RE: We Are Gonna Build "Something", And The Witnesses Should Pay For It.
I think a lot of people, especially Bernie Sanders, have said that the witnesses get paid a huge amount for the services they're actually providing, and they should be held way more accountable than they are.
I think Witness Vote Decay would go a long way to helping this... but there's also the Freedom and Blocktrades votes... they can pretty much decide who is in the Top 19 by themselves... which is great in times of emergency, but bad when the majority don't agree with their votes. Conversely, you don't want to make it a popularity contest either.
I'd really like to make a Witness Portal that lists who the witnesses are, where they stand on particular issues and what they contribute. I'd say the normal user has no idea who the witnesses are... really.
Not many people seem to love the Blocktrades suggestions... and I agree, I haven't seen anyone suggest the witnesses help pay... because, obviously, the people with the most clout wouldn't want to do that.
Witness vote decay should be the top #1 priority in my opinion. I wish I could help more, but I am not a confident enough developer to make that change on the blockchain myself, and differently from the top 19 witnesses, I don't have a 10k monthly budget to hire developers, which is a bummer because good developers here in Brazil are not expensive, really, I have a friend that graduated as the best in the class, worked in many AI projects, and the salary is less than 2k dollars a month here (sad for them, luck for the employer).
But the witness portal is a great idea. Imagine a portal that shows everything the witnesses are working on, every Steem they withdrawal, where is that going to, etc... I think I am confident enough to develop something like that, I will add that to my to do list and try to get something similar next month if I do have the time.