This is definitely not the "usual" Witness Update that we are used to seeing.

As for my server, yes it's all running fine. Check steemian.info for details and stats. Likewise the next all inclusive update from @witnesswatch shall cover the financial side of things.

What this update shall be is a more one on one type of update. This is one of those posts where I am picking away at my own mind, at a bunch of things that are bouncing around in my head.

Now, before you go any further, I have to make sure that I clearly state that the topics I have addressed are not an all inclusive "60 minutes report", what I have written here are the basics and in no way are to be taken as being a full run down. I am trying damn hard to share as much of the relevant and important thoughts I have in a post that won't put everyone to sleep. Likewise what I would like to achieve is to get readers thinking about these topics too, without me leading you through them. So that you may make up your own minds and share your thoughts and opinions too.

What provoked this?

ANSWER: A nice long discussion with a fellow Witness who is in the Top20.

As the discussion started off on the wrong leg/foot, entirely due to my own fault and seeing as this person was not one of those who just shrug someone off when in disagreement with the other person, we got into a nice discussion about a number of things revolving around "us Witnesses".

Some of the things that I am chewing on now, and it will take me a few days to put them all in their place are:

Witnesses as voters.

First and foremost voting is something that as per my opinion should always remain a personal thing. Now what drives a person to vote for someone depends on the person doing the voting. When looking at it from an angle of Witnesses voting for each other, then we are expanding the specter of reasons as to 'Why a certain Witness votes for someone else or not'. It could be as simple as not having enough voting slots available to vote for everyone a person wants to. But that is not the focus of my thoughts.

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Now, I'll start from the bottom up. When a person becomes a Witness and the new server has produced its first block etc, etc. etc, the voting race becomes important.

Some out there obviously apply a "Dog eat dog world" principle, others may apply a purely businesslike approach, looking at numbers only, others go about it based on opinions etc, etc, etc. Most apply a mix and match of all these and probably other reasoning too that is again a thing of persons individuality.

What happens at the beginning is that a person may feel a little like an underdog, well, that is how I felt. Which is understandable as there are so many Witnesses and only so many voters out there who actually vote. What some of us witnesses do is talk among each other at the lower levels of "The Witness Ranks" and support each other, not in the essence of "Vote trading" but as people supporting each other by voting for each other. I guess it is a normal human reaction to support those with whom a person relates to. During this process of communications, we come across various views and opinions, some are more lenient towards the social side of things, and others are more leaning towards the financial side of things etc. etc. etc. Nothing that is out of the ordinary.

So that was/is my experience as a younger witness here and my first encounters with the Witness voting game among Witnesses who are not in the Top 20 or Top 50. Have to admit that it was nice to see people supporting each other in the hope that some of us make it to the Top 50 and then to the Top 20.

Now, please appreciate that I am cutting this as short as possible, without going into each and every little individual detail about every single experience along the way.

Then as things move along, we realize that without the support of those who hold the Steem Power (MV) or those who have a lobby of voters via "Proxy" behind them, it is realistically impossible to move up the ranks (or up the Witness Ladder, as I like to call it).

Theoretically possible, but I'm not into the "theoretical humbug", reality is the way it is and we need to look at it straight in the eye.

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So then we move on to the voting game among Witnesses, but at the higher levels with larger SP (MV) numbers. Meaning those who have the voting strength, whether it is theirs or via proxy, this is irrelevant, they have the power to make a real difference.

As you can imagine, this is where all the things start getting a lot more "serious".

Now, note, I am no politician and a lot of this is new to me, so what I say is not from a person who knows how to wrap shit up into wrapping paper, not very well at least.

The amount a persons vote weighs in power becomes a lot more important, as it makes much more of a difference to those at the top.

Why?

Well, think about this:

TOP 20 Witnesses rake in let’s say approximately a quarter of a million dollars US per anum. (If not more, all dependent on the value of Steem)

TOP 50 Witnesses are covering all their costs and making a pretty penny, nowhere near those in the TOP 20, but respectable amounts.

