Hello Steemians!

We are on week 86 of the open mic! 86!!!! Isn't that just insane? Congratulations to all the winners of week 85!

I recently read @passion-ground's Open mic top 5 picks and while I enjoyed the winning entries very much, I also found a troubling piece of text, apparently @pfunk is no longer on the top 20 of the witness list, I was having a bit of a deja-vu feeling to say the least.

I found it troubling because @pfunk is one of the main supporters of our beloved Open mic contest and him being below number 20 means that he's not getting back the support he gives us and so the reward pool for the contest will have to be lowered.

Here is what he had to say about it:

YO, MAN – AS I WRITE, @PFUNK IS SLIPPING BENEATH THE 20 LEVEL PEOPLE… WHAT’S UP WITH THAT, FOLKS? I HAVE JUST ONE QUESTION: HAS EVERY SINGLE INDIVIDUAL LISTED IN THE CURRENT “SEE WHO PLAYED LIST” VOTED FOR @PFUNK AS WITNESS? CHECK YOUR SHIT PEOPLE, AND IF YOU HAVE YET TO DO SO – DO IT NOW!

And then I read @luzcypher's announcement about this very same topic, letting us know that, indeed, the prize pool for the contest would have to be lowered. You can read that one RIGHT HERE

If you are reading this, I invite you to at least check if you have voted for the witnesses that have been supporting us all, and if you haven't yet, PLEASE vote for @pfunk, @ausbitbank and @teamsteem as a witness, you can do so right HERE

It's not about the money

To my knowledge, the open mic contest is one of the biggest and most well known community building places in all of steemit. We recently grew to more than 1 million accounts on steemit and I feel like I can safely say that Open mic has a lot to do with that.

As musicians we know how hard it is to get any recognition or acknowledgement on any platform, no matter how good you are or how hard you try. On Open mic we are appreciated and acknowledged faster and more often than anywhere else I've ever seen. That recognition pushes us to work hard and try stuff and not giving up. That is invaluable.

Sure, earning some SBD on our posts or winning some steem feels amazing but in some cases it can change lives.

I recently won week 84 of the open mic, and thanks to that I am almost free of debt in my fiat life, and that means the world to me, for some people it has meant that they can feed their family, or save up to leave Venezuela for less troublesome countries.

The fact that the reward pool can be won every week has the effect of bringing in incredible talent and people to steemit. Sure, we all love being rewarded for our hard work, but Open mic is most definitely not just about money, it's about community.

In that vein of thinking I also invite you to read @meno's post on how all of us can help. You can read it HERE

When you read it you'll understand this:

They say this about steemit, and I feel it to be true, but one of the main reasons why I feel it's true is the people I've met on Open mic. Tremendously hard working and kind people like @meno, @krystle and @isaria, , @soundlegion, @verbal-d, @passion-ground, and @luzcypher. Incredible talents like @chaifm, @melavie, @yidneth, @nathankaye and many many others!

.Why vote for witness?

Well, to put it simply, steemit could not run without witnesses, although witneses don't need to interact with us lowly plankton and minnows, some of them actually do, and some of them do so to improve and help better the lives of creative people that, in many cases, hadn't found a voice until they found steemit.

People like @pfunk, @ausbitbank, @aggroed, @curie, @cervantes, and @teamsteem , not only try to innovate and offer services to us all, they also they also help fund and curate us as creators and for that alone they deserve your vote and mine as well.

Ok, that's enough of my ranting for now! I hope you ponder a little more on this subject after reading this.

Til' my next post!