“The only thing that you absolutely have to know, is the location of the library.”
– Albert Einstein –
I am finally beginning to make good on my threats to learn something about interacting with the Steemit world as the geek/programmer/developer that I am.
One of the interesting discoveries of my life has been that I am, by God's design, interested in everything. I've found this reality to be both a blessing and a curse.
Being interested in everything is a blessing in that, generally speaking, I'm never bored. There is always something interesting to read or do or think about.
However, being interested in everything is a curse when I find myself frustrated by things beyond my control, and when I discover that I don't have the time to make and do and interact in all the areas of my interest simultaneously.
I've never enjoyed the feeling of being only as good as my latest article. The Steemit User Interface is extremely temporal, and absolutely at odds with the notion of blockchain permanence.
The standard Steemit UI gives you access to a strictly chronologically ordered collection of an author's work. If you happen to read an entry by an author who was having a bad day, you're likely to go "ho-hum" and move along, never to return.
Well, I'm sorry, but I insist on being more than my most recent post. I want you to have access to the whole nine yards.
Building, maintaining, and improving my personal Steemit library has been one of my Steemit projects and passions since my early days on Steemit. You can read much of the history and rationale for the library here:
INTRODUCING "My Steemit Library" -
...A Better Way to Steemit...
I was appalled recently to discover that a change in the Steemit User Interface has broken the most recent version of my library. The article links now all have a superfluous "https//" embedded in them, causing the links to fail.
Another utterly frustrating discovery was that the standard UI now ends at the first article of last year (2017). What the heck?
These disheartening discoveries have, nevertheless, added some motivation to my ongoing quest to update, expand, and improve my library technology.
creating my library has been a painstaking manual process. But thanks to a couple of Steemians I've recently met, I have begun to learn how to access a database containing a complete, organized, up-to-date snapshot of the entire Steemit blockchain.
I'd like to give a huge shout-out to 
I struggled for a while, unable to access the database, so I joined the SteemSQL Channel on Steemit Chat and asked for help.
As a result, I would also like to give a big shout-out to 
"Making SQL queries to steemsql.com with python scripts on macOS"
With the help of her tutorial article, I overcame any remaining obstacles and became able to access the SteemSQL database.
I've been experimenting with Python and SQL commands, and have renewed hope that I'll be able to accomplish my plan for my Steemit Library.
My nefarious plan is to continue with my self-education about SQL and Python, and to reach the point where I will have some custom Python utilities for maintaining my Steemit Library.
In my fevered imagination, these utilities will be able to scan my entire collection of Steemit articles and output the results according to my specification into a hierarchical collection of Steemit posts that will provide topically organized access to my Steemit articles.
The surprising reality is that I'm making some progress...
In the longer term, I'd like to make those utilities available to fellow Steemians who might like to do the same with their Steemit writings.
LOOK! Check out our amazing product:
@creatrThanks for your time and attention.
You are why I'm here on Steemit!
I have very eclectic interests and hope, over time, to write about them all.
@creatr's World⬇️CLICK Each Image Below⬇️|
|
|
|
