Lately, I’ve been working mainly on improving the performance and connectivity of my nodes. In my spare time, I have encouraged people to adopt STEEM, while answering tons of questions through various communication channels and, as a hobby, getting rid of all kinds of abusers from steemit.chat.
Gandalf the Grey by @fukako
You might have noticed that I recently started having fun with flags. No, actually it's not a fun at all. I know that I am really bad at curation but I can at least use my spare voting power to help the platform. I used to avoid flagging but the growing number of shameless abusers leaves me no choice.
As far as I remember, I started flagging when I spotted an abuser who impersonated @cheetah and posted comments warning about plagiarism (similar to the ones that the original @cheetah would post), but instead of a link to "similar content", there was a link to a phishing site that mimicked the login window and was used to steal user's keys.
Beware of phishing attempts and scam
When you communicate outside of Steem, make sure that person you talk to is the one they claim to be. For example: currently steemit.chat usernames might not match Steem usernames!
Lately, there have been many phishing attempts on steemit.chat that originated mostly from Indonesia. They use names similar to those of steem users with high reputation or high amount of vests, together with copied avatars and ask for transfers in exchange for upvotes.
By the way, to many of those who were already scammed: maybe instead of paying for upvotes, you should try making original, high quality content that will bring you upvotes for free?
If you spot similar cases, please notify me or other mods / admins on a chat.
Such accounts are deactivated promptly, but of course we should expect that new ones will appear.
Support science
Please support #science, without #science there would be no blockchain.
As already mantioned, I'm really bad at curration, but I know who isn't.
#SteemSTEM curators: @justtryme90, @lemouth, @mobbs, @ruth-girl, @suesa, @trumpman
I'm delegating 1000SP to each of them and encouraging you to follow their curation or @steemstem itself.
"SteemSTEM is a community driven project which seeks to promote well-written and informative Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics posts on Steem. The project involves curating STEM-related posts through upvoting, resteeming, offering constructive feedback, supporting scientific contests, and other related activities."
SBD peg
I've sbd_interest_rate
set at 0.
Please note that in market conditions like the ones we are currently experiencing, i.e. when SBD is traded way above 1 USD, you should NOT use "Convert to Steem" option as it makes you unable to take that additional profit.
Many witnesses have recommended that UI providers hide that option in the default (beginner) user interface, to prevent it from being used by inexperienced users.
Exchanges
Poloniex is poloniexing again
Unfortunately, it looks like Poloniex is having issues again.
Last outgoing transfer was observed at 2017-12-06 09:42:12 (UTC)
Please be aware of that when sending your assets there (or preferably don't send them there at all).
Use bittrex or blocktrades instead.
Also, you might want to consider ignoring it when it comes to price feed.
Listing STEEM / SBD on new exchanges.
It's not about IF, it's about WHEN.
When? I don't know. ;-) It's up to YOU.
"Me?" you will ask. Well, yes.
Decentralized platform, remember?
Of course, I'm making my own efforts, some other people are on that, too (shoutout to @timcliff), but you could do that as well.
You are most likely using several exchanges. If any of those don't support STEEM / SBD yet, then open support ticket and ask when you can expect STEEM to be listed, because you would love to use it on their exchange.
It's that simple.
It's a win-win situation for everyone:
- for us
- it's faster (every transfer to/from exchange takes time, especially if it is done using assets other than STEEM, fewer steps, less time wasted)
- it's cheaper (see above, fewer steps means fewer fees; exchange fees, transaction fees, deposits/withdrawal fees)
- for them
- they get more clients
- they get more exposure in social media (yes, it's us)
- all that means they get more volume = more money
Of course we (witnesses, developers) are here to help with integrations, technical issues, suggest best practices, etc.
Exchange, however, will not list STEEM only because ten or twenty witnesses or developers have offered their help.
What can be really convincing, is: hundreds or thousands of users filling support tickets, asking about STEEM.
No witness can do that, but YOU can.
Nodes, nodes, nodes
Sweet sixteen, be aware
Please note that we have crossed the 16GB mark for shared memory file used by consensus mode. Witnesses that were not keeping an eye on that learned that the hard way.
