
inspired by you @vitkolesnik !
keep it coming and going strong!
all the best, upvoted followed and resteemed
Thank you!
@vitkolesnik upvoted
This sounds like a great idea, I am new myself and am picking it up as I go and gotten some attention but will definitely check this out. Upvoted and resteemed!
nice tool :-) I look forward to use it
is it possible to create a subsection for adult content so it no longer shows up on the main stream?
thank you for your efforts.
Great effort
hope it turns out to be fantastic
and I dont think so Steemit adds the tag #introduceyourself automatically
Thanks for the appreciation!
I really couldn't get rid of the tag, it was added again and again on saving.
introducing @zongbazong
Your post is true. Just started posting and commenting to build my following.
I tried using it, but it only shows the same 5 posts.. Are the filters too strict?
Can you elaborate on the plagiarism detection? Eg. would I be hurt if I quote articles in my posts?
It takes posts about 15 minutes old. Maybe no new posts were added at the time.
As far a I know, cheetah anti-plagiarism algorithm takes several random samples and determines how they match. So using quotes shouldn't be a problem. It marks only posts that predominantly consist from material published elsewhere.
Wow this should have been a part of the platform from day one!
This sounds great, thank you!
Nice work can't wait for future content :)
this is perfect, I'm new to steemit and appreciate the input, trying to soak it all in, every little bit helps
Your own post is about 630 words. So it wouldn't pass your filters...
I like the filters you apply by default, especially the "Short post detection". However, 1000 words is a bit too much for me. I think 600-700 words would be better. But if we can tweak it into the value we want, then it is ok.
Edit : Oh sorry, I just saw it is 1000 characters, not 1000 words..
Now, 1000 characters is a bit too few!! ;)
I'd double it.
I think 1000 chars is reasonable, but in the next version I can make a dropdown with some options to choose from.
Thanks a lot it sounds great! @stanleymathanda
Wow, nice work!! Thank you for doing this. Yeah, it's a real initiation getting started with Steemit, trying to navigate through all the clutter. This platform really could use some filters like this, and I'm happy to know you're working on it. And now I see you're a father to eight!!!!!!!! I've got three kiddos, and I'm up to my neck in work to do, so you must be a real trooper. Once again, nice work!
it sounds interesting!:)
Thank you! I am already preparing the next version)
Awesome post. if you help me then I will help you a lot
follow me https://steemit.com/gaming/@maruf121/uncharted-4-thief-end-nathan-drake-4-watch-out-one-of-the-best-moment.
thanks and don't forget tip & Am your follower
It's a great job you did here, I just cheched. But for what purpose are we to filter short posts?
In my opinion it's highly improbable to have a trending short post from a new author on Steemit.
Ich finde die Idee super, wäre schön wenn man auch deutsche Artikel finden könnte . Ich werde es auf jeden Fall weiterverfolgen, :-)
Danke! Will add it to my list :)
Awesome job! I found this while searching for ways to find good posts. Surprising that such a simple design works so well! Great job!
Thank you!
I love this tool!
Just found it through SteemTools.com, now I am learning how to use it.
I am very grateful for the time and effort invested to make steemit more accessible.
Thank you, glad you like it!