Entry for the Pay-it-Forward Curation Contest - Week 26 ... then Boom! ... HF20 ...
Welcome to the Pay It Forward Curation Contest, sponsored by the PIFC community you will find at @pifc! There you will "meet" a dedicated group of fellow Steemians hard at work (yes, we were ...) on a weekly contest. Our goal is to find and encourage under-valued contributors of great content to our Steem blockchain.
for the impact of HF20 - the true focus of this post ...]
As an added bonus, please note this is not just any weekly contest either. As we can see in the title, the Pay It Forward community has been at this awhile . That's half a year of faithful, steady effort (until HF20 launched ...) adding value to our (your) Steem blockchain! 👍 👍
To be selected, your post needs to have a minimum of 200 words of high quality, original content. And your reputation cannot be above 55. Pretty simple!
If you are reading this, perhaps we are looking for or have already found you. 😊
So, let's get started! My two entries for this week are ...
... we interrupt this
regularly scheduled program
to bring you a
SPECIAL 😉
presentation of ...
🐒 "FORK(ed) in the Road!" 🐒
... but, first a word from our "sponsors" ...
"User(d) Experience"
Yes, dear reader, we the users are the "sponsors!" This is supposed to be a "social network," so without us, there isn't any point in the rest - no blockchain needed developers, no witnesses to create new blocks on it, nothing ...
So ... I write this post from the perspective of a user. Maybe not the typical user, though. While I do not profess to have the skills of a developer "in here," I am not totally oblivious to the technical details either ...
My "experience" began the morning of the 25th, with my attempt to post the following reply to the HF20 - A lot of questions being thrown around. post of one of my supported Witnesses, @jackmiller:
"Very good @jackmiller.
"Us lower ranked witnesses will do the stressing out for you and the top20 will do the mega stressing out for all of us and the Dev teams will be like "freaking out" unless they are out partying!"
OK, so ... "High over our (the rest of us ...) heads" Steem's "best and brightest" are "on it" ... 👍
So, we can relax ...
We'll see how the introduction of the "new and improved "bandwidth replacement "plays out," as that is my one concern ...
Thank you for the prompt update!
P.S. IF I ever get this posted, it was written ~ 9 hrs. ago (very soon after you managed to post it ...), waiting to past the "insufficient" RC error msg. which kept repeatedly popping up. Over and over ..."
I certainly wanted to just relax, assuming Steem's "best and brightest" were handling the "back end" details of keeping "the lights on" ... But again, while not a developer, I was concerned about what I had read. In my "real life," I will from time to time refer to "predicting my / your future," followed quickly by "I hope to be proven wrong" ... Yes, well ...
@jackmiller will not find this comment on his post, because it disappeared before I could ever get it posted ... Fortunately, I had it saved it in a separate file, fearing something would happen ...
So ... "Launching" right into it myself, from my experience, the crux of the matter is a failure on the part of SteemIt developers (and Witnesses?) to have adequately tested their new code prior to "launch." Full stop. Period!
What is the key word in "social network?" I would strongly suggest it is network, without which there is nothing "social" possible! Further, we live in an era when we have networks all around us. Tended to by very well paid professionals whose number one responsibility is to ensure it does not go down ...
Failure to do this, in the "real world" generally does not end well for those responsible for it ...
Why? Competition ... To @ned and your SteemIt developer team, you may want to think about that, for the next time ...
Testing
For the past 10 years, I and those I manage have been personally responsible for the billing of tens of thousands of electric service consumers each and every month. During this time, I have personally been responsible for implementing new billing tariffs, several of them, in our "smart grid era," unlike any used prior.
My number one concern was to ensure these transitions were seamless events for our members. I have never failed to meet that objective. So ... How did I pull them off? Testing!! Over and over, for every possible scenario one could envision ...
Think about it! Surely you wouldn't mind, if your electric service was disrupted for a few days, while those entrusted to "take care of you" fumbled and bumbled their way through some new technology implementation ... Right?
