I saw a post from a witness that I respect a lot named @jackmiller:
Hard Fork 20 Opened My Eyes
After seeing this pledge it brought up some of the unpleasant things that have been bothering me since the beginning of the Hardfork 20. I know, I know, they seemed to fix it so that most people can now use it. But I still have a bad taste in my mouth about some things that happened.
Three Lessons From HF20
First, I feel that once again the people at the top don't really care about the little guys (or frankly the masses). They will say they do care, but only when its a catastrophe will they do anything about it. I don't like that. I want the people in charge to care about me the regular user and how I feel.
Second, I think the arrogance that some people display (those that matter) is stunning and detrimental to the long term health of the platform. I have seen the tech gobbledygook that they throw out there to make them feel superior, but frankly I could do the same thing in my field of "business and markets", so it doesn't impress me one bit. If they don't stop talking down to the people that use the platform and start engaging people like they are truly on their side, then I am not too confident in my future here. At a minimum its giving me a reason to pause and re-evaluate, so for now I'm still here, but can't say with confidence anymore for just how long.
Finally, I am appalled at the lack of accountability that witnesses and management have for their bad behavior. In any business I've managed, heads would've rolled by now. This HF20 was terribly implemented and fixes had to be made immediately. They had to increase the "resource credits" by 10x to even make the system usable.
A Silver Lining
One major positive thing though in botching this rollout, they made everyone aware that it is possible to make the "rich even richer" by giving them the ability to restrict usage and make people pay to make comments (and do such things as vote for witnesses). It showed the true nature of many witnesses that supported this absolutely asinine idea. If people here think this platform will EVER succeed by charging people to make comments freely then they are so far off then its truly unbelievable.
@fulltimegeek Is Now A Witness Too
I'm happy to see witness @jackmiller make this pledge and I'm very much in support of him and his dedication to me the "regular guy" on this platform. I also am thrilled to see the great @fulltimegeek decide to become a witness to make things better too. You can view his views here in his latest post:
or you can just click the video and watch it yourself! If you haven't voted for him yet, I highly encourage it!
https://steemitimages.com/0x0/https://ipfs.io/ipfs/QmdAshA8Ef3ceP9wG45KqRJpdPNFC1LsZwYUQYPKCjgEKf
The bottom line is we need witnesses that "get it" that will stand up for us and help make the Steem Blockchain all that it can be. If this is meant to be a platform for the masses, then we need witnesses like @jackmiller and @fulltimegeek that are going to lead us with their actions. Its time for a change and I hope we all help to bring the right witnesses up a notch with our collective votes.
Do You Want A Witness You Believe In?
The one change I could see that could potentially make all the difference is relevant to the top 20 consensus. If we had a system in place where the top 20 all had to be in agreements for a proposal to move forward then having one of these such individuals you have listed in the top 20 we could potentially reject any proposals that do not fit the betterment of our platform.
Rather then a majority it should be unanimous then the control will come down to who is holding witness votes for what reason and someone like @jackmiller or @raggaemuffin in top20 could single handedly reject a proposal based on whether it’s sufficiently tested. Not worrying about being disabled as the only witness refusing to update.
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That is an excellent suggestion. I don't know what chance it gets of being approved, but I like the way it would force some accountability to us!
I would say very unlikely but we can still push the idea, maybe someone could put it forward to Steemit Inc with some fine tuning.
I just think the witnesses should not fear lost income for disagreeing, lost votes is a whole other subject but if they make it into top20 while asking those hard questions I doubt this would be a problem.
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Agreed... when they have to worry about losing money, then their voices get silenced. Coming up with a solution for that would definitely be a plus!
@kabir88 top resteem. I love this guy. @davemccoy thanks for speaking out with honesty and not being afraid to call it how you see it :-)
Thank you very much @nathen007, that's a very nice compliment and I'm happy to meet another person who "gets it"!
Finally my vote for @fulltimegeek went trough and got counted by the system , it took a little over 48 hours . I am glad that I found witness that I like to support at your blog. Thank you !
