My Announcement March 15 2017

in #steemit8 years ago

Yesterday Dan Larimer resigned as CTO of Steemit. Steemit will go on, but I’ll be honest... today has been a stressful day. Dan has an unusual history, so while we can't say we expected this, it was a possibility we had planned for.

The truth is, Jeffrey Paul (@sneak) has been the driving force behind development for the past 3 months. While this whole affair is emotionally painful, development is actually ahead of schedule thanks to Jeffrey and of course our amazing team of developers. He’s the right person to head development in the interim as we transition into the future.

I won’t lie; there are big changes coming. After processing these events, I believe this is the best thing for Steemit Inc, and most importantly for the community growing here on Steemit.com.

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Quotes from The Mythical Man-Month by Frederick P. Brooks, Jr.

Good cooking takes time. If you are made to wait, it is to serve you better, and to please you. Menu of Restaurant Antoine, New Orleans.

thats a very clever quote @inertia, always a delicate intelligence that says what needs to be said , at the right time and in the best way possible !! upvoted this comment )

Thank you, I appreciate your kind words.

No problem @inertia !! at this strange and difficult time you managed always to be the quiet unassuming voice of reason, I appreciate it greatly and it would seem from the upvotes your comment made , so do many others in this Great Community of Steem )

lol

Thanks, this may help explain some things.

Good luck @ned!

I'm rooting for you and the dev team to succeed, even if my posts don't always express that.

Let me know if you're ever in need of some steemit propaganda comics for marketing ;)

Thank god Ned's not dead, I invested my life's savings. You think that YOU had a stressful day.

I don't know if it's too late to say: don't invest more than you can afford to lose..

well people put their life on the line for what they believe in. Sure it's a bad business policy, but I thought this was about bringing change not profits.

I think this everyone should know from the beginning! I mean, when you invest money there is always a chance to lose!

That chance is much lower if u hold sbd :)

Yes, but if you want to have much vote power you need to invest in steem! :D

; - ) yes but now would have been a better time than when i did !! I am still kicking myself for having jumped in like the beginner i was !! )

The peppers will do what we can to get that investment to pay of for you!

You got rich today! Congrats

LOL, I am always remembering your earlier posts on this and your votes and support @dimimp

Perspective for all of us!

To be honest, as a shareholder of Steem (which is licenced by Steemit Inc.) I expected some kind of explanation why this happen. From my point of view explanation is not given.

He’s the right person to head development in the interim as we transition into the future.

what doesn't matter because this code doesn't belong to us. If someone would like to introduce new changes which will be good for whole community but bad for Steemit Inc., that would be impossible to do that legally.

Steem code base has to be fully open-source and have open licence.

That license, which Dan came up with, has been there since day 0. That is as long as any of us have opted into participating. In the long run, I would see the license change, but not now.

That certainly sheds a different light on his (deleted) post about wanting Steem to be open source. It is okay that he changed his mind about it, but to portray Steemit as some sort of enemy of freedom by having a restricted license given that he came up with the license seems misleading at best.

In the long run, I would see the license change, but not now.

That's the best thing I've heard all day.

But again, we have to trust you, @ned. In a world of trustless cryptographically secure systems and provably secure smart contracts, asking for trust is a lot to ask.

Completely feel you on this and perhaps something can be done to assuage the concern. from my pov I am relying on DPoS, and not on Steemit or me. Witnesses can be anonymous and the system runs whether Steemit tries to be part of it or not... I'm glad we are though.

Thanks Ned. I appreciate your community involvement today, especially when it's been such a stressful one. That speaks volumes about your character and your commitment to the future.

Not like the PoW projects, actually DPOS is based on trust. We have been trusting from the beginning.

That's a valid point, but PoW has other problems, which I'm sure you're aware. With Bitcoin, as an example, we now have to trust the large mining firms/guilds not to collude together for their own benefit. We have to trust changes will be implemented that benefit everyone instead of being stalled by the powerful. I remember a point in time where a large mining guild decided to split up (against their own short term interests) because the community was too concerned with the percentage of hashing power they controlled. I was glad they did it, but it reminded me how much trust is still involved in PoW as well, even if it's trust that those involved will remain rational actors for their own long-term self interest. At least with DPOS there's a mechanism for making that trust transparent with a voting process everyone can participate in.

In the long run, I would see the license change, but not now.

the problem is.. that you can be hit by a bus and your opinion will not help us then.

