Very good points @yabapmatt.
Like many on here, I am also proud that you have my witness vote also.
I agree with you but those on the outside tend not to be able to decipher, hence having to go with the approach of who is active on here and contributing.
You should vote for witnesses who show that they have a deep, deep understanding about how the platform works and can make the right decisions on adjusting platform parameters and accepting code changes to best ensure long term growth.
Where are the rankings on this? How is the average poster on here going to have any idea who can do this?
I agree with @yabapmatt as well Task... people should always strive to vote for the witnesses they believe in.
If the work that @dragosroua has developed in Steem Supply - which I also use daily - grants you the trust you need to vote, then by all means do it.
It depends on your technical skill too... I'm sure @yabapmatt with his uber skills can detect other people's skills through their average post with much more ease than we both can, we are certainly not developers.
By the way, steem bot tracker is also good... all in all, I think without taking steemit into account, those two are the two platforms I use the most.
Yea that's a general problem with voting-based systems. How can the average citizen have any idea who can be a good president, senator, congressman, etc. Clearly they can't in the US at least!
Anyway I kinda wasn't in a great mood earlier today and I think I responded to this too quickly without really taking enough time to think it through. Really if someone is able to make a great site like steem.supply that's a pretty good indicator that they are quite knowledgeable about the system, and now that i have a clearer head i'm going to contradict myself and say that's actually not a bad reason to vote for someone as a witness, especially if you have no other information to go on.
Unfortunately the real reason that @dragosroua isn't in the top 50 witnesses has nothing to do with how many people use the site he created or his knowledge of the system. Since this is a stake-weighted voting system the top witness spots are mostly controlled by the small number of large whales on the platform. If the whales like you then you're in, otherwise you're out.
Luckily for the time being the top 20 witness spots are all filled by really good witnesses (in my opinion) who deserve to be where they are. I hope it stays that way as the platform grows and it doesn't just become a popularity contest.