Awesome Marina! I knew it would eventually go through and now I have included a video here if you want to learn more about @fulltimegeek! :D ... Its good to see you and I hope you are getting ready for the @steemmonsters battles, they are coming in just a few short weeks ;)
This past week left me shaking my head more times than not, and eventually I closed my laptop for a few days and returned today. I agree with you Dave, we need witnesses who truly care, and these two gentlemen certainly do!
I'm with you completely Lynn... I thought about doing just that and decided to make the same point repeatedly to anyone that would listen. I don't know if it was worth it, but I did try. I'm glad you got away from it and got some relaxation though, because frankly some of the comments I read were pretty brutally insensitive. I think @simplymike was going to destroy a few people :P
Good to see you Lynn and I hope you and Brian are doing well. I know Brian was having troubles last week so I hope they are better!
hahaha @simplymike got riled up, did she? :) I saw some of the asinine commenting going on and just thought it best to remove myself from the stress a bit!
It was a great week, thank you. Brian's still having some tough days, but that's the nature of the beast I guess. Every day is a new day though, and even on his worst days, we still are fortunate enough to be here.
Thanks Dave :)
I'm glad to hear it was a great week and very happy to see that with what you both are going through.... And yes I agree, every day is a new day and hopefully one to be remembered ;)
And yes @simplymike was riled up... I felt like I was bad, but she was going to be worse! She managed to calm down though and I think she's in a good place now :D... Peace and serenity!
That's where I try to stay! I always figure that the future is coming, regardless of whether or not I get riled up about it, so really I might as well stay calm. If I can't do that, I stick my head in the sand ... or close my laptop :)
:) ... I know the feeling exactly! Remember, great minds think alike ;)
hahaha of course! Great minds DO think alike ;)
I did the same .Very sad fact.
Very sad @marinaart, but very healthy when there's not much you can do about it :)
i'm one of those people who are baffled by the arrogance. at the current rate, a new account would only be able to post 20~30 comments and it's over. now he has to wait or pay, which makes this an anti-social platform.
luckily i'm seeing that most of my friends have at least 50~100sp. old users might be ok. but new users? they're completely fucked, if there is any to begin with.. 😐
I agree completely. I have been trying to make that point, but the "old guard" either doesn't get it or conveniently doesn't want to get it. The bottom line you are absolutely right and anyone with clear eyes can see it for what it is, a grab for money. It is arrogant indeed to think they will get it, and I for one will point it out ever chance I get!
Yes, its a huge disappointment that steemit inc went for the model where people have to pay money to post and comment.. a clear indication that either the organization is completely detached from reality or theres zero communication.
maybe by some off chance it might work but im quite sure its gonna hinder steem from ever growing again, or give a new platform like weku, smoke.io and others to take advantage. The data will be there. Itll show us whether this was a good decision or not. We'll see 🤔
Thank you @davemccoy for these recommends, I have no idea
who to vote for and after this forking it would be really great
to find out who what where and how come why's of it all.
@arcange @danielsaori @fulltimegeek the three I do vote for
so far, I've seen how awesome @arcange is and really like his
warnings for scammers. I will add @jackmiller also! :-)
Its good to see you @shasta :) ... And those are awesome picks already, I agree very much with them! And good on adding @jackmiller, I think you will like him and what he stands for! He's one of us :) Thank you so much for stopping by and if I can ever do anything for you, please let me know!
I will have to check out @jackmiller. I started dropping most witnesses in the top 20 last month. It's pretty sad that it is a needed thing for the growth of the community.
He's a good guy that I think you will like @erodedthoughts... And yes I am done with the top 20 as they existed myself. I know its more symbolic than anything, but its the best we can do to make that point!
I still have 5 in the top twenty but they are still voted for personal interaction and support they have shown to smaller users.
That's definitely cool... I don't claim to know enough about any one of them... As a group though, they would be a grade in school of "needs improvement" :P
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Thank you very much @steem-ua! I very much like your rating system for sure :)
Yes I do..i know a couple, the rest not. As for a dodgy and spammy witness, there is one too, known by a few witnesses but still free to spam.
