WITNESS THIS! Who I vote for, and why everyone who uses Steemit needs to VOTE.
I’ve spent the last four days snooping on every witness I vote for so I could tell you why in this post. I fell down several rabbit holes and learned quite a bit along the way.
Do you vote for witnesses?
If you answered “yes,” great! Go you! If you answered “no,” we need to talk.
The people running witness servers are making it possible for you to use Steemit. They're the ones steering this ship. And it’s a lot of work.
It’s okay if you didn’t know that yet. There’s a TON to learn on Steemit, so don’t sweat it. But now that you know how important witnesses are, BE SURE TO CAST YOUR VOTES!
As witness @drakos said in his guide to voting for witnesses, “Without witness nodes, there is no Steem blockchain.” Go read his post to understand more about what a witness does.
Even Scarlett Johansson says we have an obligation to vote. She might not have been talking about Steem witnesses, but the same concept applies.
(All gifs via giphy.com)
Who should I vote for, and where do I vote?
Good question. I’ve put votes together based on a combination of my own experience and trusting others for recommendations. The best way to figure out which witnesses to vote for is to interact with them, read their posts, and get to know the work they’re doing.
You can snoop on witnesses (and anyone else) by going to steemd.com/ and putting in their username after the /, giving you an idea of their activity. Another way is to check their blog to see what they post and resteem.
TO VOTE FOR WITNESSES, go here: https://steemit.com/~witnesses.
If you want to vote for witnesses who aren’t in the top 50, just write them in.
You’ll need your active key to vote for witnesses. When you’re finished voting, log out and log back in with your posting key. All of this might sound complicated the first time (it did to me), but it gets easy after a while. ;)
Check your votes from time to time and be sure you’re not voting for inactive witnesses.
You can see what witnesses are active and a whole slew of other info I don’t understand on steemian.info. Or, just go to https://steemd.com/witnesses and look at the ones who are crossed out, which means they’re not running their servers. Please don’t waste your vote on them!
What if I’m too lazy/busy/disinterested to do all that?
You can vote by proxy, meaning you can write one person in whose votes you trust, and you’ll automatically be voting for the same witnesses they do. It’s better to vote yourself, but if you’re overwhelmed or can’t be bothered, you can write someone in as a proxy (someone whose witness choices you trust).
Witnesses that get my votes, and why.
These are the witnesses I’m currently voting for (in alphabetical order) and my reasoning for each. I’ve bolded witnesses with whom I’ve had personal interaction.
@adsactly-witness — I joined ADSactly when I first came to Steemit, a “decentralized society based on the highest regards for human values and the well-being of all involved individuals.” I still don’t know what to do in the discord server there, but they’ve got @PrincessMewMew, who I adore, and I like what I read in the ADSactly on ADSactly posts, so they got my vote.
@arcange — This developer seems to be focused on helping newbies and protecting the platform against things like phishing, a worthy cause in my eyes.
@ausbitbank — I’m hoping to learn more about this witness. This is one I’ve voted for because others I trust do so. I see him in #thewritersblock, but don't know if he's active there.
@curie — Hooray for Curie! This manual curation guild is one of the reasons I’ve stuck with Steemit. I’ve received generous support from Curie, and recently delegated some SP so they can support other content creators and build the quality of Steemit.
@drakos — This witness runs steemian.info. I’ve seen him in discord and he upvoted one of my recent posts. Always appreciated!
@enginewitty — Love this guy. A leader of @thealliance, I talk to him often in discord, and appreciate his thoughtfulness and sense of humor. He listens to feedback, I know he has the best interests of the platform in mind, and I see how hard he works to make Steemit a better place.
@followbtcnews — I mostly voted for this witness because @crimsonclad is part of the team and I like her. She’s also one of the few females in the witness circle. Check out their last witness update.
@good-karma — I know very little about this witness, other than reading his last post about the London presentation on eSteem, but the name alone got my vote. Good branding.
@gtg — I mostly followed this witness because it seemed everyone else did, but I went to his steemit page researching this post and gtg stands for Gandalf the fucking Grey! How did I not know this? His last post had a wicked-cool rendered animation that I think could be a great tool to help people understand what Steem is about. If you want to read about what witnesses actually do, check his last witness log.