Here is what we have heard from the SteemIt developers (emphasis added mine), leading up to and during the HF20 "launch":
- Extracted from their Released: Hardfork 20 Testnet! post:
"… we’ll be releasing a Testnet which would “give developers the opportunity to test the upcoming changes…"
"Performing a Pitchfork is like establishing a one way street from Mainnet to Testnet. The data that hundreds of thousands of people are putting on Mainnet …"
While a little concerned this was announced a relatively short time, before HF20 was launched, at least the impression was given that it was a robust testing environment, for looking at various scenarios, prior to “going live” … With data from "hundreds of thousands" of people ...
- Extracted from their Hardfork Announcement for Witnesses, Exchanges and Users post:
"Hardfork 20 is scheduled to go live on: Tuesday, September 25, 2018 15:00:00 UTC. In order to ensure that Steem deposits and withdrawals are maintained without any outage or interruption in service ..."
OK, what about the network overall? Continuing to operate without any outage or interruption in service? No mention of that …
- Extracted from their Steem Status: 100% Operational post:
"… we apologize for the interruptions in service you experienced yesterday which are now resolved."
No, not really! Just a “preview of coming attractions” …
- Extracted from their Hardfork 20: What to Expect Tomorrow post:
"The changes in user experience should only last around 7 days. Unfortunately, it’s impossible to know exactly how things will unfold as the system relies on unpredictable human feedback."
"… but the cost we must bear is some uncertainty with respect to how these systems will interact with users in the short term …"
Impossible? To know … ”We” must bear … That would be us dear reader … I suppose there was a warning about some uncertainty…
- Extracted from their HF20 Update: Hardfork Complete post:
"… the equilibration process is going largely as expected."
Hmmm. That is not the impression given by reading what follows this statement … Including announcing the first patch …
- Extracted from their Update on Unexpected Voting Power Behavior post:
"Many users are experiencing an issue where voting power appears to drop dramatically upon first using the blockchain after HF20."
Appears … Unexpected … Doesn’t exactly inspire confidence in how extensively this was tested prior to “going live” does it? It ”appears” we are the testers … Not going too well, so far …
- Extracted from their HF20 Update: Restoring Continuity post:
"… Steem v0.20.4 has now been released …"
”Steem users must be able to continue using the blockchain …”
Wow! The 4th patch in as many days, attempting to restore ”continuity” … Is that a news flash!? Seems like that should have been much more clearly the focus from the beginning …
But what else ...
"... of moving us toward sustainable pricing of blockchain operations ... "
From SteemIt developers ... So, are we not then hearing the old pricing was "unsustainable?" ...
vs.
"If the 'common folks' cannot afford, or are not allowed to comment and vote at least 10, preferably 20-30 times a day, the platform will die a slow death."
Reply to the above HF20 post, of "one of the rest of us," fellow Steemian @ksteem! Hmmm. Is it just me? Or does there seem to be a bit of a conflict between these two positions?
I'll suggest here, again, is the new crux of the matter - post HF20, as it is done now .... In subtle ways, is the "message from the mountain top" that the Steem blockchain could not survive under its old pricing scheme? And yet, under the new *pricing scheme," you have very unhappy customers? What do customers do, when they are unhappy? ...
To me, this conflict seriously calls into question the long-term viability of the Steem blockchain ... From here, post HF20, we are all free to choose our course. I do not choose to be delusional about this, but will be carefully watching what happens next ...
I could go on, but I'll stop now ... To the casual observer, it might appear "the dust has settled," from the HF20 launch. Maybe ... Almost ... But, I am not a "casual observer," but an investor. Mistakes like this can and sometimes does, result in the loss of confidence of a sufficient number of investors to "bring the house down" ...
Costs
From the beginning of time, the immutable "law of sowing and reaping" has always imposed consequences on our chocies / decisions. As impressive as the reality and potential of this new technology is, no exceptions granted to a blockchain!!
