Blurt Focus is here — a thematic Blurt front-end I have been missing for a long time

For a long time, I felt that the Blurt ecosystem was missing something simple, but very important: comfortable thematic front-ends that do not show everything at once, but allow people to browse content according to specific interests.

Blurt as a blockchain has one huge advantage: content is independent from a single website. The same post can be displayed by different front-ends, in different styles, with different filters and for different audiences. But I was missing a place that turns this into a real advantage: a front-end that organizes content thematically and lets people enter Blurt through a topic they already care about.

That is why Blurt Focus was created.

What is Blurt Focus?

Blurt Focus is a new front-end for Blurt, designed as a catalogue and system of thematic portals based on the same blockchain network.

Instead of building one website “about everything”, we can create separate thematic entry points. Someone interested in health can enter a health portal. Someone interested in film can enter a film portal. A photographer can browse Blurt in a layout that presents images better. A person interested in sport, gardening, travel or technology does not have to scroll through a random stream of unrelated content.

Each front-end can have its own subdomain, its own style, its own post layout and its own filters, but all of them still use the same Blurt network.

Available thematic front-ends

At this stage, several separate thematic entry points to Blurt can already be tested. Each of them works as an independent front-end, but all of them use the same Blurt network and the same on-chain data.

- Blurt Focus — main entry point

- Health

- Science and technology

- Art and culture

- Film

- Photography

- Games

- Politics

- Consciousness

- Mysteries

- Sport

- Travel

- Finance and business

- Gardening

- Hobby

The Blurt and Web3 category is available inside the main Focus catalogue. If needed, it can later become a separate front-end as well.

In practice, this means that Blurt does not have to be promoted only as one general website. We can promote specific thematic entry points depending on the audience we want to reach. Someone interested in health can be invited directly to a health portal. A photographer can be invited to a photography front-end. Someone creating films, videos or music-related visual content can be sent directly to the film front-end.

This is exactly the type of content organization I have been missing for a long time.

Why was this needed?

The biggest problem with general front-ends is that a new user often sees a random cross-section of the entire network. If someone is interested in health and, after entering the site, sees politics, memes, crypto or content from a completely different area, they may simply decide that this place is not for them.

But the problem is not Blurt itself. The problem is the way content is presented.

Blurt needs not only one general entrance to the network, but many thematic doors. A person interested in gardening should be able to enter a gardening website. A person interested in film should see film-related posts. Someone interested in photography should get a layout that presents images properly, not just a classic text list.

This is exactly what Blurt Focus tries to solve.

Thematic portals instead of one general stream

The main idea is simple: each category can work like a separate portal .

For example, the health portal can display content related to natural medicine, academic medicine, herbalism, diet and mental health.

The photography portal can have a completely different layout: more visual, with large images, a magazine mode and a special photo view.

The film portal can look more cinematic and better expose thumbnails of videos, films, documentaries, animation and music clips.

Different ways to display posts

One of the things I really wanted was to avoid forcing every type of content into one layout.

That is why Blurt Focus supports different post views:

- cards, - list, - magazine view, - special photography mode, - photo mode, - layouts adjusted to specific categories.

This matters because not every type of content should look the same. A political or educational article works well as a list or a classic card. Photography needs larger images. Film needs better thumbnail exposure. An author profile needs different tabs than a regular category page.

Author profile with posts, blog, reblogs and comments

Blurt Focus also improves the way author profiles can be browsed.

A profile is not just a raw list of posts. You can switch between:

- posts, - blog, - reblogs, - comments, - replies.

This makes it easier to see what a user has published, what they have reblogged, where they have commented and what replies they have received.

This was an important part for me, because an author profile should be more than a raw activity feed. It should help you quickly understand what a person creates and what topics they are active in.

Profile categories

The profile view also includes thematic filtering. If an author writes about health, Blurt, politics, film, gardening or science, you can jump directly to that part of their content.

This is very important because many authors do not write about only one topic. Someone can publish about technology, gardening, politics and films at the same time. Instead of browsing everything mixed together, you can narrow the view to one specific theme.

Login, voting, saving and reblogging

Blurt Focus is not only a catalogue for reading. The front-end also supports basic Blurt interactions.

