Does the Fact That The Witness Voting Page Only Shows 50 Witnesses Effect The Voting Outcome? An Analysis Of The Spread of Witness Votes.
Since several witnesses (and a long list of non witnesses) expressed concern about the realisation that the existing Steemit page for witness voting only shows the top 50 witnesses (including dead accounts) - I have taken some time to look more closely at the issue.
I initially posted about the general issue with the unfairness of the witness voting situation and then went into quite some depth regarding the public relations aspects involved - finally, I put time into making a mockup for a new witness voting page (largely borrowed from @drakos' own page) that greatly improves visibility of witness activity, giving a much more functional way for users to vote for witnesses.
Response to the work so far
The response from Steem users has so far been positive and grateful that I and others such as @sircork and @drakos have expressed a willingness and desire to look into these issues and to attempt to provide solutions that improve the eco-system for all. @followbtcnews offered some corrections to some of the numbers I presented in the 2nd post - so thanks for that. I did hear from another well voted witness (who appears to want to remain anonymous) that he noticed a huge boost in his votes once he got into the top 50 and he thinks the fact that the witness voting page is capped at the top 50 is a significant hindrance to those below 50.
So far we haven't had any kind of comment from Steemit Inc. or any other top witnesses (except, sadly @timcliff unvoted me as a witness without comment).
Analysing the Voting Patterns
Today I set about examining the available voting data for the top 200 witnesses, to see if the numbers confirm or reject the idea that the top 50 witnesses have an unfair advantage over everyone else.
I looked at the distribution of vote weight between the witnesses, splitting the top 200 into bands of 10. The table below shows the difference in the amount of Steem Power used to vote for the top and bottom witness in each band of 10. So the difference between the witness in position 1 and position 10 is calculated, plus the difference between position 11 and 20 and so on. The second line on the graph shows us the relative difference between each band of 10, so that each band is compared to the next one in the series. Large spikes in the graph therefore denote a large difference between the two bands of 10 that relate to that spike.
As we can see, the Steem Power allotted to witnesses below the 100 rank position is fairly flat and it begins to pick up at around 100. There is a fairly steady and slow increase up to the 40-50 mark at which point it sharply shoots up, indicating a huge relative difference around the 40/50 mark between the accounts above and below the 40th/50th position. The witnesses in the middle of the top 50 are more closely matched and so the line drops again, only to then sharply rise again for the top 10 witnesses - indicating a significantly higher amount of Steem Power being used to vote for the top 10 as compared to the 20s and 30s.
It appears clear from this graph that the amount of Steem power used to vote for witnesses above the 50th position is significantly higher than that used below the 50th position, with the 50th being quite profoundly important. As far as I am aware there is no likely cause for this other than that the witness voting page only shows 50 witness accounts.
What do you think?
Wishing you well,
Ura Soul
Vote @ura-soul for Steem Witness!
View My Witness Application Here
My research and report are still in progress, it's a lot to cross correlate, to be honest, and what I am finding is pretty shocking, and at the same time, no surprise to those of us paying close attention, simply validation.
It's coming. It will be pretty informative and comprehensive. Conclusions will be up to observers, but there will be some very interesting things to observe.
Stay tuned.
check your discord dm :)
Are you Bidbot free in ownership and delegation to @ura-soul?
I do not own or operate any bidbots and do not delegate to anyone currently. My only planned delegation is as a contest prize for Steem Ocean. ;)
Good enough for me :)
Aiming to have 30 witnesses with no ties to them. Looks like i'll be venturing out of the top 50.
Doing a report right now likely to earn me few friends, and yeah, i'm using the top 50 witnesses page.
One, because it's easier to find then the full list (i do have it somewhere), and Two, because the work would take too long.
It's clear that the main list members have a huge advantage over the rest - you guys need to really work from the ground up to get the votes.
Added you in, cheers!
Excellent, thanks!
If you find people you respect, you can check who they vote for here: https://steemian.info/whovotes
It might give you some help.
You are being a hero doing this mate.
If you get heat for this then we know the witness game is fucked up.
They will probably ignore this tho, but at some point, they have to say something because the info that there is something wrong in the witness game is spreading far and wide.
Thanks - there is really nothing to fear from fair competition - so, yes, any negative responses might be said to be telling. Unfortunately, I already appear to have lost a top witness vote and surprisingly some financially valuable auto votes from another top witness.
If all of that happened when you started posting then you have caught some "elites" for sure.
Otherwise I would call it "a strange coincidence" and leave it at that.
I've voted you for witness and I'm going to make a post and encourage my friends to do so too to get more people to vote you for witness. My aim is to see you in the top 10 because you're a more active witness and a problem solving one too.
Keep doing the good work I got your back. You'll surely make it to the top
Thankyou for your strong support here. I'm sure there are other witnesses busily solving problems too - but for some reason they aren't so forthcoming with explanations at times!
That's true anyway. I think we'll be needing them now to solve this great problem because it's seems very much like favouritism to allow only 50 witnesses to access more votes quite easily
That's because you're so good at it. It's hard to make a good follow up to your posts. They're always so thorough.
I think that you are right, obviously.
@ura-soul
Thanks for the upvote and sorry for a blunt reply above. It was already late last night :)
As you well show it - the witness system is skewed. Mightily!
It is yet another symptom of how the whole platform is skewed towards those who have more. Take it as a reflection of the dominating system. It is a capitalism on the blockchain. Capital attracts capital. SAteem Power attracts Steem power. Witness votes attract witness votes.
How to level the playground, how to make it equal for everybody?
The easiest way - for the witnesses page at least - would be to make it a random display with an option to sort it by latest entries, name, even accumulated votes and SP ... Then add filters for activities like reports, steemd version, ... many possibilities.
No problem - I made a suggestion for a new layout for the votign page here in case you missed it.
I did miss your proposal. Thanks for the link. Going over it right now :)
Vote you for witness done. 😊
Thanks! unfortunately, i am not seeing the vote logged in the blockchain, it would be great if you would double check to make sure your vote was logged.
Here it is
Hmm, thanks - the vote has actually not been logged in the blockchain. this is the second time this has occurred today. Can you unvote me and revote me - maybe that will fix it.. :/
Done, you better check again and let me know.
Great post! 👍
You got an upvote, you need to follow this account for more upvotes in the future 👊🏼
Indeed it could be a huge factor and I'm also doing my analysis and getting feedback on some communities how they choose who to vote and what is common is they just choose who is in the list even not knowing what they do.
with the top 10 a huge difference there is knowing the people and lobbying for their vote. getting a vote from one that has a huge vestment is sadly more effective than a thousand red fishes.