The sad truth is that witnesses often don’t pay attention to their seed nodes.
Now it's time to do just that.
This week, I'll be reviewing the status of seed nodes (those listed in seednodes.txt
) and suggesting removal of those that do not serve their purpose well enough.
Of course, seed nodes don't have to be set up for high availability, but if someone can't provide even one nine, they shouldn't waste a spot.
Status
Block 18000000
was generated at 2017-12-11 19:10:18 (UTC)
by witness @someguy123
block_log
- takes 47GB
shared_memory.bin
- takes 17GB for consensus node or 186GB for full node.
Steem Pressure
I have been asked many times about best practices for running various nodes, optimal hardware configurations, etc. While I can't give you a golden reference setup, because your needs could vary, and marketing phrases such as "fast storage" in one datacenter don’t mean the same thing in another, I think it might be a good idea to show you real life examples of common configurations and their performance. This will show you what you really need to effectively run various steem nodes and how long it would take to catch up to current head block.
Coming soon to your blockchain.
If you believe I can be of value to steem, please vote for me (gtg) as a witness on Steemit's Witnesses List or set (gtg) as a proxy that will vote for witnesses for you.
Your vote does matter!
You can contact me directly on steemit.chat, as Gandalf
Steem On
my favorite witness evah!
Hi @gtg
We recognize you as one of the primary leaders of Steem.
We see that Steemit would benefit greatly from a upgraded system for clarifying and preventing High-Stakes Abuse.
We bring to you an idea, a solution; Introducing the Steem RewardPool Protection Guild.
The idea is relatively simple. Everyone who joins the Guild gives 1 vote each day (automatically distributed) towards flagging the most prevalent abusers on Steem. By joining the RewardPool Protection Guild you obtain a weighted vote (proportionate to your steem power) that gives you a direct voice in what EXACTLY steemit abuse is, and which steemit abusers we will target first.
Please explore more details in our posting; https://steemit.com/steemit/@earthnation/another-solution-to-dissuade-steemit-abuse-reward-pool-destruction-the-steemian-rewardpool-protection-guild.
Let us know if you have any questions! We would love to collaborate with you in making Steem even better!
[Update]: "Convert to Steem" option is gone. Removed from the condenser (which means also steemit.com site).
Obviously,,, appreciate it @gtg
Thank you very much for this, and your support of SteemSTEM. It's something witnesses have previously shied away, probably because some of Steem's top witnesses and top stakeholders are brutally anti-science "conspiracy theorists".
And for everything else, of course :)
Conspiracies... Yeah...
It is indeed appreciated to see support from at least a couple of witnesses :)
Wow, thanks for the project promotion @gtg! Truly kind of you, also thanks for the vote of confidence in our work!
You do so much for steemit and the users behind the scenes, I don't even think a lot of users realize it. Updates like this are great, hopefully more of the average users can see just how hard you work.
Thanks again.
I fully agree with the motion to get steem and SBD on more exchanges. Honestly we should probably start a movement to get this more attention. Like maybe pick an exchange weekly and make some posts about it. Just bringing the name of good exchanges to people's attention I think can make a big difference.
I can only repeat what @justtryme90 said! We are greatly appreciating, for your hard work (I guess I only know a fraction of it :p) and putting steemSTEM under the spotlight.
Thanks a lot!
Wow thanks for the shoutout! We work hard and, in the months I've been doing it, I've seen notable improvement and growth, and it all boils down to the community and supporters like you, though I won't pretend to understand the level of support you provide for the rest of steemit on the whole =P
thanks for the shout out and all your hard witness-related work <3
when I discover every day a little more steemit and falls on people like you, honestly it is by understanding your work and that of other people here as well as your personal investment that I understand (even if it is very technical) why we must continue. Do not be discouraged and thank you. So thank you for all @gtg
Take care
P&U
Thank you! :-)
You really welcome and..
..I thank you @gtg .
thank you for thanking me
P&U
Oh yea, you are right, they are doing a really good job ;D
Oh man... Winky face... That's not good... Do you think we need to improve?
