Thanks for your honesty and openness. As a witness moving up the witness table it is pretty obvious that as with the general post voting patterns on the platform, there is a great deal of SP weight being used to vote for witnesses that provide no clear input into platform - at least overtly. As long as there are passionate Steemians putting long hours into creating projects that promote and enhance the Steem eco-system, who get little or no support - while the chosen few receive big support for little in exchange - the wider world will look at the situation with dis-trust and are likely neither to invest nor participate. In short, when 'proof of brain' becomes only 'proof of wallet' - we will see the system decline.

In case you are unaware, I created Steem Ocean as a way to gradually add more tools that make the job of exposing the behaviour of Steem accounts a lot easier, so that we can see whether the actions of those we vote for are a match for the image we have of them and if they are aligned with our vision for what makes Steem great and what can make Steem evolve/grow. I have seen since the beginning that you, @pharesim, are consistently in or near the top 10 users on the whole blockchain in the Steem Ocean Voter Rank Table, which is produced from an algorithm that roughly calculates altruism - so kudos for that!

I haven't really known much about you as I don't see you post much, but I appreciate your show of integrity here, so will gladly give you one of my remaining spare witness votes. Obviously, I think I am a good choice for one of your vacant positions too :)

(The irony is not lost on me that I appear to be offering a vote trade.. lol.. However, I'm not intending this to be a vote trade based on SP, obviously, since I am barely a dolphin - I think all voting must be done based on value potential and reality.)