Steem code base has to be fully open-source and have open license.

Absolutely. Competition and outside innovation under a GNU/BipCot/Creative Commons license benefits everyone, including Steemit.

This is crypto not stock its how we do.

Any comments on @dan 's latest post?
https://steemit.com/steem/@dantheman/making-steem-really-open-source

The one that he deleted for some reason.

I asked him to. Why? Because I thought it didn't reflect reality very well and was a bad post for everyone because of that.

LOL. Did you heard about Barbra Streisand effect? Moreover, this is blockchain bro - what was written into blockchain, stays on the blockchain forever :) Now everyone will read it, because it is like forbidden fruit - but personally I think it will be good for community to understand how important it is to have solid foundation - proper licence which empowers progress and innovation.

I helped write a bunch of this code, you think I don't know the data is still there? But the retraction by the author has meaning.
It's inevitable that the license will get tweaked with time, but a change to an MIT license now is not going to help Steem holders.

@blocktrades I'm replying over here due to comment depth limits and I'm replying to this...

I'm thinking about accepting checks, that would eliminate fees from credit cards and from fiat->btc fees. But we would need to add in enough lead time to make sure the check can't be cancelled (well, we could make exceptions for small amounts and good customers). But we need to add some more code on the backend to support it as well.

I'm speaking from experience here. That is a colossally bad idea.
You'd be much better going with http://www.authorize.net/solutions/merchantsolutions/merchantservices/echeck/

That way it's instant clearing and greatly reduced risks of chargebacks. Also I wouldn't even accept that unless you have the appropriate AML/KYC measures in place. Jumio is good for this.
Namaste!

I know that you know, and I believe, that you know that I know that you know :)

For me it is just funny how anyone can say that post was deleted (what is misleading for newbies) where in fact new version was published.

Yes, fair enough, deleted isn't the correct word, it's just stuck in my brain because that's what was put there in it's place.

Are you all gonna take prepaid cards any time soon?
I've even given up id and still can't buy btc or steem.

I'm thinking about accepting checks, that would eliminate fees from credit cards and from fiat->btc fees. But we would need to add in enough lead time to make sure the check can't be cancelled (well, we could make exceptions for small amounts and good customers). But we need to add some more code on the backend to support it as well.

Oddly enough I support you in that decision, the crapitalust interest lies in the scarcity model, if more steemits were out there toooooo many folks would jump ship.

I also support @dan in his need to be Dan the Man!!

Yes, forks right now would cause a real mess, and there's plenty of opportunists who would try it I think. I was lucky enough to be standing on the sidelines of the ETH/ETC fiasco...

How would I run a check without a brick and mortar check?
Will they run from my card?

Too bad there isn't some local btc here, I'd sure face to face some btc to an address of your's.

Fuck the Steem holders. This is a blogging platform, not an investment fund.

Clearly @dan has some regret posting it...If he felt strongly the information needed to be out there he would have left it out there.

Or maybe I understand Streisand effect.

Dan, I applaud your choice to stand up for your values in the most direct of ways. I'm also saddened as a stakeholder of this project and concerned about those that are working full time for it (the team you've left behind).

I think that the existing license is a protection for Steem holders against the big fish in the social media industry. I think it is a pragmatic protection that could be lifted after a network effect is achieved. I'm guessing that isn't the only reason for your leaving and look forward to gazing upon your future works.

+5%

The thick plottens! Hahah.

Edit: Or, he was asked to.

What a turn of event.

He's right. My last post was a streisand effect.

What part of the post was wrong? Wouldn't it be more useful to post your counter arguments and have a productive discussion? Hmm, if only we had some sort of censorship free forum where we could talk about these things....

I plan to submit a revised pull request tonight to include text that allows what @sneak said is allowed. (No guarantee it will be approved though. We'll see.)

It's not only censureship free, it's also resistant to edits, as has been proven by resurrection of a post that the author changed his mind about posting... It's not about counter-arguments in this case, it's I didn't feel it was an accurate portrayal of history. I think Dan agreed, so he deleted it.

my question got answered here.

where you refering to the deleting part? like asked dan to delete it?