So the despicable "Money Talks" starts to kick in for some and even those who are not motivated exclusively by the potential profits fall into the jaws of the rat race, no matter if they like it or not. Could say openly they become victims of the "Dog eat dog" type of approach that others may have.

So, to move on with what all is bouncing around in this head of mine in reference to these facts.

Well, the race becomes extremely similar to a "political scene" in many ways. After all, we are talking humans and human nature here.

To date I have been given all sorts of advice by people out there, from "support those who support you" all the way to "do whatever you want".

I'm not judging anyone for their choices, what bothers me is that at times the motivations and priorities may seem to change (this is the perception that one may get), from wanting the best for Steem to being exclusively all about personal profits.
Sure, that again is human; we see it in politics all the time. A person goes in trying to make a real difference and when they get to a position where it can be done they do things for themselves and their families rather than for the people. Nothing new. So it is understandable that this may be the perception one gets or even a fact. I like to think that it is a misconception, rather than the latter of the two.

So then we see new names show up in the Witness scene who so desperately want to be able to influence things and change things so as to get them back on track, with a focus on putting "Proof of Brain" in the center of focus and not "Proof of Stake". (That is again a very short version that doesn't cover everything).

Yet as you can see from the description of it all that these new Witnesses are put into a position where they have to literally learn "politics" and all the things that go with it. Not an easy task, I'll vouch for that.

It's what some may describe as a "Catch 22" situation.

Then, what I noticed was that sometimes a person unvotes another person and it is too often understood to be a "vote trade off". Well, is it?

I don't know how many times I have seen people un -follow someone on Steemit only to be un-followed back by the other party. Whatever the reasons may be for it. I think that many a time when this "tit for tat" occurs among the Witnesses voting among themselves that is could be a "tit for tat" and not a vote trade off.

But then comes the question of "What is supporting one another vs. vote trading?"

Here is a hypothetical situation:

One witness sees that another witness is heading towards position 1 on the ladder and this Witness currently isn't voting for that witness close to position 1. She or He approaches that witness with an offer to vote for them to help them get up there and in return in some way expects that the same support be shown the other way. Kinda like when someone brings you a gift, or helps you out with a project around the house or something. You try and return the favour.

Well, the issue comes into it, from what I see, when these types of transactions occur exclusively for business purposes only. No jumping in and showing support, no loyalty between colleagues. Basically not to help each other out as people, but when it is exclusively all about the "business". Which again, for some people is absolutely acceptable. To others it isn't.
I'm not judging, I am trying to explain things here so that we can better understand the differences as I see them.

What I learned last night is that I had a very unfair misconception about some individuals. I forgot that we are all different, no matter where we are in this world. Just because something "looks the way it looks" doesn't always make it so.
Basically I got a big slap to the face with a nice old "reality check".

Now when I see and understand that there are people in the higher ranks whose hearts are in the right place, kind of makes things even harder to figure out in all this "politics".

From the dilemmas of running the race using all possible means available so as to be able to get into a position where one can make a real difference for the right reasons OR NOT.

To

Trying to figure out who is a typical politician and who isn't.

Note: when I say "politician" I use it in a very derogatory sense, if you haven't already gathered!

Now to move on to some of the things that I picked up on last night that I am not thinking too much about, let’s say that I just "accepted them and put them into practice".

One thing that I did was unvote myself.

WHY?

Well, why would I vote for me when I can vote for someone else who is also trying to do good. If Steemians can't vote for themselves to be representatives then why should I be given that privilege?

I know, this isn't anything that I can argue and defend without being downtrodden by all the logical arguments for self-voting, but personally, I believe that this move makes it a lot easier to approach the voting game as a Witness.

Why?

Well, in some way it is a reminder, that no matter how rigid the race may be, we are all Steemians first.