Yes I think things like that should be a priority for the witnesses. They should look at how the behavior of other witnesses on the platform affects the image overall. When people don't see the leaders stand up to what is a commons sense definition of bad behavior, then it takes away confidence that this place is run by people that care about anything other than their own pocket books. Thanks for the comment!
The witnesses should stand for what is right collectively for the platform and for everyone.
They wish they're all clean...or probably it gets better in time. But with so many accounts posting the same thing, and know he can get away with it,
that tells something about the people at the top. Makes you appreciate bernie more and more. It's sad to see that.
Just so you know that I appreciate your post a lot. Cheers!
I completely agree! I think its time for them to know we can see their behavior and don't like it. The attrition rate over the last 9 months has been horrendous! Lets try something different for a change! :)
Thank you for the nice words and I appreciate your comment too :) ... Have a wonderful day @immarojas!
Haha never understimate a million of minnows when they're not happy. Lead the way!
Cheers!
hahaha... so true!!! :D cheers to you as well :)
I know exactly where you are coming from regards to all of this, not only the bad taste left after 5 attempts to rob people, certain people making shit posts about how good it is that people have no voice, when they had the luxury to be able to post still, and the hope regards future witnesses, I would add into this mix ats-david also, a straight shooter that says it the way it is, no sugar coating, no bullshit.
Yes I like @ats-david a lot too... He is one that isn't afraid to mix it up! I have seen him be direct and to the point and "he gets it" for sure... I agree about the hypocrisy of the shills claiming it was awesome when many people were just stuck, it was a sickening display of arrogance and a lack of understanding. What really pissed me off is the people that justified it saying there should be any "free rides"... Like they think people should pay to have their voice heard. Anyways, thanks for the comment and I'm with you completely on this! Have a great day :)
The bugs were to be expected. Big updates always come with bugs that need patching up. Once I understood what was going on, I knew it would get fixed and stopped worrying about it, though I did have a panic moment of "I've been kicked off!"
How are witnesses restricting usage and making bigger fish richer?
I will defer to you since this is my first big update, so thank you for the explanation.
As for your question, its Steemit Inc that has put in place a program that will enable those RCs to be leased. If the whales hold those RCs, then they can control the usage of the system since you need RCs to be able to do anything. While in the short run they realized their goof in making them too restrictive, there is certainly a large amount of longer term Steemians that are looking at those RCs as another income source. I have seen the messages and the glee that RCs are here and can be monetized.
So while I don't care if they make money or not (whales/steemit inc/witnesses)... what I do care about is they have now put in place the same top-down system that has been shown to strangle the smaller guy (the SP model that creates a monopoly at the top). And guess who controls the witnesses that make the decisions? (hint: its not the everyday user with less than 1000SP)
I've seen the arguments that this is how we will enable the big companies to finally come in and buy lots of steem to operate on our wonderful speedly platform. I've seen those comments now for many months and know that is the objective. Heck, even many have frankly said that Steemit is a "test or proof of concept" that was never meant to be anything more than a lab to showcase what can be done with Steem. I get the plan, make everyone who hold Steem rich.
And of course I don't mind that. I'm just suspicious that they've now introduced a mechanism whereby the whales/witnesses can now decide to extort an restrictive price for their "mana". This fork has happened and I realize its not going back. But you can say you heard it here first (if that system is abused). I hope I'm wrong, but I've seen too much power concentrated in the hands of a few. Let's hope Steemit has a plan B if it gets to the point where common and decent people have to start choosing whether to comment or not because they don't want to rent out RCs to do so. If that happens, this place will truly be a niche community for sure.
I had no idea RCs could be monetised. I thought it was we all had them and they replenished on their own. You're saying that RCs can be given and taken away by the big guys?
Aspects do sound more devious than "advertised". I guess only time will tell. I hope there won't be abuse on the site.
Yes they can adjust the amount of RCs we get... That's why they had to scramble to release 10x more because they miscalculated in the beginning... They definitely have plans to monetize the RCs, and as long as they let the users of the platform comment, vote, and do simple things like that, then I don't see a big issue. My only worry is them stepping over the line, like some people justified in those few days (the arguments were, this place isn't free and everyone should pay their fair share... stuff like that).
