RE: How to Start Getting Steem Witness Votes?
Hey @jerrybanfield. We haven't been introduced yet, but I've been impressed with the following (and controversy) you've brought with you already. Well done. :)
I followed a somewhat similar approach looking into my top voters and comparing it with their witness votes to see who might be interested in voting for me. I even wrote a PHP script to analyze the blockchain to help me out. I had a successful witness campaign getting all the way up to my current 33rd position in around a month or so. I'm quite proud of that and very thankful to all my supporters.
I didn't give out tips though, because to many that's seen as buying votes. Voting buying has been a very real problem since the beginning of Steemit. I've been here for more than a year, and I've seen my share of it. Posts like "upvote this and I'll share the rewards with you" quickly spread and it became obvious quite quickly how the quality of content here would take a nose-dive if it continued. I think some are responding out of that same concern when they see suggestions of sending financial tips to people rewarding behavior you prefer.
I appreciate your efforts to bring in more witnesses, but I hope they put in the work to become informed of the job requirements. My last witness update highlights some of the technical challenges they should be ready and willing to face. It's also important for them to be well informed on not only the inner workings of Steemit (no easy task for anyone), but also on the culture and history which has been built over the last year or so. Many of the existing witnesses have worked very hard for a very long time while others were calling Steemit at scam and abandoning the platform. You yourself left when you thought it wasn't worth your time. I'm glad to see you've come to your senses (heheh), but i'm also concerned you may not be here for the long haul if something else catches your attention. Those who are looking to you for leadership may similarly head elsewhere if they aren't well informed and patient.
Thanks again for your efforts. I hope they are aimed at improving the community and not just personal profit. That, I think, is what we're all hoping for. A way to benefit ourselves as we benefit others.
I don't often self vote a comment (see my blog post on that for more), but will upvote this comment for visibility.
@lukestokes honored you commented here and appreciate your feedback because you have written concretely the ideas I am feeling that others in a similar position have. My first impression of you was wondering what I need to do to not miss any blocks the way you have so far!
Thank you for mentioning your concerns about whether I will be here for the long haul because I have the concern on the opposite side where I am afraid no matter how long I am here I will never have been here as long as others meaning no chance to ever move up as a witness or fit in with those in at the beginning. I also am afraid of writing comments no one sees or cares about when I already am buried in things I could do.
The challenge is for witnesses that while all the guides provide outstanding instructions on exactly how to get the witness online and there is great help for that, the guidelines on getting votes are very vague. "Do a good job" and "be trustworthy" and "stick around" provide little direction as to the exact approach to take to earn votes. For example, do we reply to a comment to ask for a vote? Do we just make a comment on a post and ask for a vote? How do we contact people already upvoting us and ask for a vote when they do not post or comment often? Isn't it rude to barge in on the one comment they make and ask for a witness vote? Do we have to use steemit.chat? After hours of research I found not one post clearly explaining the entire process and without clearcut directions did my best with what was available.
Controversy comes from not accepting our own limitations and abilities. Some of us are blessed with the time to be available, respond to every comment, be helpful in the chat, and trade time for witness votes. Others of us like me are buried in responsibilities and flailing around to just try and stay above water. A quick and effective method for asking for a vote is all that is practical. Finding no other method available, would it have been right to just sit and wait without making an effort? One witness even completely outsourced setting up the witness and somehow still gets votes even though they do not actually do anything with it.
None of us know how long we will be here meaning while the service of those arriving before me has empowered me to be here, it is unknown out of any of us who will continue serving going forward because life is full of unexpected challenges. Each of us will be here as long as we are supposed to be and our contribution is not limited to how long we serve. While I hope to be here indefinitely, I am serving where I am most needed every day as are all the rest of us.
Does not each of us have the challenge with whether we are doing this for personal profit or the greater good of the community? Can anyone truly separate their motives out enough to say honestly that it is all one or the other? I know for me both exist.
I feel hurt and defensive after doing my best to bring the most value I can to Steemit and then it is not enough because some judge that I did not do it exactly the right way. I am not responding to enough comments, spending enough time in the witness channel, not asking for votes in the right way, not promoting Steemit correctly in the ads, not technical enough to be a witness, shouldn't be selling a video course about becoming a witness, not making enough posts, making too many posts, or making posts about the wrong topic. Naturally the voice in my head is careful to reinforce all these points.
If we want to make a great community, love and tolerance must be our code. When we condemn others for taking a different approach than we do, we are condemning ourselves as well. If it is fair to suggest sending a tip to ask for votes is wrong, it is also fair to suggest hanging out in the chat all day and private messaging for votes is wrong because not everyone is time for that. It is fair to say that witnesses in the top voting each other up is wrong and witnesses with apps that ask for witness votes are wrong because not everyone can do that.
Your comment I hope will be helpful for me in accepting that I am doing enough for the community, have enough witness votes, and can find the most effective ways of collaborating here. After reading this I feel that I maybe would be better off trying to cut into comments and ask for votes there or send direct messages on the steemit.chat instead of giving a tip.
The problem is I wrote this post instead of hanging out with my family for the last forty minutes and I feel like shit about that now. Maybe I am doing too much for Steemit and need to slow down.
keep going sir we are with you