Active

Weekly to bi-weekly witnesses updates on what they have been up to. While I understand not every week will be blog worthy in what they are up to. They should keep people up to date as a way to engage with those who have either voted for them or are thinking about doing so.

Community member. While they do not need to be active 24/7 they least need to show up to Steemit a couple times a week and blog or leave comments. It makes it easy for anyone checking up on who they vote for to see if they are still active and more importantly what are they up to outside of witness report.

Witness servers themselves. They need to do the best they can to keep them running and not missing blocks. They should also keep them updated or inform everyone in a blog post on why they are not updating to the latest version.

Someone who has been with Steemit for at least 3-6 months depending on how active they are. It takes time to not only get to understand how Steemit works and make friends but also have some kind of track record. I also want to know if this person is committed to running as a witness in the long run. It’s easy to show up and two weeks later think “oh I’ll be a witness” than a month later moves onto the next project in cryptocurrency that catches their eye.

Impact on Steemit

Use their reputation to support projects/communities. There are a lot of different communities out there focusing on all kinds of things. I feel this is important that they are willing to help grow, support, and even promote it. It shows they care enough to get involved to such a degree in something that they are risking how the public view them based on what happens to the project/communities.

Passion. They need to have a passion for something. It could be anything from fighting spammers, working to improve quality of life, engaging with minnows, going out and spreading the word of Steemit. Whatever it may be they need to care enough about something that is trying to solve, create, or bring value to Steemit.

Have opinions and are willing to speak their mind. With how much power Steemit gives to a witness I don’t want it to be filled with a bunch of “yes” only people. Those who agree with anything no matter what not wanting to anger someone. If they have no backbone then they won’t stand up and speak out if they witness something that needs to be improved or addressed. Therefore, their impact on Steemit itself is very little.

Knowledge

What is this person bringing to the platform being a witness that others are not? That’s great if they are expert on blockchain technology but what is something new they are going to bring into the eco system? What personal experience and knowledge do they have that will further progress the platform?

While I don’t expect every witness to be an expert on everything they should least have some basic understanding of quite a few things. If they can’t even format a blog, know how to reach out for help when their witness server stops working. Then, they have far too much research they need to do before they should even try to be a witness.