Haha, I'm too lazy to hold the shift key down for such a long time ;D
Okay okay :)
Thanks a lot for your nice message :)
Hi @gtg, are you planning to use Bias option?
Hi. Always, but I'm not going to use it at this point.
Printing more SBD might be more harmful (debt) not to mention that considered as abuse of power. Current conditions can still be considered as short-term.
Thanks for the answer!
I would like to share my experience with @gtg. When you summoned him at steem.chat for questions he will be there to answer it. Thank you sir.
Well done.
I am upgrading my seed nodes to 32GB. Will be back online in few hours.
Cheers,
@yehey
Terimakasih izin saya @vaniapriani jadikan anda saksi and follow anda
Terima kasih :-)
@gtg Great post. I have to been afraid of flagging for many reasons. As the community grows I'm coming to realize that flagging is becoming a necessity. Any tips? Common goal here is for a better platform. Kudos to you :)
Best wishes, - @splendorhub
Thank you :-)
Exactly that. Voting (which includes downvoting) to make Steem a batter platform :-)
@gtg Just realized down voting can be more powerful than an upvote :) Best wishes to you.
The most lovable witness I ever knew, I voted for you, Love you @gtg
Thank you :-)
I voted for you, I didn't know that you are a witness before reading this post and as I am new i did not understand what it is. but I see how much you care for the platform and i just read a little and understand what a witness is - so you got my vote.
Thank you! :-)
Very educative for us, new members ✌️
I truly love steem and what is represents...with that being said im honestly very tired of reading about cryptocurrencies and blockchain. A plethora of interesting topics exist...let us explore them.
Thanks a lot for your good work!
This is a very open hearted post. I like the baldness and frank expression. You pointed out a real valid point of suggesting #science. Your contribution to curation is appreciated.
Thanks for the nice post. I totally agree with you
Good analysis and info on nodes...
Thank you :-)
@gtg, awesome point about getting Steem and SBD listed on other exchanges! Resteeming to hopefully help you rally the troops! :)
Thank you! :-)
Thank you for this post, I've always hear people said they were voting for you as their winess and now I understand why, I also understand why I should try to vote for all 30 witnesses..
Good idea about the ticket support, I'll try doing that with the exchage I mosty use, this way I won't have to go via Blocktrades avery time...
Oh and thank you for reminding us that we are never totally sheltered from scams.
Thank you :-)
Thanks for the info. I had no idea so much was involved. WOW.
you know you will always get my vote and support. Keep up the good work my friend!!
Thank you! :-)
gtg i was wondering, what does it mean on the wtiness page when the witness is greyed out and strikethrough'd?
Those are witnesses that are no longer scheduled for block production.
Either after changing their signing key to null manually, i.e.
STM1111111111111111111111111111111114T1Anm
, signaling that they are not willing be scheduled for block production (might be temporarily) or having their key changed by the blockchain automatically after missing blocks during last day.Interesting, thanks.
should I draw a new version with a flag instead of a wand? ;)
No, thanks ;-) Wand is fine. Able to cast both up- and down- ... but still votes :-)
This is really smart and hideous of these people maybe something should be really. done thanks for the information
Because of a decentralized nature of this platform, everything that can be done about it is on us, its users.
Thanks for sharing this. Learnt alot on how to secure my account and not fall victim of phishing sites or links. Thanks @gtg
I'm totally agree with the motion to get steem and SBD on more exchanges. Honestly we should probably start a movement to get this more attention. Like maybe pick an exchange weekly and make some posts about it. Just bringing the name of good exchanges to people's attention I think can make a big difference if i understand more about with your help dear friends @ steemit
Thank you for sharing this very informative post @gtg ! Will be waiting for your upcoming post ! Resteemed!
yay!!!!! good thing Steemit has you! :)
Thanks for feedback
You are My STARlett >>>>>witness and I always learn something new from your updates and advice you have for us. Thanks so much once again.
Thanks for your feedback. What is the influence of sbd_interest_rate?