Now, before you go and look at my voting list, I still have one voting spot available. I had two until recently.

Originally these two were reserved for two disabled witnesses who told me that they should be back up and running soon, to which I replied, get back into the game and I will vote for you. Well, they didn't. Not within the time frame they themselves said. Which to me means that they are dependent on the money from block production and shall become Witnesses when and if the production rates and exchange rates can make them a nice little profit. "Part time witnesses" who come and go as they please because their votes NEVER get reset, no matter how long they are disabled.

So I decided to reserve these votes for new witnesses, one of which I did the other day.

This decision was heavily inspired by a conversation I had with another Top 20 Witness in reference to the MSP Witness votes (support) project. Where I learned a lot about it and figured that I can pitch in as an individual too, without it being a "formal project", just "my 2 bobs worth" so to say.

So, what is my conclusion about the Witnesses voting for other Witnesses?

What it all boils down to in my mind is "motives".

Are a persons motives exclusively for personal gain or are they founded in building Steem up so that we become a world leading blockchain?

I won't at this stage of me juggling these thoughts on all this, come to any other conclusion, nor shall I go into topics that may stray from the above mentioned thoughts.

Again, it isn't easy getting into an arena that is best described as "politics", especially when I am no "politician".

Maybe now that I have written and shared some of the things bouncing around in my mind here, I can come back and read them later on in the hope that this post may help me put things back into place. I obviously need to keep communicating with the people who are ranked high on the Witness ladder.

As was said to me last night:

"It's not all black and white".

Now as for the topic of "Jerry". (We all know which "Jerry")

I don't personally know the guy, yes I know of him and yes just like everyone here have noticed him. Hard not to.

I shall say only this:

Jerry is building his own personal brand name and his methods are those that he believes shall get him results.

Don't get angry at me just yet, please read on.

If we look at this one and only fact that I am about to spell out here, and nothing else. Taking into consideration that Jerry is building his own brand name, then this is what I see as a lesson out of his work to date:

He has set himself goals, he is working towards achieving those goals and he is achieving them.

As for any other topics, I won't go into them, we have all read so many things for and against all the other things about what Jerry does or doesn't do. So as far as I'm concerned my concentration needs to be on Steem and not what I as an individual can have practically no influence upon.

Again, I don't know the guy and I can only go by what I see here on Steemit, those who know him can say a lot more.

PS. Jerry if you read this, I'm not brown nosing (sucking up), I'm just saying it as I see it, right or wrong, popular or not. So don't take this any other way, as I would say what I think to your face too, no matter what the topic.

Enough about that.

Why do I feel that I can share my thoughts on things that are probably not so popular or not necessarily points that may get me "more votes"?

Well, my goals here are quite simple:

By 01. January 2019

1. Get our family budget of Steem up to a total of 10K Steem (clear) exclusively from blogging.

2. Get my server into the Top 50 and donate ALL the income from it before Christmas & PROVE THAT "WE CAN ACCOMPLISH ANYTHING WE SET OUR MINDS AND HEARTS TO"

3. Keep pushing people to THINK and vote based on long term visions of Steem and not "popularity" or ranking.

This is it, no BS, no hidden agenda, straight forwards and DIRECT

Now some may or may not understand these goals, but all I can say is the following:

"Let’s get Steem to $100 and then read these goals again!"

To get Steem to $100! Well, it is going to take a lot of proactive actions here by those who can implement changes, AND for them to do that there needs to be those who keep pushing for the necessary changes.

So figure it out.

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I believe that this is where I end this post, not because I don't have anything else to talk about, but because it is plenty to chew on for one day.

I appreciate your time, if you think that you can give me some advice, please do so, it would mean a lot to me to hear what others have to say about all this. Please be proactive and constructive, or at least try to be.

Thanks for reading.

Jack

(This really neat new signature block was made for me by @snook, THANK YOU! @snook)