Here in Ontario we have a provincial election on June 7th. Since it falls on a Thursday and I’m sort of tied up on Thursdays, I voted at an advance poll yesterday.
We have three political parties recognized in the Provincial legislature but there are seven running in this riding. When I was handed my ballot I didn’t just see three candidates and have to write in one of the others if I wanted to vote for them. I saw all seven candidates. Pretty simple eh?
The Steemit Ballot is Different
When you go to the Steemit page to vote for witnesses, you are presented with a list of 50. If you want to vote for someone not in the top 50, you have to know who it is and write that name in. Since we’re voting on that page, what we’re looking at is a ballot.
So how come only part of the total candidates are presented? Even worse, how come not all of those presented are actually active candidates?
This has been the topic of discussion at the Witness Chats and in other conversations about the witnesses. At least one of the witnesses in the top 50 has been on record opposing changing that status quo. He’s argued that he made his way into the top 50 by getting out there, getting known and working his way up there.
Hate to have to point this out, but, a partial ballot wasn’t right when he was making his way up and it’s still not right. It’s not right for people who are trying to vote to not know who is active and who isn’t.
Effort Has Been Made in the Past to Change It
There was a ticket opened on the Condenser GitHub back in March 2017 asking that the then 69 witnesses be shown on the Steemit page and a setup that allowed for up to 100 witnesses to be created. The only response received was from @timcliff who opposed it and called @sneak to close the ticket, which he did.
New Effort is Underway
Two days ago @noisy reopened the matter and called for it to be revisited. He pointed out what many are already aware of, when a person gets into the top 50 their votes start to rise exponentially. Visibility does that.
He also brings up an interesting point. People from outside the platform who are familiar with the crypto world question why STEEM only has 50 nodes. That list of only 50 gives that impression when in fact there are over 100 active witnesses. If you follow @witnessupdate you’ll see there are currently 614 witnesses with 131 active.
While the previous effort to change the status quo had only the one response. This one has a conversation underway. You can read it here.
You Can Help
You can contribute and help to send the message to Steemit Inc that this is something the community wants addressed.
posted about this yesterday. He’s suggested if you are registered on GitHub to go there and register your support. If you aren’t, leave a comment on his post.@dragosroua
I’ll suggest leave a comment where ever you see this being discussed.
Speaking of Ballots, Have You Voted?
I have all 30 of my witness votes in place. Have you voted? A new initiative has been launched to encourage and reward members of the platform to vote.
@ivoted is a bot which will reward those who vote for witnesses. I’m not totally clear on how it is going to work, but I’ll support efforts to get the word out that people need to either vote or proxy their vote to someone they trust to make good choices.
Some have proxied their votes to me. If you’re unsure who you should vote for and aren’t about to spend the time researching who is who, feel free to name me as your proxy.
Next Witness Chat
What has become a monthly witness chat will take place in the Steemit Ramble Discord on Saturday, June 16th at 11am EDT / 1500 UTC. All witnesses are invited to attend along with members of the community to the discussion.
Until Next Time — Just Steem on
Hi @shadowspub
Qurator's owner here, we are quite new to the witness game and think it is time we take on a more serious role. We are not specifically the most technical people, but we focus on content. We are pretty strict when it comes to quality/original content and we will keep trying to help those who create it.
Will be sitting in on the next witness Ramble. Looking forward to it! See you there!
hi @scrooger ... nice to meet you and will be looking forward to seeing you at the next Witness chat on June 16th
I support several witnesses outside the top 50. I just checked and Steem-Plus is showing that a couple I voted for are inactive. I'll be looking for some others to add.
you might want to check out a new witness called @c0ff33a who just started his witness. Great guy, been very active on the platform and has the technical skills. Another witness who doesn't get as much notice and does some great work helping people is @swelker101 ... just a couple to think about.
Thanks so much for mentioning our project. Hope it will have the success we expect. And hope it will help in changing things.
I hope it does as well, people are talking about the witnesses more and getting the word around to vote. Initiatives like yours helps to not only spread the word but show that it matters to vote.
Oh I wasn’t aware that witness were actively working towards changing the voting and there’s a bot? Once you check it out, let us know. I’m curious to know how it goes. Thanks for the heads up.
lots of good stuff going on. The more we talk about the topic and get the word around, the more people pay attention. Not so much changing the voting as much as making sure people know the full slate they have available
Current list always favours top ones... It seems changes are approaching to fix this.
I am sorely lacking in my witness votes. I think I have used 11. I had more, but then started finding out things after I had been here a while. Needless to say, the coughJerry Banfieldscough are now gone.
I would proxy my votes, but I don't think I've found anyone whose values align exactly with mine, so I am just going to keep listening and add as I go.
It amazes me how knowledgeable you are with all of this. I have such a hard time wrapping my head around a portion of it.
I've heard somethings about the cough :) ... had never put my vote there to start with so nothing surprised me. It's a good idea to continue to explore and learn about the various witnesses yourself. Some don't really want to, those are the ones who should proxy.
Yeah, when I first started there were a few witnesses preying on new people. Throw them a .40 upvote and ask for a vote. I imagine it worked out for them, but I started looking around and seeing what a witness was and who was doing what. I dropped a few of them, but I'm slowly adding them again.
Gerri might want to proxy hers as she's getting active now, but doesn't want to get into that stuff. Yet. @reactionaries is her handle and I will look into how you proxy.
Hope to get a chance to pimp next Thursday.
btw I support Jerry Banfield as the top witness.
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