Off the topic @surpassinggoogle Thanks for filling up my wallet with your generous gift of 1000 STEEM . Thank YOU !

yes, I asked him to delete it/retract it/whatever (see my comments above for more details)

I find this an extraordinary stance @blocktrades contrary to everything that most anyone with any presence of mind here, as far as I can tell, believes in - but I will speak for myself - why would any one (authority) ask any other conscientious person to censor themselves? I do not know the nature of the relationships of key players on this platform, and nor should I necessarily care, but censorship and prevailing upon others points of view do not seem worthy of the ecosystem I am subscribing to. I can only interpret that Cap'n @Dan himself acquiesced and so is complicit - but this feels rotten at the core and those of us interested in building transparent, ownership free community, striving for integrity, are left scratching our heads ...?

Thank you ned, I really appreciate your prompt response and confirmation that Steemit will go on. I believe everyone who met @sneak at Steemfest will agree that he is eager and capable to develop the platform.

That brings me to the next point, after all this stress we need a party to shake it off (the Stress), so lets have another @Steemfest asap.

Thank you for your kind words and support.

I believe everyone who met @sneak at Steemfest will agree that he is eager and capable to develop the platform.

I certainly agree with that.

Won't lie, I woke up to the news and I've been hitting F5 all day watching for your response.

So thank you , @ned, for communicating something to us. And thank you, @sneak for following that statement up with community support.

I don't care to hear the details of what happened between the Steemit, Inc. team and @dan. Those things are between all of you and are unimportant to what Steem/Steemit is now and what it will become. I wish @dan the best in his future endeavors (which I will be keeping an eye out for) and I truly hope that he will pop in from time to time - even if it's just to judge @fibra59's meme challenge. Haha
Your promises for big changes and your honesty to the community have given me a boost in confidence and a new level of hope in this platform. I see so much potential in this platform and truly hope that you guys keep pushing forward until that potential is reached and surpassed.

I hope that your groundshaking updates and changes come as swiftly and easily as possible and I wish you, @sneak and the rest of the dev team the best of success - both on this platform and in real life!

Thanks for everything, guys! Stay awesome.

Thank you for the update @ned, I also believe that Steemit will go on... we have a great community and, like Bitshares, Steemit will prevail.

I am also sure @dan will go on to do great things for the blockchain environment, so this could very well be a win-win situation.

Cheer up, tomorrow would be a new day!

Let's hope we can recover and this isn't the final chapter. I'm very sad for the fracture. And I'm really let down by the whole community management aspect, experimenting and all, this platform has degenerated from a place where freedom reigns and communication breathes, to a bunch of kids running around posting memes.

Release the flood gates,

Thanks for the update.

I hope we can all move on as a community and take this project forward.

Steemit is not just one person and although his departure was a shock I think Steem/Steemit can and will survive without Dan.

The team is in better shape at present than I've ever seen it. We're really kicking ass right now, and are excited to share more about things soon.

So glad to read this comment !

i have heard you speak on steemspeak and even to a non-techy person, it is obvious that you are defined in your path for steemit's development.

Cheers mate, I do wish you hadn't gone through that split. I always found the head team to be perfect as it was, two heads are better than one. I think you will do fine with your excitement.

Thanks a lot for the information and for your honesty! I'm with you until the end! Never look back because the future is in from of us! You are a great person @ned! Cheers!

I'm glad you're going to be honest and not lie.

That's a step in the right direction, I guess.

I've been through a some stressful times myself, building my business for the last ten years. This stuff is hard. Tomorrow is a new day. I'm hopeful we will see a brighter future here, but it's hard not to feel sad/frustrated/angry about today.

I hope your team is getting the rest they need and a chance to step away. I hope you weather the PR storm that's coming. I hope you can rebuild trust.

I hope.

I have tremendous confidence in our team right now.

Thanks Jeffrey. I really appreciate that, especially from an insider with direct access to the day-to-day workings of Steemit, Inc. The rest of us have to take your word, hope for the best, and see what tomorrow brings.

he is the new trump |:D + card :D

Not enough detail.

what you would expect from a press release :D anything else and there is a potential shitstorm, it's bad enough right now :D

For my part @ned you have my full support, also I am sure that the whole community, we are concerned about this matter of Dan Larimer, but it also motivates us to improve and grow even more our community, thank you for your words! ^^

I leave for a couple of weeks, I come back... and see this. I won't lie; this message sounds a little hectic. I am not at all convinced that everything is alright. It is like one of those "the situation is under control," lines from horror movies, when we all know that shitstorm is coming.
However, I still hope that you guys will find a way to prove me wrong. I could do with some extra money at the moment lol. If not, it was a cool project anyway.

oh we are living the shitstorm, we are hoping it won't be a shit hurricane. LOLzz yeah I will extend my trust I was thinking for a year, but I will cut it short to 2-3 months for now, just enough time I hope to get my messages across and leave with a clear conscious.