@guiltyparties — I’ve chatted with this witness in the Alliance discord and liked his last witness update. Recent posts include highlights for Veterans on Steem and SteemSilverGold, as well as some collaboration with Steem Cleaners.
@jatinhota — This core member of #thealliance is someone who’s put in a ton of time to help his friends. He also does Daily Crypto News posts, and is a founding member of the @IndiaUnited community.
@jesta — I don’t know enough about this witness, but reading his last witness roadmap he comes off as honest and focused on Steem-based innovation.
@liberosist — This witness is part of Curie. We all know I adore Curie. He also brings up a concerning point in his last post about unlawful data on the blockchain.
@ocd-witness — Another curation initiative on Steemit. I don’t think I’ve gotten curated by @ocd, but I know people who have been involved in this project and am glad it’s helping reward underappreciated content.
@patrice — This witness runs the steemcleaners and spaminator accounts, reducing the amount of plagiarism and spam on Steemit. I enjoy listening to her Trash Talk show on the #SteemStarNetwork, and appreciate her laid back attitude and the service she’s doing for the platform.
@pharesim — I don’t know enough about this witness, but I get semi-regular votes from this one, usually in combination with a vote from @sykochica. Always grateful for the support!
@roelandp — This witness runs SteemFest, and recently released SolicitingPower.com, an excellent tool that shows Steem projects that are looking for delegations.
@sircork — This witness is a group comprised of @sircork, @rhondak and @beanz. I have a good deal of respect for each of these individuals. @sircork runs the SteemstarNetwork and @youarehope, a charity helping empower people in impoverished situations. @rhondak is a leading member of @thewritersblock, and runs TARC, a non-profit helping homeless animals. @beanz runs @votu, Voices of the Underground.
@someguy123 — I know very little about this witness. I mostly vote for him because I see others I respect doing so. He did resteem @jackmiller’s recent witness update, which has me thinking I might cast a vote for Jack as well.
@steemcommunity — @abh12345 and @paulag are behind this witness. I’ve seen nothing but good from them on Steemit. Read their latest witness update to learn more about them.
@teamsteem — I basically vote for this witness because others do. He is active on the platform, so that’s good, but I don’t see him voting for @curie (he’s not alone, a lot of the witnesses on this list aren’t), or a few of my other favourite witnesses. Still, he likes acro yoga, and I like acro yoga, and we’re both Canadian, so he can stay.
@thecryptodrive — Another witness I vote for because I see others doing so. This guy is active on Steemit and seems to be marketing Steem-based projects to the masses. Past posts speak of positive change on a global scale, which is what I hope is a vision all witnesses share.
@themarkymark — He’s a witness for @steemusa, of which I’m a member, and he’s got the guy from Firefly as his image (yes, that's a plus in my world). He’s also active on Steemit, something I like to see.
@timcliff — His profile says “I <3 Steemit” and his blog shows that he’s active and working for the platform. You can check out his last post bringing together reports from other witnesses.
@yabapmatt — This witness has been an ally to #thealliance. That’s good enough for me.
I am currently using 25 out of 30 possible witness votes. Call it 26. I’m gonna go vote @jackmiller. Who are you voting for?
Remember, if you can’t be bothered to do the hours of work it took me to look up every witness, you can always write me or someone else in as proxy. That’s better than not voting at all.
Come to the next Witness Chat, this Saturday!
Get involved:
JOIN THE NEXT WITNESS CHAT on the Steemit Ramble. It’s happening this Saturday, April 21, at 11am EDT (3pm UTC).
Check out @shadowspub’s post for the official invite and listen to the recording from the previous witness discussion. I expect I might have some votes change as a result of the upcoming chat.
You’re also invited to the 4/20 Castle Party the night before the witness forum.
Whew! That post took forever, but I’m glad I did it. I still have so much to learn.
Thanks for reading! I'd love to hear what you have to say on the subject.
Peace. @katrina-ariel
Author bio: Katrina Ariel is an old-soul rebel, musician, tree-hugging yogini, and mama bear to twins. Author of Yoga for Dragon Riders (non-fiction) and Wild Horse Heart (romance), she's another free-spirit swimming in the ocean of Steemit.
dragon art: Liiga Smilshkalne
Banner by @PegasusPhysics
Banner by @bearone
Solid post on witness basics. We could talk about a few of your choices and I could share some insights and such I have from knowing most of them for nearly a year, but I understand why you picked them all from your own words.
