Witness Update from @c0ff33a ☕️ Looking forward to Communities

Rewards from this post are set as 100% Power Up to @steem.dao - that means all rewards this post might receive will be sent in total to @steem.dao - this is the account that funds the Steem Proposal System and everything it receives will be used to fund approved projects from the Steem Proposal System - these projects could enhance the visibility and usability of the Steem Blockchain and possibly increase the value of the Steem Token - something that benefits us all. View current Steem Proposals at https://steemitwallet.com/proposals or https://steemproposals.com/proposals

Proposals I suggest you look at and support

https://steemit.com/steemdao/@steemchiller/proposal-steemworld-support

https://steemit.com/steemdao/@surpassinggoogle/sps-proposal-help-me-fund-the-set-up-of-a-macrohard-hub-office-for-programmers-in-the-philippines

https://steemit.com/steemdao/@gtg/steemdao <<< must read to learn about Steem Proposal System

https://steemit.com/sps/@anyx/proposal-funding-for-anyx-io-infrastructure-recurrent-costs

The last few months on the Steem Blockchain have been....emotional. Leading up to HF21 and the subsequent HF22 there were mixed emotions from the community on the changes to rewards and of course the separate downvote pool. In many ways it has worked and we are in a much better place then we were before - but the effects are far reaching so some are doing better then ever, some worse and as the work concentrates on what is important - bringing the value of the Steem Token up through making the blogging side of Steem an attractive place for people to come and discover new and exciting content - at some point we all have to consider what really is important - the value on your post or of the Steem you hold in your Wallet.

Friends I have made have left, others are powering down and might leave. This covers all sizes of Stake, and honestly it makes me sad to see people who have been here for a few years at least throw in the towel. But it is important to recognise why the changes are happening, slowly the Steem blockchain is pushing to promote only the best content it has to the world by rewarding it the highest - true value of our own investment in Steem has to be the best quality of posts being at the top position and highest rewarded.

I still love Steem, it's a vibrant platform full of amazing Characters - I have made so many good friends through the 3.5 years I have been here and put my money into the platform both in powering up - to a now quite modest 20.5k Steem Power and by running a primary and back Witness Server.

Currently I am running at active rank Witness 55, I really appreciate every single vote you all give me - for me gaining a Witness vote regardless of stake is appreciation of the time and effort I put in to try and help the Steem Blockchain evolve. As a Witness I work together with @derangedvisions and we both bring our own unique skill sets to the blockchain. @derangedvisions has been in Thailand for Steem Fest 4 promoting his many projects including @derangedcontests for photography, his new @deranged.coin token to reward good content, his work with @creativecoin curating content and moderating the discord.

Meanwhile I have been doing my humble part to support our blogging content curators, alongside my weekly #sublimesunday tag where I support posters with upvote and resteem - along with a quality comment when I can. I have also recently added to the wide range of accounts I support with delegation by running a simple contest for the @steemterminal Redfish - basically all they needed to do was a post stating why they joined the Steem Blockchain - and what they liked or even disliked about it. Every entry did a fantastic post, they actually managed to make brilliant advertisements for the Steem Blockchain each one was so positive and vibrant - it was such a fresh feeling to see such positivity from new accounts with hardly any support. I'm proud to be supporting each of them with delegated Steem Power - it reminded me again how important real people are to making the Steem Blockchain something special. Congratulations to my winners @chrismadcboy2016 , @justclickindiva , @bhattg , @bliss11 , @chris-uk , @iamraincrystal , @janaveda , @mrnightmare89

I have for long time been a big advocate of @thealliance run by Witness @enginewitty , it continues to be a community I love and have many many friends in - the discord server is always vibrant and focused on developing Steem Blockchain. There are so many incredible people I have met in there I can't begin to mention them all, but of course @saffisara and @snook along with @thekittygirl and @shadowspub top the list along with @thekitchenfairy, @thehive, @jackmiller and @katrina-ariel

Recently I happened to cross paths with @contrabourdon who runs the Witness @untersatz with @organduo - honestly one of the most passionate Steem advocates I have met and very talented in coding - running the super fun !giphy bot along with various curation services. Certainly a Witness I am happy to support and I hope more people do as well.

Thanks to @wesphilbin from @steemterminal he suggested I visit @innerblocks discord and it is another really exciting Community - active and focused a really solid group of caring people with a wide range of stake holders on board.

I keep dropping in on my friends at @helpie , a close knit community but again very focussed on the Steem Blockchain and adding value to it, @meno is a true master of words and I really could listen to him talk all night.

And @adsactly continues to be an exciting community driven group that help and support each other. There are so many more but the point is communities are THE way to grow your following.