Examples of Costs:
- My costs: Lost all of the work I had put in to creating this original post. Specifically, the two selections I made have been deleted. Will be past the 7-day payout limit, before this is all resolved ... And I have not posted or commented once since HF20 ...
- Costs of @darkhorse: Cancelled this symbolic weekly contest - having continuously run for half a year!! As well, as compensating @zorank, the one contest entrant who managed to get his post in "under the wire," before HF20 ...
- Replicate the two above all over the "Steemisphere" and you can comfortably say the cost in time wasted was considerable
- What concerns me most is the impact on some of Steem's international communities. If Steem disappeared entirely tomorrow, my life would be little changed. What about others of our fellow Steemians in other countries? From what I have read, I don't think they would say the same ...
- How about "opportunity costs?" Opportunities lost due to the inability to "execute" at all?
You get the idea, dear reader ...
So ...
Ladies and Gentlemen, in the spirit of PT Barnum's famous "Greatest Show on Earth" (... tap ... tap ... hey, yo! @roleerob!! ... don't you know they went out of business!! 😉 ) ...
the show must go on!
... and we can't let a bunch of #$@^%$%#&^%$# "at the wheel" of this "social network" bring everything to a screeching halt!
So ... Without further ado, continuing on as though nothing happened (right ...), I present you my PIFC weekly contest (even though it was cancelled due to HF20 ...) selections from HF20 ...
Selection #1: "the Good" (humor) ...
"Saving the best for last," I should have the brilliant comedy post from @markangeltrueman at the end of this post ...
... BUT, then my outline from the classic old Clint Eastwood movie wouldn't work, as this post definitely would not be under "ugly" ...
If you don't do anything else, you owe it to yourself to puhleeeeze click on this post link and watch what he put together! In the context of all the "heavy" stuff surrounding the launch of HF20, the best humor since I started my Steem "journey" on May 14th!
Yes, @markangeltrueman, I plan on upvoting your post, as soon as my #$@^%$%#&^%$# "voting power" is ... no wait ... my "resource credits" ... no ... no ... it's "mana" ... oh, I give up ...
is 100% Restored! (where it was, before I got "forked" ...)
Honorable Mention: In his post, just before HF20 "went live," @steemchiller said:
"May the fork be with us!"
Great humor @steemchiller! As far as I can tell, as one might expect from his past tireless dedication, he has been hard at work ensuring his indispensable app, SteemWorld, is updated to handle all of the details associated with HF20.
I, for one, am really looking forward to his next weekly update. And his perspective, as a Steem developer, on all that has taken place with the HF20 launch ...
Selection #2: "the Bad" ...
Stating the obvious, there is a lot of content "in here" on almost any topic. With all I read through over the last 5 days on HF20, for this selection, I have chosen the Fixing Steemit - Randomed Curation Rewards - Support Quality Content post of a fellow Steemian previously unknown to me, @evolved08gsr.
In it, this person thoughtfully presents some real limitations to the current "structure" of our Steem blockchain. From my perspective, this person is adding value in a big way, as I am a strong advocate for quality, as well. In this post, there are some well-worded points made about the current "structure" of our Steem blockchain and whether HF20 is only putting a bandaid on some issues needing more a fundamental rethink ...
But, what followed this post? On the topic of HF20, now post HF20, we have @evolved08gsr's You've Been Forked - Steemit Inc are Master Betas post, in which we find:
"This level of ineptitude reminds me of Project Managers who mark tasks as completed when there were 50 business requirements included in the task, but only 5 were successfully rolled out.."
Amen to that! This comment captures very well what my experience is in "the real world," when I go to work every day! Failure there is simply not an option!
Back to the writing of @evolved08gsr, we have this person's most recent post - A Light At the End of the Tunnel?.. Posted under the #weku channel ...