It's good to see users engaging in voting. Some estimates and investigative data searches suggest less than 30% of all users EVER have even cast a single witness vote.
People don't learn about where they are when they come here, live with a ton of false expectations or misunderstandings, and the disappointment and confusions are real when this doesn't turn out to be just another social network.
I will never understand how people get involved in something and don't bother to learn how it works, especially in a platform with multi-million dollar players and tons of money at stake at all levels.
But then, I don't understand average people most of the time anyway, and most people are average.
I hope a few of the thinking types see this and follow up on their own witness voting. These posts go up all the time though and still nobody seems to understand how this place is built, how decisions are made, and just keep expecting "steemit to fix it!" when steemit inc doesn't really have that responsibility at all.
Super frustrating to live in this world sometimes. Thanks for taking a stab at making it less so.
Even after spending days researching this post I feel like I've only just scraped the surface, and I don't know enough about the majority of the witnesses I vote for. I'll probably change things around some based on the witness discussion on Saturday. And of course I'm open to your thoughts.
Yes, the world can be frustrating, especially when people want to make change but don't take action (or know how to do so). Thanks for all the effort you put into being a witness and making the world a better place. 💖
Yes, the witness forum will be worth your time. Place extra attention on who actually shows up from the witness roster... just an opinion. I feel like there are lots of things to know about witnesses, one of the most important being, we don't actually owe users anything but a solid blockchain and that does not require showing up anywhere on the platform at all ever.
That said, I know I place my votes on two kinds of witnesses at a meta level, "social witnesses" like me or enginewitty, and "technical witnesses" like Drakos or GTG. Both are necessary to represent the people who use the platform and to keep building, optimizing, improving and refining it under and over the hood.
I prefer witnesses who actually USE the platform as opposed to those who never show their faces in the various chat communities, posts or comment threads, but again, that is not required. I do feel you can't possibly know who you are voting for though, if they haven't surfaced somewhere in months or years, and they can't entirely understand the plight of ecosystem users at any of the sites (steemit.com is just ONE of dozens, and not the best one at all) on the chain if they don't also USE the tools we use every day either, or gather feedback from users at forums like this one coming up.
So, yes, pay attention to who shows up, I think it's important. Not required, but important.
Also, Friday night is going to rock so hard!
I agree, I prefer to see witnesses who are present and involved. Thanks for adding to the value of this post with your comments.
And, YES, Friday night is going to be so much fun! :)
Hello @sircork, where will this witness forum take place?
It took place last Saturday in the Steemit Ramble Discord and was broadcast live on the SteemStar Network.
Mind sharing the discord link?
Which one? The event already happened. It's over already.
The steemit ramble hosts two curation shows a week on Thurs AM and Thurs PM on the SteemStar Network.
The Steemit Ramble is one of many communities that broadcast shows of various types on SteemStar.
The SteemStar Network discord is here:
https://discord.gg/j4aCpEC
The SteemitRamble, one of many communties broadcasting weekly shows on SteemStar is here:
https://discord.gg/EhQtQmu
I guess one of those is what you meant, but the witness event is already over...
Alright. Thank you.
I wish you would think more about the guy from Firefly.
You can't trust someone who keeps telling you lies!
You can see who anyone on Steemit votes for Witness here and I'll be glad to decipher the information on https://steemian.info/witnesses for anyone who asks.
This is the most important issue on Steemit that every single one of us can affect. Everyone who sees this, please do your due diligence and vote for active engaged Witnesses. If you're on Steemit expecting payouts for your posts, there is no valid excuse that you're too busy to do so.
If you absolutely refuse to spend a few minutes making sure your Witness votes aren't wasted, set a proxy. I don't normally recommend this but it's better than doing nothing. I'm a good proxy, as I spend about an hour every single day scouring the Witness statistics to make sure they are near the current block being hashed, they are running the current fork (which I think they all are now), and their server is up and running with enough RAM to keep up with transaction requests. I can recommend several others as well if you think I'm just tooting my own horn - including @enginewitty and @sircork who are both good active Witnesses and worthy proxies.
THIS! ^^
I'm not a big fan of setting a proxy, but I agree, it's better than not voting at all. I'd love to see you post more about witnesses and what you're finding with your research. If I learned anything doing this list up, it's that there is so much more I need to learn.
