So first off, I staked another 200 LEO for the occasion of another 15th of the month, and thus another #LPUD. If this term is new to you, and you have no idea what the 15th is all about, let me welcome you to LeoFinance (because that would be the only explanation) and send you to check out this post by @leogrowth. Though admittedly, even there the regular Leo Power Up Day topic is overshadowed by a much more important event: The launch of the new LeoFinance user interface!
What We've All Been Waiting For
The waiting is over, the WEN-SOON game set to NOW (for now), and finally the entire community has a chance to experience what we have only talked about, for like ever. It's been called The Everything App, or also The Twitter Killer or simply Project Blank adding an air of mystery to something that had actually been discussed out in the open: A new UI for LeoFinance that would bring the recently introduced microblogging feature LeoThreads to the forefront... along with creating an application for various types of social media, DeFi, NFTs, onboarding, etc.
It LIVES! While Still a Work in Progress
For most of the launch day I made the mistake of visiting Leo's old UI, thinking that new features would start popping up, until I realized that the new one would be launched on a parallel URL, leaving the old UI intact. A very wise approach! So to visit the new LeoFinance, you need to go to https://alpha.leofinance.io while always keeping in mind that this is just the most basic form, and new features would be opened gradually, as possible bugs were ironed out. Which is why it would be great for you to become familiar with it, and better yet, write a feedback post of your experience using it.
A Lot Like Twitter... With a Macro-Blogging Feature
Just as I assumed, the look of the new UI looks very much like Twitter, with your Threads feed taking center position and the bar on the left offering you options for what you can do. This is exactly what I was hoping to see when Threads first appeared. Instead of being hidden a menu item on the top, this is the actual Home of LeoFinance. No wonder, after all it was the microblogging aspect of Threads that has become fully integrated.
But then there is the second item on the left-hand column called Explore that takes you to the regular long-format blog posts. The look is the same of course, which I like quite a bit. The wording of "Home" and "Explore" may be a bit misleading though, just in my opinion. Clicking on Curated or Bookmarks does not work at this point, but it gives you an idea of what it will be like to follow curation trails or go directly to posts you have bookmarked. The Notifications bit I find less useful, after all there are other sites who help you manage your interactions on Hive, but it is nice to see a list of all the money that went around by giving and getting votes. The Profile part is your profile, nothing more, and the More button promises more things to come to get excited about.
Passes and Fails in Using the UI
The last item on the left-hand bar it offers you to Publish a post, which I'm anxious to try once I have finished composing this post. As for the simpler functions of upvoting and commenting, my first attempts yesterday have failed, unfortunately. Even right now, I tried to upvote a thread but clicking on the Vote button only changed the percentage of the vote, without sending it out. The alternative of Cancel didn't do anything at all. So let me try commenting again, on the same thread by @khaleelkazi. Unlike in yesterday's try this one seemed to have worked. Okay.
Publishing a Proper Post on the New UI
So this should sum up my first impressions of this exciting new development. The biggest part will be posting this whole article, including pics and links, using the new user interface. Let's keep our fingers crossed! Especially when it came to uploading images, I remember the old interface being less convenient, having to download the pics instead of just using their links. Also, it will be great to have a side-by-side text panel where you can see what your final post is going to look like. But no rush here. If all else fails I will simply publish this post on PeakD.
I Assumed It Worked!
And in that case I will leave this last paragraph unchanged. (Otherwise, this is where I would relate my experience of how I failed to post it.) So yeah, this was my first try using the new LeoFinance UI. Oh yeah, I want to add a screenshot of my monthly Power-Up. Seems like I'm getting more than 200 LEO a month, so I may increase that in the future. Also, next month I may just use a simple Thread to post about it.