Sorry are we on twitter? Your CTO and co-founder quits... 18 hours later we have this short abstract response?

Steem to the MOON!

I love Steemit!

hey it's better than the yo dawg meme, you probably don't know the hard fork happened :D

It has been clear to anybody who is not blind, and was here before the launch, that Dan lost interest in Steemit a few weeks after he became a millionaire from it.

I saw a post from him in August, going on about some other project, and I thought whaaa?? This one has only just started and it's your baby...

Cg

I have similar thoughts

Damn. Laid it on there thick- but it would take a rare man of solid character to not do as an average man would. Doesn't make him worse than any other, but better neither :/

Exactly; I'm not judging, or saying that I'd do it differently; I'd like to think I would, however honestly, I don't know.

I'm just telling it like it is; he got rich, and lost interest; shame.

Cg

It is what it is. I'm sticking around and will continue to enjoy the ride!

Thanks for the update @ned. I'm sure this has been a challenging turn of events. Despite the need for a new perspective I'm sure the community will support the good work coming from the entire team in working to keep Steem/it moving ahead. Steem on!

Thank you very much Mr. @ned for these reassuring words

I for one am not going anywhere...... I love Steemit!

if there was panic, it is simply because of that: #steemitisbeautiful. i want you to stay!

Changes?

Just keep this platform decentralized and open for free speech.

As for any other changes, have at it and good luck without Dan. I'll still be promoting steemit as long as the above doesn't change.

Steemit has changed in terms of free speech.

free speech lost.

Thank you for this update. We will all make Steemit successful.

The @dan emotions have settled and been put to one side. The contingency was always there like you say. Steemit is greater than any one man. Now is your chance to laser focus our product to the sharpest it can possibly. I believe it's time for our star to shine. Onwards my friend .... !!

Life goes on.
Steemit goes on.
I wish @dan good luck.
What is done is done.
Let's focus on making this community better and better.

Thanks for the update @ned! We'll be looking forward to more info about the changes!

THANKS @ned ! ONWARDS AND UPWARDS TO THE MOON AND BACK !⤴🌚🌜🌛

I have only been on Steemit for one month, but I am really enjoying being part of the community. I appreciate this update but in the short time I have been involved in steemit there seems to be alot of uncertainty at the moment. Dan's announcement, the poor performance of STEEM and the current whale "experiment" have people feeling uneasy. I think everyone would appreciate a direct clear and concise post explaining in detail the vision for the future. I as well as many others want to see this amazing platform succeed and I believe communication is the best way to do that. Thank you, all the best!

First, welcome. :)

As for the future, we put a lot of time and effort into this document in December which should do a fairly decent job of communicating our vision for the platform and product.

We, as always, Steem On.

https://steem.io/2017roadmap.pdf

Thank you! And thank you for your response, will definitely be reading through the entire document! Yes we will Steem on! :)

Steeming onwards and upwards to the moon and back ! 👍⤴

will you be rewarding people actually helping you out, because I'm a bit reluctant to release my ideas and spend my time further with this platform. I've given you too much courtesy already :D I really bought the whole aspect come for profits stay for the community, but my "leaders" are mostly off, they couldn't deal with the problems, so why should I spend a week thinking what is best for everybody if there is nobody that will appreciate my efforts, or anybody that will listen to my points :|

If you are interested I've put out my outlining post a week ago, check and see if you are interested. I'm also tired of posting about steemit, I'm very annoyed with the current state of things, so I will be getting back to my previous post if any. It's also high time I stopped spending so much time on the social media :D this was a first for me spending 5 months of daily activity with a platform, so you have a lot to go, but I can see major flaws everywhere and that is stopping me from acting, also I have my own to deal with. So I can't put my money where my mouth is since I have as much banked here as I get by with on a monthly basis :D

Good luck mr would be CTO :) make ned and dan proud :) you have some shoes to fill and some mistakes to miss out on making, since this platform is spiraling down for months, a change is what was necessary, I'm not sure it's for the better, but I can hope so, since you seem to have your own divides, at least they won't bug you for now. Good luck and Best Regards :)

I am waiting to see what are the changes that you talk about, @ned, I hope they will help making the Steemit community more diverese and sane in a way (altough not too sane). My son (a very smart young man, and I am totally objective), says that a good social network has to have a big city mentality rather than one of a small village. I hope this is where we are heading.

