Don't tell me which witness to vote for. Show me.

Ever since I was a little girl...

I've been hard-headed. The one sure-fire way to make sure that I wouldn't do something – is to tell me to do it. I don't want to be that way. I can just feel my jaw begin to clench when I sense someone is trying to lord their authority over me.

On the other hand, I'm also a people-pleaser. Go figure! I really don't like conflict. I enjoy making people happy. I value peace and win/win/win/win situations. So it's actually really easy to win me over. Just treat me as an equal, value my time as much I value yours and be approachable.

When I first came to Steemit, I was so confused. Let me rephrase that, I am currently on Steemit and I'm still so very confused. But I post, and I get money, and yayyyyy!

I will walk into the lion's den right now and whip open a can of beans. (How's that for mixed metaphors?)

@riverhead.

The witness that shut down Steemit chat for a bit, and raised a little ruckus. I'm thankful for those few days – and here's why...

I do not claim to know all the inner workings of Steemit, and until today, I had a very fuzzy view of what witnesses really did. A vague notion? Sure. But the day that @riverhead shut down Steemit chat – I realized a bit more. Had it been a smooth transition as everyone wanted (without the minor disruption in the chat), I think a lot of people would have just gone on with their lives- happy, little, clueless Steemians. (or let me just speak for myself – I would have continued in that manner.)

But I remember thinking – A WITNESS did this??? That's incredible. Wait – what ELSE do witnesses do?!?! So for my own reasons, I'm happy that @riverhead did this. It set me on a new course.

I had 20+ votes left for witness selection. Powerful votes. You all have VERY powerful votes. If you don't know that, you should.

How will you use these votes?

When someone takes considerable time and energy to help me bring a treasure hunt to Steemit without asking for anything in return (@guiltyparties) - he gets my vote.

When someone plays on that treasure hunt – and infuses that project with such energy and fun and community building interaction, just for the sake of supporting a fellow steemian (@enginewitty) - he gets my vote.

When someone notices me enter the empty room a little late – and leaves the crowd behind to get to know me and genuinely invite me to the “party” (@sircork) - he gets my vote.

When someone is approachable, and seeks good content, and makes meaningful observations on my post because he's on a mission to build the platform into one that rewards what matters (@gmuxx) – he gets my vote.

The point is – YOU can use your votes for the witnesses that matter to you. When you notice a witness – find out more about them. Find out what they do, like I did today! Today, I gave one of my 30 votes to @anarcho-andrei (witness you can find at The Writer's Block discord channel).

Here's why:
(in response to my questions – here are the answers that @anarcho-andrei was happy to give. I've shortened some answers, but left the heart of what he said. He also reviewed this before I posted to make sure I was representing him correctly.)

“Being a witness is a responsibility. It makes you a representative of the platform as a whole. You have skin in the game, more so than just buying into your stake.”

(Explain that. How do you have skin in the game? What does that mean?)

“Ultimately witnesses are the mortar that keeps the Steemit tower up. Without them, the network would collapse... being a witness requires active engagement. You can invest a ton of money into Steemit and then not do anything. Or worse, abuse the heck out of it. To be a good witness though, one who is worth the votes, not only do you have to invest money on a recurring basis to purchase servers and keep them up, you have to maintain your witness node, be able to respond to issues from running out of memory to fixing a broken price feed, and you have to be engaged across the platform.”

“People like gtg, who are wizards with code, have amazing work that speaks for itself. People like me and Shane? We're not devs. (developers) so we have to find other ways to earn the trust and the vote of people on Steemit. The best way for us to do that is by focusing on projects. Communities. Interest groups.

(so would it be safe to say that you're building, maintaining, or enriching Steemit as a witness? one or the other - or any combination of the three?)

“That's what a good witness is supposed to be doing, on top of running a stable witness node. Anyone can buy a server and set up a node. The process isn't all that hard. But that doesn't make someone a particularly good witness.”

We spoke a bit more... but I don't want to tell you who to vote for. If you're like me – that won't work anyway! These are some witnesses that are important to me. You'll have other interests and other values. Ask around – they won't be aggressive with you. If they are, you might want to pass on that vote!

Like @anarcho-andrei said, “...we're supposed to be Steemit. We might not have all the answers, but we should be open to talking with you if you have questions.”

And as for the other 21 votes I have – I hope I do get to meet some more witnesses soon! I'd love to send some votes your way. I'm sure there are lots of us that would!

(Aside from witnesses, there are other people who are community BUILDERS that offer their assistance/ support for the love of Steemit. I could give you a bunch, but I'm only going to name MY personal top three that have made a huge difference to me: @shadowspub (or the Godmother of Steemit, as I like to call her hehehe) @calumam (if there is a more genuine person here who loves this platform... I just haven't met them yet) @insideoutlet (joy that overflows)

Hope you find your tribe, and I hope your witnesses are worth your votes like mine are!

EDIT: @mineopoly just asked a great question in the comments.... and as I was confirming my answer - I found this in a search. and now.... @drakos just got one of my votes! He wrote this while I was away from Steemit, but apparently he used to be a pirate too ;) and Pirates have to stick together. hahhaha (and joking aside - this is an INCREDIBLY helpful and clear post!!! Hope it helps!!!)