Witness Update @jackmiller
WITNESS UPDATE
My server is up and running, no problems.
Will include full details of the SP rewards in my next update and after that shall include updates regularly on all updates.
Basically I need to schedule my updates with our good old friend 'Gina' on Discord and add up what all we have raised via posts on our walls, so that I can unify everything into one post rather than multiple posts on the same topic.
UPDATE ON MY ACTIVITIES:
Many of us have read or heard of the fact that when a Witness resigns or just shuts down their server that the current voting system in place doesn't reset the votes for that server.
Some may think that this doesn't play a role in things, so I shall simply state two basic facts that justify the need for it:
In every democratic society when a person resigns, that is it. If they want to get back into office they need to get re-elected from scratch. No where in this world do votes from previous election campaigns count for a new election campaign that person may have in future.
Even though their servers are disabled (DEAD), by them being listed on the Witness list, this makes the job for active witnesses a lot more frustrating having to get votes in order to climb up the list which is overly full with dead/disabled witnesses. Literally campaigning 'against' former representatives who resigned of their own free will or whatever other reasons they may have had.
So, what I have been doing lately and shall keep doing is trying to get in touch with people who are owners of these deactivated servers, who have resigned with a letter/message.
Hi,
I am contacting you in reference to your disabled Witness server. As a fellow Steemian and as a current active Witness who understands that once you resign and shut down your Witness server that your official obligations as a Witness have all been erased.
I understand that you have no contracted obligation to do anything in reference to your former Witness server, but as you know the ‘Gods of Steemit” as I like to call them, have not done their jobs in that the votes for your server get reset/erased after your resignation as such.
It seems that it is up to each and every one of us as Witnesses to clean this mess up.
I have no right to ask you to do anything, but I can as a fellow Steemian make a proactive suggestion as to how you can positively and constructively contribute to the fair and equal democracy that we all so desire to see here.
On the website www.steemian.info/witnesses with one click you can get a list of all the people who voted for you.
It seems that “a post” isn’t enough to gain the attention of these voters, because if it was they would have already reallocated their votes to active witnesses out there. So it seems that the only other solution is to directly contact them via Discord and Steemchat as your voters and to inform them that you have resigned as a Witness and that they should vote for someone else.
I know, this may seem like one heck of a task, however, it is yet another thing that you as a Steemian can do to help achieve all the goals that you believed in when you set your Witness server up and once again further contribute to the democratization of our system here.
I apologize for taking so much of your time up with this message, please do not take this the wrong way, as all I am doing is politely asking you to consider this for the good of our platform, our blockchain and the entire endeavour.
Thank you for your time,
Yours sincerely
Jack Miller (@jackmiller, Witness)
I have also been contacting some of the voters that I have seen/noticed, informing them of the fact that they have a vote that is for a former witness.
Although this type of communication may be considered by some to be "spam" or whatever else, I am sure that in this case my unorthodox usage of communication channels can be understood to be a necessity, as there is no other means of fixing these issues.
I shall continue on with this endeavour, no matter what anyone may think. I don't really care for any "labels" that some may throw my way, as long as they aren't literally attached to mortar shells.
WHY?
Well if the "Gods of Steemit" as I call them are not willing to do anything about this, for whatever reasons, then it is left up to us Steemians to fix it and although this may seem unnecessary with all the technology out there, we do not have any other option than to do it manually.
I'm not going to sit around and "complain" about the issues we have, I shall take action, even at the risk of being verbally attacked or scorned for it.
Jack
Seems a lot needs to be done... Hopefully word will get across and the gods of steemit as you call them will start voting rightly..
"Hopefully", yep, that is definitely the key word here!
Great work taking action mate keep up the awesome work you are doing for all peaple on steemit.
Seems reasonable to me @jackmiller
I do believe we need to stop looking to Steemit to try and solve all the platforms problems and step up ourselves to solve problems. That's exactly what I see you doing here so well done and good luck :)
Many things can be done to set the pace and show "Steemit" and the developers aka "Devs" that it is necessary to tackle the things that affect the future of our blockchain.
Can't keep sweeping them under the mat.
& more importantly, I'm getting sick and tired of the whingers (whiners) out there who just complain and complain and yet do absolutely NOTHING about it.
Some think that they are doing something about it by complaining about it, but I beg to differ as to date their whinging has not brought about any results.
Time to roll up our sleeves and start making a difference, even if it be the smallest of things or biggest of things, every chain is only as strong as its weakest link!
I think the Steemit Devs have this thing about leaving it to the Steem community to create their own world. Maybe they could be a little more responsive as they are part of the overall community. Maybe they think the tools to fix anything can be built & implemented through the Steemit API. If its about the wellbeing of the Steem blockchain they should be concerned/involved.
With this post, you have my vote! I had no idea that deactivated witnesses were still possible to vote for. This is a ridiculous situation that should be resolved immediately, or at least as soon as the newest update goes out. It really is a joke.
Can I double check that your witness name is the same as your account name?
Unfortunately, from what I've been told, this won't be happening any time soon and Why does that not surprise me!
