RE: Transparency Wins: Witness Insight Project
Votes from accounts like @freedom really make the difference, for the most part. Who witnesses vote for matters less, depending on their VESTs and how many people proxy through them. Maybe it would be useful to show the top active voters by VESTS as well who aren't witnesses? Their votes make a huge difference, more so than who the witnesses vote for.
The challenge with much of this is some of the top witnesses provide a lot of value in hours and hours of very high level discussion regarding game theory, economics, code changes, strategies, etc which is really valuable to STEEM and yet much of that happens behind the scenes. Those who know about it vote accordingly. Those who don't, think they are providing no value other than block production. I'd prefer more openness in these discussions and more involvement from backup witnesses (ideally, I'd like for it to happen here on the blockchain), but I also recognize when there are too many people in a discussion, you end up with noise. It's a tricky problem with no easy solution. Maybe a read-only discussion system where the top 100 witnesses and a select group of 50 or so major investors along with employees of Steemit, inc could all dialogue but it would be read-only for everyone else?
The challenge there is some may not freely speak their mind and try out new crazy ideas because of concerns that those listening will take things out of context and hold it against them. There are also security concerns where the top witnesses need to respond quickly to private information that has been responsibly disclosed before it's made public in order to protect the chain.
This, I am one of those who does not know what is being discussed between the top witnesses. I definitely appreciate what you guys are doing behind the scene. No doubt it. but "Woking behind the scene" can also mislead how the people think the witnesses do. I really hope that the discussion results are published immediately to the public. For this, top 20 witnesses should post summary of the discussion in rota probably.
Top 20 witnesses should think themselves as public figures. Never forget that they are paid around $24000 a month now. As you suggested, the pre-scheduled regular meeting with the read-only audiences should be a really great idea. I will fully support it!
Again, witnesses like you, who try to keep the communication channel open, are really important for DPOS. To be utterly honest, a lot of Steemians worry about the unprofessionalism amongst the witnesses. They just do not dare (have power) to make their voice. Actually BP's of EOS worry me. They are incredibly professional and absolutely transparent, and that fact dwarves the witnesses of Steem as we look very amateur compared to them. But we can initiate the positive change if the top 20 witnesses change their mind.
Sorry if I am being too pessimistic. This is coming out from my enthusiasm for Steem, but please just take this as a constructive criticism.
I think you made a lot of important points here, and I've shared your comment with others as well. Here's what I said:
That's cool.
This is to the point. So true especially for those who are pioneering the blockchain innovation. Many thanks.