Steem Communities

All this is building up to how much a game changer Steem Communities will be for the blockchain - for just 3 Steem anyone can make a community that pulls your favourite content into one place, making posts easily found and will support Steem Upvotes and also any Tribe token upvotes too - it's super exciting check out this post from @exyle

Testing the new community features

This is exactly why the Steem Blockchain continues to excite me every single day, I can not leave it alone and while it is easy to get sucked in with negativity - step back and just look at what the positives are.

@steemmonsters - The original Steem Blockchain based game that just smashed it's Kickstarter goal for the new Untamed packs - any Kickstarter that wants $25,000 funding and receives $205,000 when it closes - well I'm pretty sure that suggests people are really backing it!

@nextcolony , @drugwars what next? As @jackmiller so eloquently says Steem Blockchain is not just blogging, it's a platform for creativity - you can build whatever you want into it as @cadawg has recently show by creating a chat client entirely running with custom json - A chat app truly on Steem

I started running a Witness server in May 2018 because I love this blockchain, and I wanted to contribute to it. With my primary and back up Witness servers I carry the full block log from when it started until right now when I hit post - It's a record of all my posts, upvotes, comments, activity and yours too. I'm grateful for the position I am at, it doesn't cover the cost of the servers at the current Steem value but I am confident it will in the future. More importantly for me I can contribute to the Steem Blockchain I love - and will continue to do so as long as I can. In fact I really want to set up a full Node - and then whatever happens I will always be able to keep the blockchain running.

Sometimes in life you can't see the wood for the trees, you have to step back a little and then take in the sky, clouds, birds, hills, mountains and countryside. Only then will you see the TRUE picture. If you look at one thing, all you see is that - you miss everything else around you.

Stay safe, stay true - and be like @snook says - Yourself

Last Confirmed Block Number 38,152,268 Last Aslot 38,284,583

Steemd v0.22.1





Kind thanks to Witness @enginewitty for employing his Ninja graphic design skills and producing this 🔥 banner

If you enjoyed my post don’t forget to leave an Upvote, feel free to comment on what you liked or where I can do better even. Follow @c0ff33a for regular and varied posts, photography, my weekly VLOG, posts on coffee roasting and brewing - just follow and see.

To grow your presence and following on Steemit, be active in the community Discords that offer the chance to learn, network, share and be found. The #TheRamble discord https://discord.gg/HZYzEry hosts a range of shows where you can join in and get your name shown, every Thursday there are two Pimp My Post Thursdays which are hugely popular and give you an opportunity to get your posts seen.

All photos are my own, taken with my iPhone. All my Steem posted pictures can be freely used by other Steem users in their own blog posts - all I ask is that you follow me and credit @c0ff33a linking to my post you took it from. You can also follow me on Twitter

You can view my current Witness Statistics using this tool produced by Witness @justyy

The picture to the right kindly sketched by the wonderful @bridget.art , be sure to check her incredible art out https://steemit.com/@bridget.art

The greatest challenge we face on Steem blockchain is getting our posts seen, I have always believed the simplest and best value way of doing this is by commenting on the blog posts of others, the more you engage people and interact with them the greater the chance they will visit your own blog and return the favour. Other then spending all my free time commenting on Steem blockchain posts, I also distribute coffee roasting machines and also espresso coffee machines and roast my own Speciality Coffee Range. being one of the premium coffee suppliers Yorkshire including a wide range of filter coffee sachets. Finally I have a dedicated website to my Artisan small batch roasted coffee featuring roast and post packs and super easy coffee subscriptions

Proud sponsor with @derangedcontests of @brosino , free to play and cash out Steam rewards, head to Brosino Website now and start playing.

!steemitworldmap 53.766547 lat -1.801500 long Bradford, West Yorkshire, United Kingdom. d3scr

This awesome animated Banner has been kindly been created by the wonderful @snook

The Coffee Break Discord Voice Chat Show, in @thealliance Mondays 10pm UTC hosted by @c0ff33a and @enginewitty

Don’t forget to vote for Witnesses https://steemit.com/~witnesses

You can vote for the Witness team c0ff33a and @derangedvisions if you like what we are doing for people and communities throughout the Steem blockchain - click vote for c0ff33a Witness

If you are uncertain about Witnesses and who to vote for you can vote for c0ff33a as your Witness Proxy and you will vote for the same Witnesses as I do.

If you have spare Witness votes, support other active Witnesses like @thekitchenfairy , @enginewitty and @jackmiller
@untersatz

2017 blogging, 2018 Witness, 2019 COFFEEA TOKEN