Hi everyone. This article will be a review of a recently-created open-source contribution website called Utopian.io.

Utopian is a website based on the STEEM blockchain, allowing you to contribute bug reports, suggestions, and more to open-source projects. Your contributions can get voted on just like other STEEM posts, and you can be rewarded by the Utopian community for your help! Let's dive in.

The Mission of Utopian

Utopian is a project created by @elear, and active Steemian and open-source contributor. The mission is simply to connect contributors to open-source developers, allowing contributors to get rewarded for their help, and allowing developers to collect valuable feedback.

However, your contribution doesn't have to be about anything technical—we can leave the code aside completely, in fact. Here are the categories for contributions:

Your contribution can be anywhere from a suggestion for a new design, a graphics entry, some helpful documentation, a detailed report on a bug you found, or even some analysis on how an open-source project is doing!

All these contributions get loaded onto the STEEM blockchain as articles and posts. The posts are currently set to redirect 10% of the rewards back to @utopian-io, presumably for more development on the website. Each STEEM post or Utopian entry can get upvoted on, as usual, and you can take out STEEM rewards in the form of SP and SBD, just like you're used to here.

The only difference is that you're giving back much more on Utopian. By sharing some of your thoughts, you're helping open-source developers make their projects even better for everyone. And that feels good!

Contributing on Utopian

Contribution on Utopian works like this:

1. Go to https://utopian.io, and sign in with your STEEM account. Notice that the interface looks similar to the new design for Busy.org; that's intentional! Utopian's UI is a fork of Busy's.
   

   

2. Next, click on the big blue "contribution" button at the top. You'll be redirected to a page like this:
   

   

3. Third, fill out your contribution type. Is it a bug report? A suggestion? Choose one of the 8 categories that best represents your contribution.

4. Fourth, choose what open source project you're contributing to. Type the name of your project into the "Github Project" box, then hit enter. You'll see a few results pertinent to your topic. Generally the first one might be the one you're looking into, but go through each of them to be sure.
   

   

5. Make your contribution title. Be weary this is also your STEEM blockchain post's title as well! Make it descriptive and relevant.
   

   

6. Write your contribution! Be as detailed and verbose as possible. If you're claiming something, provide the necessary evidence to prove it. Don't be afraid to be personal or subjective.

7. Add your tags. Notice that only four tags fit in the box, rather than the usual five. This is because when posting, the service automatically adds the tag "#utopian-io" as your main post tag.
   

   

8. Click Post! Your post will be published instantly, but it won't be visible on the website until it's verified or approved by someone with a high reputation (at least 55). If you wrote a detailed and relevant post, don't worry! Most meaningful contributions get approved sooner or later.

Conclusions

As a project developer and Steemian myself, Utopian seems like a beautiful offer allowing contributors to capitalize on their contributions, and allowing developers free and unlimited access to contributors' time and feedback.

Thank you to @elear for creating such an awesome site! Make sure to visit https://utopian.io if you like it, and start making some contributions!

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Thanks for reading,
— @mooncryption

image sources: 1 - @elear, All Other

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