Learning with Bozz: Things I Learned from the Hardfork
In case you hadn't noticed, something pretty significant happened to Steemit over the past couple of days.
I am pretty sure this is the first Hardfork I have went through since being on the platform. For me, it is an exciting and humbling experience.
It has been impressive to see so many people work together and communities come together for a common goal.
This is exactly how Steemit should be.
Although I am just a user for Steemit like many of you reading this, Hardfork 20 has taught me a couple of things...
#1 It helps to be educated
Don't worry, I am not saying that you need to know the ins and outs of blockchain. I am not even saying you need to have a college degree, or a high school degree for that matter.
What I am saying is, being a good member of Steemit means being aware of what is going on in the enviroment of Steemit. If you woke up yesterday knowing nothing about the Hardfork, got on Steemit and then went to Discord asking what was going on, that is a great big shame on you.
I apologize if you find that harsh (that basically translates to sorry, not sorry). It is true though, there are plenty of very knowledgable users out there that were doing a great job of keeping people informed of what was going on through the process.
If you can follow one of those people that is also a witness, even better! The witnesses run the servers for Steemit, so they have thier fingers on the pulse of what is going on.
#2 Follow the right people
Don't worry here either. I am not telling you who to folow and who not to, but as I mentioned above, if you follow even one person that is a witness or tied to witnesses you can get a wealth of information from them.
I follow @exyle pretty religiously, and the other day just before the hardfork he posted a really great post about what we could possibly expect.
He wrote it in easy to understand terms without getting too in depth with the technicalities. This was a huge benefit to me after things went kind of funky with the hardfork. Instead of being like a group of crack whores fighting over a "rock", I was able to remain calm and hopeful that the situation would be resolved.
#3 Do your research and vote for witnesses
Also as I mentioned above, the witnesses run the servers for Steemit. They put a lot of time and effort into making sure things are as ready as possible when things like a hardfork are implemented.
If you are not voting, or you don't know who you are voting for, how can you know the reputation they hold? Are they reliable? Are they trustworthy?
Make sure you do some research and vote for witnesses that you think will do the best job of keeping things going and keeping people in the know.
#4 Appreciate balance
I know how important Steemit is. It has become a huge part of my life in the past couple of months. It is important to approach it with an attitude of moderation though.
If you can't be without Steemit for 5 days, you might need to take a step back. Nothing material should have that strong of a hold on you that you can't be at peace without it for a short time.
If the past 24 hours was seriously hell for you, you might want to consider taking a step back and re-evaluating some things.
Final thoughts
Again, I apologize if this post was a little blunt. I don't feel like I am the sort to go on rants. It was kind of frustrating being on some Discord servers yesterday though. People claiming Steemit was down (not true), simply because they didn't read up and understand what was going on.
It appears that the Steemit team and the witnesses have found some sort of solution that has initiated a recovery from the issues a full four days sooner than they had anticipated. Kudos to them and the hard work they put in.
I look forward to the new changes coming to Steemit. Once things shake themselves out (and they will) we can all get back to posting, commenting, upvoting, and resteeming with ease!
Steem on Steemians!
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After reading up on my witness post. it was well explain, and plus it gave me free opportunities to catch up on other activities. You wasn't harsh at all, you just stated the facts. Nice post as usual.
Thank you! I appreciate it!
Well, upvoting works again ;-) Good post @bozz, not a rant at all, thank you! :-)
Thank you!
WoooHoooo
I like it. My only real bellyache is I don't feel that they were particularly forthcoming about the problem. The only post I got in my feed for over 12 hours was Steemitblog telling us how well everything went. :)
I don't disagree with you. My only two arguments would be 1. Working in IT myself do you want me to work on fixing the problem or waste time explaining to you what I think the problem is before I start fixing it. Now I am a one man shop here and they no doubt have team members that could have given an update. 2. The information that was given out ahead of time explained issues that might happen so if people had read that they wouldn't have been so confused when it actually happened.
It appears we are back on track now though and that is really all that matters :)
Great to hear this, you are so correct! We have to be educated and patient with technology improvements! Being married to a now retired IT geek I know what the Steemit Development team and Witnesses have been going through the last days, weeks, and months!! It is unbelievable! Kudo's to those who were patient!
Thanks for the great comment!
I'm definitely guilty of some of the things you mentioned. I do, however, try to keep as up to date as possible, but I get lost in the technical terms. I did know enough to just sit back and relax with confidence that the blockchain would eventually be fine.
I hope to spend some time soon learning the more technical ins-and-outs of the blockchain. I think I have a better understanding of it than I would like to admit to myself. But, I'd like to be as involved in the platform as possible. I don't think your post was harsh, it was all needed to be said :) Cheers!
Yes, I think like you, that I should dive into learning more about the inner workings of what is going on. Wanting to and actually doing it are two different things though! Thanks for the comment!
I have noticed that now when I vote, I no longer am giving my usual $0.01. That kind of sucks. It made me feel that my vote counted for something. Otherwise, it sounds like a positive change. Let's hope it helps Steemit grow.
Your vote is low because your VP/mana got reset. Once that regenerates your vote should be worth what it used to be. You can see your account on steemworld or Steemd.
It has been a weird few days for sure!
I cant wait for all the kinks to get ironed out and see how the new and improved Steemit works out!
For sure! I think we are all in the same boat. Some of us are just handling it better than others :)
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