Honestly it was mostly @jerrybanfield and @enginewitty who sourced my information, which I wrote about here a while back, and about which I don't deserve anywhere near the credit I've gotten except maybe for screaming the loudest about it.
Sometimes screaming the loudest is what gets through to people. I'm always glad to hear your voice. 💖
You two ladies are ubercool ;)
Really excellent point. This makes a lot sense. Heck, Iam learning about twice as much as I knew before just reading this Post and the Comments.
Thank you @katrina-ariel for your extensive post. I know it took a lot of Time and Work. And is so much appreciated :)
I like that point you quoted by @sircork as well. And I'm still learning about all this myself. Part of the point of this post was the discussion I hoped would follow. Thanks for being part of it!
Maybe I just should shorten it to "Don't marry somebody who won't even get engaged with you!"
:D
@jackmiller has been growing on me too, gave him my vote a few weeks ago. He's doing fundraisers for #teamaustralia via a Karaoke contest (which will be featured in @killerwhale's Karaoke contest this week). He's also been on PYPT the past few weeks so that always helps my opinion of people. One I don't see is actually in the top 5 and one of the only top 20 to ever talk to me is @timcliff. He's taken a few of my suggestions for HF20 and they will be implemented. Busy guy, but he is fairly stand-up from what I know of him. He also does a witness post featuring all the updates from all the witnesses every week, which is helpful.
Yes, it was good to see both JackMiller and TimCliff at the witness chat today. Both are on my vote list. Thanks for the recommendations—hard to get an idea of everything people do!
Fantastic post, @katrina-ariel. I resteemed this one. Definitely a post I want to have on my blog timeline. :-)
Well, thank you! I'm glad you find it worthy! I'm still learning so much, and definitely looking forward to the Witness Chat on Saturday. The more invested I become in this platform, the more I want to participate.
@katrina-ariel that is quite a helpful post on witness and whom to vote and why to vote. I feel you could add @ffirepowerin the long list too ....he is steemit brand in India , anyone in India steemit user are aware of him...he is doing lot for the community ...he organises steemit meetup arount the country...a very familiar face and power for India....
Hi! Thanks for letting me know about @firepower as a witness. Sounds like a great contributor to the community. I expect my votes will be moving around after the witness chat this weekend, so I'll keep him in mind!
Hi!
I'm really enjoying seeing more and more posts like this showing that users are doing research into the witnesses.
It's time consuming I know, but I think it shows you are serious about the platform and that you care.
Thank you very much for the positive mention for @steemcommunity and work you have put in @katrina-ariel :D
Thanks for saying hello, Asher! Yes, I'm invested in this grand Steem experiment for financial reasons and ideological ones. I actually enjoyed the research (other than not having enough free time to do it in), and am looking forward to learning more in the chat on Saturday, and through ongoing discussion. Thanks for all you do! 💖
Great!
Hopefully I will see you there and learn more myself.
Thank you 😁
Extremely through round up on Witness's, and I appreciate you going to length of not only mentioning the Witness's you vote for but also giving the reason why and a round up of each one.
It took me a long time to realise I even had to vote for Witness's, a post like this back then would have been a big help.
#thealliance
Thanks for the encouragement! I think it took me three weeks to stumble upon a call to action for witness voting when I started. It's been a learning curve and I've only just begun, but I'm glad to have a way to participate by casting a vote. Always good to see your smile on my post. 💖
It’s great to see more and more people getting interested into the witness side of Steem. From my I volvement with some communities it’s a lot due to the lack of documentation in languages other than English. And some users are just not interested in the topic.
I agree, it's nice to see more people interested. I appreciate how many people are pitching in to help educate other users on the importance of voting for witnesses. It wasn't that long ago I was clueless to what witnesses were about, but I've been learning. It's good to keep the discussion going, and great to see it branch into many languages. Thanks for stopping by and taking the time to comment!
I’d like to see Steemit interface translated into other languages and proper support for multilingual posts.
Yes, multilingual support is crucial for this international platform. I'm sure there are people on Steemit who can translate, I suppose it's a matter of organizing and encouraging them to do so. Also, I think having funded curation guilds in each language is key, as well as discord support. My guess is that all exists on some level, but the scale could be significantly increased.