Has anyone ever seen a witness do anything for the betterment of Steemit, if not... what's the point?
All I ever see is people begging for witness votes, but what do they actually do?
I thought say for example, that I want to either have the SBD (Steem Backed Dollar) either permanently pegged to the USD (United States Dollar), or removed, that we would have the witnesses vote on it, and take some action afterwards.
Instead, they are absolutely pointless, and just reap the rewards of earning more Steem than the rest of us, without actually doing shit.
Am I the only one who feels this way, or are you guys just as confused as to what a Steemit witness actually does for the overall community as well?
Because as of right now, they just remind me of regular politicians, of whom essentially only do things for themselves, and simply forget about those who actually put them in power to begin with.
I do agree some time they just behave like traditional politicians who only see his own interest. especially when they are seeking for witness vote. They do care community but do little and showed a lot. I don't know how many witnesses raise voice against reward pool issues. Although there are few good choices available like @surpassinggoogle @dragosroua @ura-soul @neoxian etc, but i am talking about all of them majority want to include in top10. If we really want that these big guns will help to develop the community all we need to just raise our voice for the unjust. Our voice is our power. your article is great it will give food of though to common steemians. Thanks for sharing @tolkatore
Yeah, and I hope to see real change come to Steemit soon, with or without the witnesses.
it is impossible to have the Steem blockchain without the witnesses. They are what makes it happen.
So they run the servers, and how does changes to the platform happen exactly?
changes to the steem blockchain happen through hardforks... 17 of the top 20 witnesses have to agree before a hardfork change is accepted.
Let's hope so @tolkatore I am not against the witness, I am in favor of acttive witness who raise their voice against unjust issue like reward pool abusing, bot voting etc.
I hear ya, and hopefully something is done about it.
I think with blockchain technology we should actually do away with middleman altogether. We are able to vote on issues like "pegging SBD" to USD ourselves and don't really need someone else to communicate our wishes and same for politicians. We should just vote on issues and do away with the misinterpreting pricks in the middle ;P
I 100% agree, and sadly, I think the witnesses need to exist to maintain the blockchain nodes, but now that you mention it, I think we the people should have the first and last say as to what happens to the blockchain overall.
@timcliff often updates us on the activities of the witnesses every week to keep us abreast. You can check his blog for more info.
In my point of view I think it's just a few of them that are actually working . We have the likes of @gtg, @blockbrothers, @steemgigs owned by @surpassinggoogle, @dragosruoa , @teamsteem, and some other few witnesses .
I wonder what the rest are actually up to though.
But what are the ones you mentioned actually doing to better Steemit, that's the question?
I think they are trying to aid small account with good qualities to grow. Some help with resteems to aid visibilities of some posts
That is not their purpose, their purpose is to propose changes, or hear other complaints for change, put them up for vote, vote, then make the change or not make it depending on the outcome of the vote.
Oh, okay. If thats the case then maybe they are not doing enough just as you said. But its a big community, implementation of ideas might take time
Well, they need to show us something, and if it takes time then so be it.
Actually when you read their updates you will get to know. They keeps the nodes running (whatever that means) and to do that , you need some funds which they donout of their own pockets.
I might not have all the details there but somehow I think they are the reason why steemit is here and standing, else there will be no steemit.
Well that's fine, but now they have to make the platform better, so that even more people will use it.
I think you are judging ALL the witnesses based on the actions of the top 50.
Have you visited @timcliff's blog recently?
Or @yehey's discord?
There no single day @utopian-io doesn't make a contribution
@mahdiyari is always improving steemauto, @themarkymark is tirelessly checkmating spammers/scammers, @sircork is doing big things in charity..... c'mon, I could go on and on.
In fact I recently wrote a post about witnesses, check them out and you will change your opinion.
https://steemit.com/witness/@ulqu3/steemit-witnesses-i-voted-for-and-why
I do agree there are many lazy witnesses, but we must not allow them hide the food efforts of others.
They aren't Steemit police, they are supposed to be legislators, who enact change that needs to be made to the entire system... which is something I don't see any of them doing.
actually the witnesses aren't the legislators ... they job is to witness and verify the transactions that make up the blockchain ...we look to them to be contributors to the community but it's not a job requirement
So Ned and company are the only ones who make change?
I think you need to take the time to listen to the recording of @shadowpub's witness chat this past Saturday ... https://steemit.com/witness-category/@shadowspub/another-successful-witness-chat There is discussion on there how changes get made on the blockchain.
You'll learn a lot more about witnesses and what they do listening to the other two chats as well ... you can find the recordings through this link ... https://steemit.com/witness/@shadowspub/everyone-is-welcome-to-the-witness-chat-on-saturday-in-the-steemit-ramble-discord
yes, I'm just as confused as you are about what they do (the steemit witness) for us who are still beginners.
I really have not felt what they give to me that I have given my voice to them as a steemit witness.
Thank's for sharing @tolkatore
And what have you voiced exactly?
Maybe he was able to chat them up on discord or something because they are hard to get to
I agree with you that our voice is our vote. Steemit gives us the opportunity to value our voice and time but others community don't give any witness just waste our time. Here big steemians helps the small like a family. I'm proud to be a member of steemit.
Up-voting someones content is not a witness job, that's a vote bots job, a witness should be putting changes to better Steemit up for voting.
Well i don't really know but @surpassinggoogle is really trying with his steemgigs and @teardrops. And this new @ulogs he just started is giving alot of awareness to people. Also @dimimp is trying to with is steemjet initiative. I think he also gave out steem to people and even delegated steem power
Creating all these other things, pulling people from Steemit is definitely not the answer, but to each their own I guess.
Steemit witness should spread vote equally to the community, we need the attention of our witness.
I've got attention just like @surpassinggoogle and @neoxian :-)
They need to actually make change happen, which I have yet to see.
How are witnesses actually compensated?
What is the mechanism and does it provide any incentive to take actions to improve Steemit?
They get free Steem, no matter if they do anything or not.
What do you suggest they should do to help the community as witness
@tolkatore
The nice thing about steemit is you can voice out your concern and I highly recommend it for the betterment of our community. This is how we improve our flatform, use your voice and act on it by voting.
This is an excellent way to educate other steemians on how they will you use their votes. We all have 30 votes to spare for witnesses, so vote WISELY.
Don't follow the mob trail, before you vote a witness. Get to know them first, check their capacity as witness managing and securing servers, how they give back to the community and outside of steem, how they help improve the flatform and so on. If you voted a witnesses, once in a while check their status, are they still active or inactive, un-vote or re-allocate your votes to another witness. It's not written in stone, you can change them anytime you like.
And yes we need a Witnesses to keep the steem blockchain to run smoothly. Behind the scene, these servers are up and running 24x7 to make sure that you will continue to produce articles, comment to posts, etc.
We need 20 Witnesses and +1 backup, currently we have hundreds of Witnesses out there. The Top 75 can pay their own servers and get some extra, while the the remaining witnesses below 75 are all managing their servers at loss, paying out of pocket.
I hope I was able to share useful insights.
We are steeming for the future. By the way, thank you @ulqu3 for alerting me for this article.
Cheers for now.
@Yehey
This is all fine and good, but they need to start asking the people what we want as far as change and improvements are concerned pertaining to the Steemit platform as a whole.
So what do you have in mind? Maybe I can take it up to the next level, no promises but I will try and share to other witnesses I know who are very active in the platform.