Hmmm. Let's see ... What was I saying above @ned, about "if we don't take care of our customers ..."
[Note: For what it is worth @evolved08gsr, now following you. I like the way you think, what you have written in your profile, and what I have seen so far, about how you communicate "in here" ...]
Selection #3: and "the Ugly" ...
You need only glance through the HF20 Update! More reasons to begin powering down! post of @bigdeej to get the general idea - this Steemian is a little less than happy!
[Waiting for my "Captain Obvious" understatement-of-the-year award ... 🏆]
I can't say how others are "processing" posts like this, but perhaps along the lines of thinking (a mistake!) a bunch of unhappy plankton isn't of much concern? Well, this Steemian has +13K SP in their wallet! And powering down, as this is written ... And if they stick with what they are saying here, leaving the Steem blockchain for good ...
A major withdrawal, from their "goodwill bank account" (I have written before about this ...) of @ned and his team of SteemIt developers, is the inevitable consequence of how HF20 has "played out" thus far. We'll find out if "lessons learned" and, if not, how many more efforts like this they can survive ...
To be clear, nonetheless, even though @steem-ua consistently reminds me "... only a few people are following you ...", I am not myself leaving the Steem blockchain. Not yet anyway. I intend to "hang in," at least for now, as I have always been long-term oriented.
With this post written and now "off my chest," I will move on ...
I am certainly hoping, though, that a very thorough post mortem is well underway at SteemIt's HQ, so we never see another hardfork like this one. Surely we (you) can do better ...
That's a wrap!
We trust you've enjoyed this Special Presentation.
We'd like to thank our Special guest,
⭐ HF20 Goes Live! ⭐
Next week, we'll return to our
(hopefully, if @thedarkhorse is also "hanging in" ...)
regularly scheduled weekly program, the
Pay-it-Forward Curation Contest!
Closing with the words of the great Clint Eastwood, "... the question is ... Are you feeling lucky punk?"
I will now click POST and see if I have enough ^$#%$&^%*%#$ "resource credits" to post yet ...
All the best to you for a better tomorrow, as we all (well ... at least some of us ...) work (hopefully, a lot smarter next time ...) together to build our Steem Community!
"Somewhat" Respectfully 😉,
Steemian @roleerob
Posted using Busy.org and “immutably enshrined in the blockchain” on Sunday, 30 September 2018!
P.S. It is not a coincidence my post has as many images as you find in it. With this being my first post, "after the dust has settled" from HF20, I want to see what impact this post has on my "resource credits" ... And whether or not it is "sustainable" ...
Source: Glowtext.com
Yes! The following "footer" normally found at the end of my weekly contest entry intentionally left in, to emphasize all of the hard work put in by "the rest of us" to faithfully and consistently add value to our Steem blockchain ...
Interested to know how I found this community and why I support it? The following post tells you the story:
If you have found this post to be of interest, the PIFC team would love to have you join us. Here are some posts to help you in making your decision:
- @PIFC's 1st Post: The beginning of a Steem movement flowing from the tireless efforts of @thedarkhorse and all of those who consistently and faithfully work alongside him to build up our Steem blockchain.
- @PIFC's Latest Update Post: The "latest word" on how well this movement is doing, through the eyes of @thedarkhorse, along with details about the judges and curators helping make it happen!
- @PIFC's Latest Financial Post: For transparency and accountability, the latest from @thedarkhorse on the @pifc account's financial status.
- @viking-ventures' post on Curation: Help from one of the dedicated PIFC team members on writing great Steem content.
I am still hanging in there and honestly feel that in the end steemit inc and the top 20 witnesses will make things right. They have no choice. Without the masses the rest are just asses with a bunch of worthless coins that nobody wants talking about how much money they used to be worth on paper.
Good to get your input @thedarkhorse! And while I suspected so, glad to receive confirmation you are "hanging in." As stated in this post, I am as well. For now ...
