RE: Blockchain 101 - Why double producing is bad
The whole concept of Witness work involves not only votes and SP weights, but some common ethics to help the platform rather then acting maliciously. The unfortunate event of 'trading / begging' etc for Votes makes a ground for ill intended people to achieve high positions in Witness list.
Lately I noticed many votes coming towards my Witness, that simple got removed after a couple of days. The way i see it, is because of not approving back. (and I am not approving back, because too many missed blocks / compared to position as a main reason).
I would only say it's our mistake for offering tons of simplified solutions suck as docker allowing everyone to become a witness, then execute different strategies (of questionable ethics) to claim high.
As simple as that, someone with enough knowledge to compile and run nodes from scratch is assumed to have enough knowledge to make money outside the scope of abusing the platform.
Witness work is not for everyone. Making it easy for everyone to join the race will only bring trouble.
I would agree in a sense, being a witness is not for everyone but it should not only be for the "tech savvy either" we just recently set up our witness as a project because we are 2 steemians and someone technologically inclined and we are a fan of steem... do we really know the ins and outs? no we do not but we are learning... We had our first block yesterday, and missed it but I do not know if it was due to this double producing. So now we have shut off the server and rebuilt the whole build from scratch instead of following a manual.
So I agree for you there... the votes should come from community work, and running a good service and not from tit for tat...
We are learning on the way. But that would also be why we start lower and then have a chance to build up votes
our witness is @swisswitness
Well, that's something totally different and totally ok, if someone is learning with a goal to achieve full understanding of the platform and provide great service.
Few months ago, I offered "paid witness setup", but these who contacted me willing to pay for such work, got it totally fee (along with support). I am glad some of them are successful, still doing their work. The 'payment' was just a trick to distinguish who is serious and who is not. They got a full training and explanation to any questions they had.
I have nothing against a total newbie who is willing to learn, and I will always support that by all means and sure others will too. But the real problem is that some people are pushing way more into campaigns / trading votes / begging for votes, rather then understanding technology. At the end of the day, they do rank better, and platform suffers.
I don't think anyone needs to have PhD in computer science to be a witness, the only requirements is to take it seriously, act ethically, learn new things, and support others.
Lucky enough most of witnesses we have are great people. But if you want to distinguish others, just check how many of them become inactive whenever SBD goes down on the market, and then get back once it raises.