Note—This is the fourth day of @dragosroua's May 30 Days Writing Challenge. If you'd like to participate and for the rules, please click here. Today's topic:

What Are The Top 5 Most Relevant Witnesses On Steemit?

Where To Begin

I hope others are having an easier time with this topic than I am. Mainly, because I've spent more time thinking about it than I've been able to spend actually writing it. I think the reason for that is my knowledge of the witnesses, who they are, what they do, is just enough that I know that there's tons more that I don't know about any of that than I actually do know.

And that frustrates me.

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This is me, on a epic quest to find my top five relevant witnesses. Join me, will you?

I like information. I like knowing what's going on. I can get obsessive with it if I don't watch it. Especially when my investments and potential livelihood are at stake. The more I know, the more I feel I can make proper decisions. I like making good decisions. When it comes to voting for witnesses, with a couple of exceptions, it feels like I'm throwing darts in the dark.

Here We Go

Frankly, I don't personally know any witnesses. I haven't spent hours and hours chatting with any of them on Discord, or wherever else they may hang out. I would imagine they have better things to be doing, too, then hanging out with me or however other many users there might be. At least, I hope such is the case. I'm told what they do—sometimes by they themselves—is very important.

And to the degree that I'm capable of understanding it, I agree. Witnessing blocks, making sure they're valid, not corrupted, etc., is important work. It's what validates the STEEM blockchain.

I also understand there's more that these witnesses do to prove to us their worth as witnesses and therefore deserving of the compensation some receive. Or something like that. In some cases what witnesses do entails much more than just witnessing blocks. A lot of it is behind the scenes development work, providing apps and tools that can make my time on Steemit more informative and perhaps more efficient.

I've been told that witnesses are invaluable because without them, I wouldn't have a place I could blog and potentially be rewarded for it. There would be no STEEM, therefore, no Steemit, et al.

I guess I believe that to the extent that witnessing of the blocks is important. I guess I can also believe it because with each witness, decentralization increases, and so does the potential security of the blockchain. Something happens in one part of the world, there's witness nodes running elsewhere to keep things going.

There's probably much more to it than that. This isn't supposed to be a post about what witnesses do, but it is supposed to be about which of them are the most relevant. And for them to be relevant, be it to Steemit, to others and/or myself, I need to demonstrate what I do know, or more to the point, what I don't know.

What Is Relevant

Does working on projects that help Steemit users access information about what they're doing as well as others constitute relevance? Especially ones that may or may not be very important to the safety and security of the system, but that most users rarely know about or see? For all I know, the answer is a resounding yes. Those kinds of witnesses are very relevant. The problem is, I don't know. And while I'm ultimately responsible for what I know and don't know and can't blame my ignorance on anything or anyone else, I also have to pick and choose where I spend my time.

And for the most part, other than some forays out onto the blockchain to track down witness declarations or other pertinent information, the majority of my time is spent here, on Steemit, posting, commenting and curating.

So, guess what I find relevant? Whether or not I can intuitively and conveniently continue to post, comment and curate, and who I might be able to civilly and constructively (and have some fun in the process) engage with.

In other words, a witness could literally be the Atlas of STEEM, carrying the entire blockchain on their shoulders, but if I don't have a chance to interact with them in the day to day, or have a way of finding that out as I'm curating posts, I'm probably not going to know it. And even then, I'm probably going to lack the technical expertise to really understand the significance of it, let alone give it its proper due.

So What Does That Mean?

To be honest, it means out of sight, out of mind. If you're not regularly publishing posts, commenting or curating, I don't know you're there. And if you're only posting a witness update or other technical node code, I'm probably not keeping up with it.

I didn't get on Steemit to learn every last thing about the blockchain or what witnessing means. I didn't come here so I could intelligently articulate how best to guard against Sybil attacks. I'm here to post, comment and curate. If others want to know about that stuff, very good. Have at it. If you being a witness helps me to do what I want to do, awesome. Please continue, even if I'm not going to know what it is you're doing or ever have the desire or capacity to fully understand it. I readily admit that it is a relatively thankless job where I'm concerned. I'm sorry about that, to the extent that I can be.

All of what I've said leads to this: relevance to me is what I can understand and perceive. That means I need witnesses doing something on Steemit where I can see it. Which means, what they do as witnesses has less impact on me than how they help my time here on Steemit be as pleasant, as productive and as profitable as possible.

My Top Five-ish (Finally! Wait. What?)

I'm just going to start with you, @dragosroua. You've made this tough for many of us, I believe, not to include you, and certainly for me. I say this not because you are a witness, or because of what you might do with steem.supply or any other dev work. I say it, because you are posting, commenting and curating everyday, and that helps me do the same. You have posts that are informative, that are mostly of interest to me, and that I can come up with something relatively intelligent to say. I know I can depend on you not to waste my time, and I can also depend on you to give me information that I might not even know I should have. I appreciate your patience, guidance and dedication. I can see what you are doing and I wholeheartedly approve of it.

I can see what @curie and @ocd-witness do every day. I've been a recipient of their curation trail a few times and I'm appreciative of that. It's good to have some level of validation of what you're doing is worthwhile and valued. And the rewards accompanying it are necessary to demonstrate that value. I've heard you do more than that, but that's what I regularly see and I hope you will find the way to continue on. You both touch a lot of us here because of what you do.

I have to throw in @steemcommunity, though they are very new to witnessing. Both @abh12345 and @paulag have been instrumental in providing me an outlet I needed—The Curation and Engagement Leagues. To me, it doesn't get much more relevant than that. I already talked about the leagues in yesterday's post, so I won't say anymore other than I meant what I wrote then and leave it at that.

I will add, though, that through posts and interactions and your actions, I believe you see the way forward for STEEM the same way I do.

I'm not sure if I have a number five. I've voted for 19 witnesses for one reason or another, some of it with full heart, others not so much, and I will probably change that and expand to the full 30 as I learn more and see what witnesses are doing.

You Can't Come Up With Five?

Nope. I guess that means I have a vacancy. Anyone want to fill it? 🤔 You know how, and you know where I'll be.