RE: The Most Voted Witnesses In The Last 3 & 6 Months! This Is What Witness Vote Expiry/Decay Would Look Like (Kinda)
I think that we can all understand the concerns that many people may have when it comes to a decaying (fixed term vote.
However there are some things that are rather important which need to be addressed, they are:
The fact that many of the votes cast are people who have not been active on Steem for periods of well over six months (some even over 12 months).
Which is very disturbing and if we take into consideration the fact that with over a million accounts on Steem with lets say some one hundred thousand being active, that suggests that once we have lets say one million users, these votes could actually play a crucial role in more way than one.
Firstly there is the fact that one hundred thousand to a million non active user votes could immensely affect the overall votes, but there is another thing that I find disturbing and I shall try to express it here in a few sentences.
When a person enters the voting room (page) and sees for example many thousands of user account votes on a certain witness is gives the impression that this witness is supported by "x" amount of voters.
While in actual fact there is no way of knowing how many of those users are actually still here.
Hence the presentation factor that misleads voters and gives out not only misleading information upon which many may cast their votes by, but also the fact that once people find out the truth about these numbers, they shall definitely not feel comfortable about it.
Hence adding to the overall apathy towards voting.
If we are thinking long term, then this does need to be addressed and taken care of.
Again, I say this with only the best of intentions for everyone, for all our fellow Steemians and our Steem blockchain.
I am sure that when we take this into account, we can all agree upon the issue I mentioned as being more than important for the overall good and future of Steem.
I think one could do something like: If your witness votes have not changed for 6 months then delete all of them. That way normal users who change their votes and maintain them keep them and dead accounts are removed over time. Without it affecting user experience as much as a decay.
Excellent thought and definitely one that could and should be looked at.
I am sure that we have many options out there and definitely we shall find a way to cover the topics/issues at hand.
I dare suggest something along the lines of what you suggested here, and go one step further.
If a user account has had zero transactions on the blockchain that all their stats get reset to zero, ie:
witness votes,
Following,
bandwidth (oops, RC).....
I am sure that we could look at this as an option that could benefit the blockchain and our overall governance in many positive ways.
& love the fact that you threw that suggestion out, it adds an entire new array of options when considering what to do to make things right in all areas along our path to making Steem the best it can be!
@reggaemuffin, just thinking out aloud here:
The trigger could be the yearly anniversary of a user.
So once every 365 days this is triggered for each user.
If a user has their witness vote proxied, the command would be to skip that user. (not do anything)
If it isn't proxied, then the user account is searched and if zero transactions have taken place on the blockchain the following could get set to "0" (nulled)
witness votes
following
RC
and can only be reactivated by adding SP.
Win/Win/Win for everyone and ALL stats on the blockchain are up to date.
= & no disruptions to any active user!
What do you think?
Ok yes, that idea is a good one @reggaemuffin.. Achieving the aim of decay with less potential for annoyance. There can just be a notification that points to a page about why it's important to monitor witnesses and educates about witnesses.. Plus maybe a button to click to confirm you want to keep your witnesses the same and to renew them all for convenience.