Exactly. A key point in my post. I sure hope "high over our heads," these people are hard at work figuring out how they are going to avoid this outcome for the inevitable next time. Before there is no point of a next time ...
I agree that masses are needed for a social media site to function and in this case for the coin to have any value. You can never put something into place that makes the this place unusable for the masses or you just have a few select coin owners left with a mass of useless coins.
Quick follow-up @thedarkhorse:
Captured right after clicking POST on the reply above to you. So ... ~50 "giga manas" to POST two replies - to you and to @viking-ventures here. This morning, ~ 9 "giga manas" to POST all I wrote ... Sure, sounds like we're "back in business" ...
Yeah it does seem like the amount needed for transacting has come into line with a level that allows for more normal usage.
Congratulations! Your post has been selected as a daily Steemit truffle! It is listed on rank 10 of all contributions awarded today. You can find the TOP DAILY TRUFFLE PICKS HERE.
I upvoted your contribution because to my mind your post is at least 9 SBD worth and should receive 216 votes. It's now up to the lovely Steemit community to make this come true.
I am
TrufflePig, an Artificial Intelligence Bot that helps minnows and content curators using Machine Learning. If you are curious how I select content, you can find an explanation here!Have a nice day and sincerely yours,
TrufflePighowdy there sir roleerob! what a great post and so full of information to think about. I agree and am a little suspicious and wary but will see what the changes bring as the new program re-configures.
A witness last night said that it would take a week to a month to totally re-configure so we'll see how it goes.
thanks for the great post!
Good evening @janton. Great to have a visit from the Champ! 👍
Right there with you! After 5 days "in a holding pattern," I'm back to posting and "engaged," so will be watching closely over the coming days and weeks.
Glad you found the post to be of some value @janton. Thanks again for stopping by! 😊
howdy again sir roleerob! yes sir I did and that video with Ned as the Furer or however you spell that, as Hitler, was so funny! so thanks for that recommendation.
And thanks for doing what you do to help others with the pifc!
I salute you sir!
oh, there's something else too..you mentioned that you are in charge of billing and such for an electric company? What about the Smart meters that everyone on steemit are so upset about? are they really part of a conspiracy to spy on people or control people?
Up before 🌄 @janton and, yes, that video was the humor highlight of my Steem "journey," so far. Although, there have certainly been some other funny items I have seen. I enjoy good humor. Seems to be in short supply these days, though, as what passes for humor too often now is definitely not funny to me.
Oh no! You're on to us! Our plan for total world domination has been exposed!! 😧 How did you find out? Have you been spying on us? 😉
Seriously, I don't know where people come up with this stuff. Worse, why others believe it?
These meters are pretty simple digital devices. They have very limited memory capacity, unless you buy more expensive models, which are used at industrial sites. It is all about capturing data measuring the flow of energy through each "service point." They don't have enough memory to even store pictures, let alone video clips or whatever else these people are saying. And, they are installed outside people's homes ...
The units of measure vary, depending on what is needed and the expense of the model. The most common, for billing purposes, is the total amount of energy consumed during each billing period, in kWH (kilowatt-hours), and the greatest amount of energy consumed at any one point in time - called demand, in units of kW (kilowatts). Both are vital bits of info, not only for billing, but very important by the producers of electricity. They must get the sizing of all the big plants producing electricity right to ensure we never "go dark," to the best of their ability ...
I am going to start my own rumor. If people want to be concerned about someone spying on them, then go after Google and their Nest "smart" thermostats they try to get you to purchase and install inside your home. So what data are they gathering and sending "to the cloud," for Google's internal purposes? While you're "out on the curation trail," Champ, pass that one along ... 😉 👍
sir roleerob! Oh I'm so glad that I found out you were in the electric supply business, if that's a correct way to say it, so this could be explained to me. lol.
Ok that makes me feel better and one more thing I won't have to be concerned about. I have no idea if they are installing those in Texas or not, I suppose it's all over because it will help provide the right amount of juice and make the distribution much more efficient.
