Hi @steemchiller, thank you for your post and for letting the people know about what is behind "Steemworld" happens. In my opinion, you created amazing program that is used by more than 90% of users of Steem community because of few features:
It reflects democracy and transparency:
You can see all the action that every user is doing: Upvoting, commenting, sel-upvoting. That feature is used by many curation communities to assess user and decided if he is fair and if he needs to be supported.
You can see any users no matter if it is the one with no Steem Power or any of "whales" Stakeholders
There is a good statistic data, you see your new followers, mentioning, that helps you to save time to search for those info.
Developing a program, it is your baby and I can imagine that you want to have your rights for it. I know from my son who is also fan of writing computer programs, he is very aware how easy it is one you showed a program that you developed in internet that could be immediately used and own by someone else who can claim that it was him who created it.
I see that there is a comment of @fundation, that is another opportunity to get financial support of your project.
Another option, if you really decide to go for witness you have my Vote and of my hubby!
There are many people who love your program and we appreciate it. I think even if you decide to charge some amount of Steem for using it, I bet many people will go for that!
Please share your ideas if there is anything we can help you to keep going with your program, we will support you!