Good call. Steem, the "big city" of crypto.

I am glad you like it, @ned, and if I may add something more, I think what is most lacking in Steemit is the "why" ( I am sure you saw Simon Sinek's TED talk about why "why" should come first).

Why are you doing this, Ned? Why would people want to join? I mean, surely it is not just for the money. As things are now, and will probably remain so, the payments are nice, but they are not enough as a reason. You should find this why and make the whole user experience of Steemit based on this why.

My "why" is to be a part of HISTORY that cannot be easily erased or deleted.
Just my 3cents worth...

That's a good one, and pretty much like what I am thinking. But I want to know what's Ned's "why".

Yeah I have already made mine a few months back, I hope more people can read and communicate.
About Work , Steemit, Community and the future those are my thoughts, you can check the paragraph. I like small villages and a lot of travel, that sounds more sane to me :D

I wrote a post , to elaborate on this subject.

@ned, I hope it will resonate with you, because in my humble opinion, this is really the way forward.

So, I guess the question becomes who among you will stand against the sp delegation?
Who will stand up to the whales in their attempt to stamp their mark on the rest of us?

If that goes through, and the dolphins created are allowed to force the Steemit inc brand onto the interface, I don't see it ending well.
We can get policies shoved down our throats on the wage slave plantation, why would we come here for some more?

Which makes the question, how many duped true beliebers will buy into the illusion of whales being benevolent?

Either way, I am here until the shadow ban becomes visible, an alternative appears, or I get bored.

lol :D yeah give it time to be completely fucked :D I've been whale voted I have to say it feel amazing, truly the best feeling, let's talk about excitement, the flood gates are open we can finally be the steemstagram twitter we all want to be. # ## # # # ## # #

The more they try to imprint us with their views the more folks that will slip out of their iron grasp, and go forth with bad attitudes,....

Hope steemit grows a lot more in value.

Why should it when nothing has changed? Buy yeah, let's hope the right changes are coming. However haven't seen any statements about anything that would really help.

For the time being as long as you give us results we will push forward as a community. And as said as it is to hear he was resigning i hope he still respects the work he has done and continues to follow his values w.e they may take him.

But to be clear if you guys mess this up can't no one blame dan this time lmao. Anyways onwardssssssssssssssss.

Ned. Very happy that you are able to keep a vision alive and I do believe good things are coming for the future of steemit! I do regret that Dan is no longer with us but everything happens for a reason. Dan seems more of a creator then a innovator if that makes sense... Now that the tech is created we will allow steemit to thrive off the philosophies of life .... Full steem ahead!!!

Thank you Ned for this announcement.
To all, let's say our good byes properly and all move on. Tomorrow is a brand new day - a step closer to the future. Not to pretend that we have differences, but to solve them one by one along the way.

our tiny post is out. did you see it yet? the dean stunt plus my never-ending question.

Thank you for releasing a statement, Ned. I believe in our community and I also believe we have a solid foundation to keep us going. We're in turbulent waters but the storms end eventually. :)

Thanks for this - usually I would say give us more details but seeing it has been stressful days - main thing you commit steemit will continue and the steering crew is not diving away!

Steem on - Thanks.

Great to hear development is ahead of schedule. Hoping for more details which seem lacking like some other times.

Good luck Ned. You have all of our support. Stephen

Thanks for giving us a response to the community, which relies heavily on you.

Thanks Ned, stay positive.

Thanks for the update.
Fingers crossed everything goes well! A big part of the community is here to help and I am confident we can prevail. :)

This is a long journey. There are heroes and trials along the way that will test every one of us. The fundamental tools are in place to move forward and in the end, it is all of us who decide the success of our travels.

Personally, I am in for the long walk, to unforeseen places and new experiences. Glad to be on this journey with others willing to endure the sometimes bumpy roads to get to great destinations.

I appreciate the past, but look more towards the future and what is over the next hill.

Best wishes, much thanks, and respect to all Dan has contributed. Thanks Ned for the insights and leading us forward on the path. Jeffrey, we look forward to your work in making that path ahead take us to incredible places.

So, Dan has "an unusual history", the new interim CTO is great, and big changes are coming. That's it?

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