So we need them everywhere!
And basically you could say that "outside is good, inside is bad" when talking about the meters right? Especially if google has anything to do with it.
Thanks so much for your help sir roleerob!
Hi @janton. There are two basic benefits of these new "smart grid" meters, to the average consumer:
Keeps costs low, as a "truck roll" is no longer required to read your meter. AND it saves costs due to accuracy of the readings. In the "old days," human error in getting all of these readings manually entered was significant ...
Even then, you had exactly ONE reading for your billing period. Now, the meter is automatically read (varies) on avg. every 30 minutes. That is now ~ 1,440 readings a month, so you can go online and better manage your consumption to keep your bill low ...
Glad to help! It's my "day job" ...😏
Posted using Partiko Android
sir roleerob! how interesting... but I like the truck roll, it kept someone in a job! lol. No I'm just teasing, I just wanted to be able to use that phrase because I think it's a neat one.
I think I'll go on a truck roll tomorrow of my own making! ha!
anyway thanks for filling that in with all the benefits, that is really nice that customers can go online and see all the stats about their usage and such. No more human errors or misreadings, less angry customers calling your company too!
sounds like a win win to me. thank you sir!
Right with you @janton. Hard to beat a good "truck roll!" 👍
It's a great day, for this Steemian, when my old Ford Ranger takes me for a "roll" up into the high country. Particularly, when it's over a 4-wd road that gets me away out more or less on my own ... 😉
Hope you have (are having) a good "truck roll" yourself today!
Posted using Partiko Android
hahaha! I like this. Of course Week 26 will be re-run this coming week, so no one misses out. The one who managed to get his entry in in time got rewarded. (I had mine all planned out...)
If you haven't already, take a look at my "Keep calm" post - I did a nice little meme for the end. You're free to use it if you want.
Thanks for your input @viking-ventures! I appreciate it.
I can assure you, or anyone else for that matter, I am quite calm. Unhappy with the unprofessional way this "launch" was handled, but certainly calm ... And still here. For now.
Time will tell what the ultimate "fall out" is going to be. A lot of promise in the buildup to HF20. Now we are living with the delivery ...
Here is the "mana" impact of my posting this morning, for the 1st time "post HF20:"
And here it is now, just before clicking POST on my reply to you, over 5 hours later:
As we can see, I actually now have less "mana" ... Doesn't appear to me HF20 is "stable" yet ...
We'll see!
P.S. In reading your posts, I see you also referencing Weku ... I had never heard of it, prior to HF20 ... And WhaleShares?
Whaleshares only just opened up in August/September, so it's still a very new platform. Officially no longer Beta, and they hyped it big in advance as well - mostly on Discord. So far, I'm very happy with it. Lots of Steemians there. Due to the big push here, I had the happy experience to start as a minnow, which really is cool. There's a lot to like there and the Masdacs site does a great job in crossposting to both Whaleshares and Steemit.
WeKu is an Asian-oriented site, which only opened up to the English speaking world in the past few months. It's a bit more active than Whaleshares, but technically still Beta (like Steemit) - it's almost a copycat of Steemit with minor differences. Very friendly community and no problem with reposting your Steemit posts there - though they prefer it if you mention that it's a repost. (This is also why I'm clear about my crossposting as well.)
I wasn't too worried about you not being calm - it was just the main image on that post that I was referring to. You should see your RC restoring fairly quickly, but yes, we all saw the worst drop on the first thing we did on Steemit after things were moving again.
OK, thank you for the additional info @viking-ventures. I'll have to check into it, when time permits.
Take care!
Hi @roleerob!
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Hey @trufflepig, good to see you again. Very glad to know, in your travels across the "Steemisphere," this post caught your ever-watchful "eye!" 😉
And I even made it on to your "Leader Board," in the top 10! That's a first!!
Thanks for stopping by!
Posted using Partiko Android