It defines the interest rate that SBD deposits receive (used to be set to non-zero values, when SBD is trading below the peg, i.e. for less than $1)
Thanks for the information
I've been on Steemit for about a year now and still don't understand it haha. I'm more at home with a canvas and paintbrush or even hammers and nails than I am understanding the workings of technology. Either way thanks for your effort and skills with creating a better platform for the community to grow :)
Holy! I didn't actually realize you were a witness before now. @noisy is organizing a Meetup in Wroclaw sometimes in January, do you think you could come?
There's a non-zero chance for that, but not that far from zero. Time would tell ;-)
Cool, I'll let you know as soon as I know the detais.
Thanks for posting these stats :)
I never knew I produced block 18 million.
If you do produce hardware requirements, please put them on https://www.steem.center where they can be easily found by other developers.
Steem is success ... History has taught us that success has a lot of enemies.
hello i new user in steem it plss folow me back
Spamming comments is frowned upon by the community.
Comment spam is currently defined by @steemcleaners as:
10 or more generic comments per day that are not in response to a question posed by the post or comment. “Thanks”, “Great Post!”, “Great Photo!”, “Good”, “Like”, “Nice”, “Wow”, “Cute”, “Follow me”, etc.
Commenting on old posts to hide self up-votes or a voting trail.
Copy/Paste comments that serve no purpose or the purpose is self promotion.
Comments that inform the contributor that they have been up upvoted, resteemed, or flagged when the curator does not actually upvote, resteem, or flag the post.
Unsolicited and off topic referral links.
Continued comment spamming may result in action from the cheetah bot.
More Info: Abuse Guide - 2017.
I value high quality, original content, unfortunately I found only plagiarized articles among your posts. So I'm sorry, but no.
Ok, I'm on it, then.
Thank you! :-)
wow i like this post boss. steemit a The best one post.
thanks for sharing @gtg
You're doing all these things very well,This is a very good place to work,Everyone is getting attracted towards it now.We have these facilities
.The work here is very good.Estimate is a very good medium for all countries.We now get all the opportunities from Steemit.
wow the story is quite interesting, which is quite comforted for me with your story, thank you for sharing with us in the world of Steemit
Steemit is a successful at a time @gtg
And getting STEEM listed directly will stop the feeling that you are being abused by blocktrades.
So that has to be a good thing
i dont understand what you meen
You have created over 50 comments in the last hour by copying someone's article there. That's just a reckless spamming.
Good morning
my name is Anneline Lourens
I live in Tzaneen limpopo South Africa
i started steemit a wile ago i wanted to help a friend that wanted to help her daughter go on a school trip and i coped and pasted her post with the hope that it would help her but i did not know about spam and i was flagged and now i can only say sorry that i wanted to help a friend that was in big need of help.
i hope that all have a wonderful day
I understand, however it will take some time and a lot of effort to recover from your reputation loss (25->0). Good luck anyway.
i can see it will take a very long time can not load photos but will not give up thank you
Thank you i will thanks for your vote and will try to recover thank you again
thank you I still struggle cant post photos but will keep on trying
thank you for vote
sorry did not know may not do this wanted to help a friend she is really suffering and what to help her i wont do this again
good day can you please fix my account i understand now what i did wrong it will not happen again thank you
thank you for helping me
Congratulations @gtg, this post is the second most rewarded post (based on pending payouts) in the last 12 hours written by a Superhero or Legend account holder (accounts hold greater than 100 Mega Vests). The total number of posts by Superhero and Legend account holders during this period was 44 and the total pending payments to posts in these categories was $2254.96. To see the full list of highest paid posts across all accounts categories, click here.
If you do not wish to receive these messages in future, please reply stop to this comment.
wow!!! This is awesome, congratulations @gtg you are such an inspiration to me
Thank you, once you will be enspired enough, please take your time to chose witnesses that you would like to approve (aka vote for).
Sure I will
Great Info indeed
your posts give me a new experience that I should always remember. so I am cautious of any fraud based on the virtual world generally.good luck@gtg
Once you gain enough experience to make a conscious choice, please consider voting for witnesses (you can cat up to 30 votes).
Thank you for sharing this post !
Congratulations @gtg!
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