Well, that's something totally different and totally ok, if someone is learning with a goal to achieve full understanding of the platform and provide great service.

Few months ago, I offered "paid witness setup", but these who contacted me willing to pay for such work, got it totally fee (along with support). I am glad some of them are successful, still doing their work. The 'payment' was just a trick to distinguish who is serious and who is not. They got a full training and explanation to any questions they had.

I have nothing against a total newbie who is willing to learn, and I will always support that by all means and sure others will too. But the real problem is that some people are pushing way more into campaigns / trading votes / begging for votes, rather then understanding technology. At the end of the day, they do rank better, and platform suffers.

I don't think anyone needs to have PhD in computer science to be a witness, the only requirements is to take it seriously, act ethically, learn new things, and support others.

Lucky enough most of witnesses we have are great people. But if you want to distinguish others, just check how many of them become inactive whenever SBD goes down on the market, and then get back once it raises.