You can:

- log in with Blurt Keychain, - vote, - see whether your vote has already been cast, - see that a vote is being processed, - save posts to a private library, - reblog posts, - open full posts, - use comments and replies.

The vote button changes its state after voting, so the user knows that the action has been completed. There is also a circular voting power indicator around the account avatar, showing the approximate remaining voting power.

User menu, notifications and replies

After logging in, the user has access to the account menu. From there it is possible to open the blog, library, settings, wallet, notifications, replies, comments and the admin panel if the account has the required permissions.

Separate comment and reply views help users follow interactions more easily. This is especially useful when someone is active in multiple topics and does not want to miss replies from other users.

Publishing from the front-end

Blurt Focus also allows users to publish posts.

The publishing form supports, among other things:

- Markdown content, - post preview, - category and subcategory selection, - automatic tags, - language selection, - community selection, - local draft saving, - dragging images into the editor, - choosing a meta / featured image, - image upload, - publishing through Blurt Keychain.

One of the things I really cared about was preventing accidental content loss. If someone refreshes the page or closes the tab by mistake, the draft should not simply disappear. That is why drafts are stored locally until the post is published.

Multilingual interface and language filtering

Blurt is international, so Blurt Focus supports multiple interface languages and content language filtering.

The user can choose the interface language, but also filter posts by the detected language of the content. This is important because someone who wants to read only in Polish, English, German or Spanish should not be forced to manually scroll through all posts in all languages.

When publishing, choosing the post language can automatically add a proper language tag, such as polish , english , german , spanish and so on.

This is still a work in progress

It is important to say clearly that Blurt Focus is not a finished or final product yet. It is a working development version. Many things already work, but some parts still need testing, improvements and further development.

Things that still need more work include:

- better category and subcategory filtering, - improved language detection, - better community selection during publishing, - further improvements to author profiles, - refined layouts for different types of content, - better compatibility with embedded external media, - further performance optimization, - development of the admin and curation panel, - better tools for highlighting valuable content and hiding low-quality or unrelated content.

So I do not see this as a finished final product, but as a very important step toward something Blurt really needs: a network of thematic, independent, but interconnected front-ends.

The most important thing is that the direction already works. You can open a specific subdomain, browse content from a selected topic, switch views, visit author profiles, filter posts, vote, save content, reblog and publish new posts.

Why can this help Blurt?

In my opinion, Blurt needs exactly this kind of thematic entry points.

A general front-end is necessary, but it is not enough. If we want to invite new people from outside, it is easier to promote a website about a specific topic than a portal “about everything”.

It is easier to say:

Visit a health portal based on Blurt.

Or:

Check out a photography front-end for Blurt.

Or:

Here is a place for content about gardening, film, sport or technology.

For new users, this is more natural. They do not need to immediately understand the whole blockchain, accounts, keys, reward pool and all platform mechanics. They can first enter through a topic they already care about.

And only later discover that Blurt is behind it.

Better content curation

Thematic front-ends can also help with curation.

This is not about censoring the blockchain. It is about allowing a specific website to decide what it wants to display. If a portal is about health, it does not need to expose unrelated content. If a portal is about photography, it can promote visual posts. If a portal is about gardening, it can focus on practical, seasonal and educational content.

The content is still on the blockchain. The front-end only decides how to present it.

That distinction is very important.

Independent front-ends, one network

The greatest strength of this approach is that we do not need to create separate communities from scratch. Everything still works on Blurt.

One author can publish a post that appears in different places:

- on their blog, - on their profile, - in a thematic category, - on a specific front-end subdomain, - in language-filtered results, - in a photography, film or classic view.

This shows why a social blockchain makes sense. The data can be shared, while the ways of presenting it can be different.

This is only the beginning

Blurt Focus is not the end of the work. It is the beginning of a new direction.

But the main idea is already visible: Blurt can have many thematic faces. It does not have to be only one general website. It can become a network of smaller, better organized portals that help users find exactly the content they are interested in.

For me, this is what has been missing for a long time.

A front-end that does not only display Blurt, but helps organize it, understand it and promote it outside the existing community.

Blurt Focus is a step toward a clearer, more thematic and more user-friendly Blurt.

If you notice bugs or have ideas for more thematic front-ends, let me know. This project makes the most sense when it is developed together with the community.