And yes I agree that time will tell and I hope as well that they are aware of this issue and don't let it ever get to that point again!
Thanks again for the comments @binkyprod, and have a wonderful day!
Oh wow! That makes a big difference knowing that.
This place IS supposed to be free, and what we PAY for our fair share is we contribute content, time, and we allow the platform to thrive by our continued involvement in it. We contribute every time we interact, because without us, the platform would be dead.
Thanks for the insightful information :)
I agree.... Without us, the platform would simple be a niche tech chat hangout. And btw, maybe they do everything right going forward, I'm hopeful and still here ;)
Here's to hoping. There's a lot of good they can still do.
what is witness???can you explain me??
Yes the witnesses are the ones that are like the politicians. The top 21 of them get to decide what rules we operate by. In order for anything to change, these top 21 people have to agree (or a large percentage of them)... We all get to vote for them, but the votes are weighted by size of your SP. If you have a small amount like me, then you can vote but the big guys are the ones who really pick which witnesses are at the top.
Does that answer your question, or would you like a further explanation?
Thank you so much for details about witness..
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You are very welcome!
Steem contrary to Bitcoin, do not require expensive mining rigs which only professional miners can afford, to generate new blocks with latest transactions. It could be said, that Bitcoin uses mining to determine who will generate a new block, effectively by a contest "who will waste more electric power".
Steem in the other hand, use more productive approach and allows users to chose block producers (a.k.a. witnesses) by allowing users to vote for those which brings the most value the network for example by creating interesting projects, promoting Steem, etc.
Yes we need witnesses that really want to improve Steemit and not just follow the status quo, I have voted for fulltimegeek, jackmiller frankly I had never heard of. But the thing is Dave that the only witnesses that have any say in top level decisions are the top 20 or 21, and 17 of those are in that position because of @freedom whose vote makes or destroys top 20 witnesses. I believe so much power wielded by one account is too much, there should be a way of making votes more equal. That said how can we know that people will vote for the right witnesses, well I guess at least mistakes will be on all of us in a more democratic environment.
You are very much right here @gduran... Its sad but true that this is so tilted we really have no ability to change things. I do think its still worthwhile to send the message with our vote, while I know most don't pay attention to it, you never know when someone might.
And then real change can happen!
Chuck gives this post a thumbs up👍
hahaha... well now my night has been made... I got a thumbs up from Chuck, so its all I needed for sure! Thanks PK, I appreciate you getting the word to him so he could give me that!
Is there a way to vote on a witness when steemit blocks the witnessvote area with the policy wall? (i refuse to agree with forced policy changes, specially when done like this, blocking the wallet etc. fortunately there is busy and steempeak to get aroun that. But for witness and internal market there seems to be no alternative available yet)
I am not sure, whether we understanc correctly what you mean. Do you have technical problems with voting via Steemit? If yes... there is plenty of ways. Voting is on Steem blockchain, so different interfaces are just a way to make it more accessible to Steem users.
You can vote via steemit:
This is awesome that you helped him! Great info for sure :) Thank you!
Hey @bifilarcoil! Always good to see you :) ... I have no idea if there is an answer to what you are looking for, but I do think that some witnesses should know how, especially if they want to get votes! Have you asked any of them?
How do I know who they are if I cannot reach the list? :-D
Is there a way to reach them all with one message? (not an article as they probably don't even know it exists)
I'll ask the duck thing and hope it will spit out a few options.
How do I tell the difference between good and not so good witnesses?
I don't want to upvote the wrong one... And that said how can I tell that the ones that present themselves tomorrow (after reading this comment) are not scammers? :-D
I will suggest a couple of witnesses that I know and like a lot:
@steemcommunity @danielsaori @yabapmatt in addition to @jackmiller and @fulltimegeek on this post... All 5 of these guys might be able to tell you how to vote another way. And I don't think you will regret any of the 5 ;)
thank you @davemccoy!
Much love!
thank you ... and much love to you too :)
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