If it does get "approached" I sincerely doubt that it will be a practical and thorough solution and worst of all it won't be for the right reasons, but for all the wrong reasons.
There, I outright said it, che sera sera!
Well, I expect to you to do something about it when you get to number 1!
If, WHEN that happens, I am sure that many of the powers out there shall have taken care of this, so that I "don't have anything to do on this topic". However, there are so many things that need taking care of, so I won't have time to sit around and twiddle my thumbs!
;)
Out of curiosity, I didn't really understand how individual witnesses can affect change in the ecosystem. Is it that you (via software) propose certain changes, and if they are adopted by the other witnesses then this becomes "law"?
I like the way you think @jackmiller... I am putting together many pieces and plan to include you the whole way...
Also did you send in the questions to Mello? If you did, could you send them to me too via discord? I want to officially endorse you but I want to see the answers you replied to make sure that I give it the proper analysis!
Thanks and keep it up!
It's not right that a "dud" witness still retains all their votes. @ironshield
I don't get the point of retaining your votes if you've gone dark. What use are they?
Just when I thought I'd heard about everything going on here on Steemit, something else pops up.
I've wondered why there's a list that includes all of the dead servers. Why would that kind of list be useful? Well, now I know. Former witnesses can pick up where they left off.
What if those users who voted for them are no longer active on the platform? What if it's been months since their last sign on?
I get the decentralization and I get the lack of governance, but what's the point of choosing the top witnesses or voting for them at all if they're able to come and go as they please without really needing to work at it again?
I wonder just how many times that has happened, though. I would imagine the number must be pretty low, or else this would be a bigger thing than it is. Since it's not really affecting things, why bother cleaning it up?
Because it looks bad. Because it allows for bad and undesirable behavior. Because it makes things look a little bit more professional. Because it's the right thing to do.
Who knows if anyone at Steemit Inc. will see this and act. It's a bit like yelling at a thunderstorm. And if an active witness can't get the attention of anyone, how much can the rest of us hope?
There's got to be a place where this kind of suggestion can at least go, some category other the witnesses ones where at least a dev might see it.
I do hope it gets attention, just like everything else needing clean up around here.
Well, when the "council" won't pick up the rubbish, then we need to get the good old trailer out and load it up and get rid of it ourselves.
I am glad to see that fellow Steemians are beginning to raise their voices about the need for a "speakers stand" in our "parliament"!
So true!
ref: https://steemit.com/politics/@jackmiller/understanding-the-importance-and-the-real-roles-of-witnesses
BTW, it is kind of scary when decentralized becomes over+centralized, this is another issue that I am sure many don't want addressed anywhere!
There's more of an element of proof of importance (POI) on steemit. Steem Power, influence. Pools of behaviour. Hierarchy. It reflects human nature.
(that link may not be working)
You could just copy paste this
/politics/@jackmiller/understanding-the-importance-and-the-real-roles-of-witnesses
after the https://steemit.com
and if this doesn't work, just scroll down to the post on my wall, 7 days ago:
"Understanding The Importance and The Real Roles Of Witnesses."
& yes you are right, one of my sayings is:
Technology changes, but human nature doesn't!
You know what, I think you are onto something. I used to collect coins from the 1960's, and anything earlier. Imagine if you applied the same rule to a person's reputation, and checked the witness votes on every account you came across in a day what was over 62 rep, or whatever you deem valuable. At least you would be making a difference on a level that wasn't too overwhelming.
Question: What happens to the blockchain when an inactive witness server is rotated into the line-up? Do they get skipped, and an active witness immediately is called up instead, or does the blockchain stall-up? The more simple/briefly this can explained this to me, the better. Thanks!
The dead servers are skipped in the block production.
On your point about dead voters votes, yes, you are 100% correct.
There are so many dead voters votes out there in this pool, that if this was a real body of water with that many dead fish in it we would have a biohazard disaster on our hands!
Thanks @jackmiller. I just found out one of my witness votes is marked with a red strikethough. I think that means they are inactive, yet I noticed they continue to promote the witness on all the recent posts on steemit. I took the initiative and researched, and contacted them on discord to find out why they are campaigning for witness votes without an active server.
You can tell if they are dead or just temporarily down for maintenance by looking at their last produced block time and lets say their price feeds.
If they haven't done either of the two in a long time, there is a very good chance that they have resigned.
The best approach is to do what you did, ASK people up front!
Good work and determination @jackmiller, please check my votes and inform me if I voted for someone inactive because I do not know how to do it. Greetings and blessings!!
nnnarvaez
pls how can i do it?
To check your votes: simply go to https://steemd.com/@vinxy
There you can check who you have voted for.
To see who is active or not, go to:
https://steemian.info/witnesses
Weird. Had to vote for you twice before you stuck...
Despite my joking on discord, I can understand enough to know you’re trying to do the right thing and being proactive. I hope good things happen and you have my support! Have a🍺 for your efforts!
Think I will take that nice cold one and sit back and relax for an hour or so!
Thanks for the support.
No worries, resteemed. I’ll track your witness journey with interest and I can just learn by osmosis through your updates. Too many Steemit things to understand, not enough time.