I made the mistake of voicing my concerns about the upcoming hardfork.
Sunset from the peak of Grouse Mountain, Vancouver. Photo by me.
In my post here the other day, I expressed my opinions about the upcoming hardfork. I would like to bring attention to the second section of my post, about witness politics. Here is the important bit:
As a relatively new witness, I am not a whale. I did not get my witness spot until just before the hardfork that cut witness pay to a fraction of the amount. Not being a whale in the witness list means that I do not have the ability to do a "tit for tat" to keep my witness spot -- we regularly see whale witnesses voting for each other in a game theory way (if they vote for me, I vote for them), but this ability does not extend to those of us in the witness list that are not big whales. Due to this, I consider my witness spot more of an elected position, and I have a responsibility to listen to the people who do vote for me as a witness. Although this normally would be a good thing, at the present moment this is actually also concerning to me.
- If I do support HF17: I may be voted out of the witness list by members of the community who are not supporting it (e.g. abit).
- If I do not support HF17: I may be voted out of the witness list by the employees of Steemit, Inc. whom vote for me (e.g. ned, val, roadscape).
Yesterday and today, in discussion with the other witnesses, there was was a large amount of concern about changing of the reward pool to be split between posts and comments. Many of the current witnesses voiced concerns about the split, citing arguments not only made by other witnesses, but also community members. During this discussion, I suggested the change should be delayed until we understand the current socio-political landscape a bit better. Here was my final thought:
It's clear that without whales voting, social dynamics are changing. The many dolphins are finding they can reward people with small amounts. We might see dolphin authors rewarding the commenters on their post.
I suggest we hold of on the comment change until we understand the social dynamics a bit better.
Today I am no longer a top witness, as Steemit does not support me.
I was voted out of the witness list by @ned, the CEO, as well as the other members of Steemit, Inc. They have decided to only support witnesses that accept the hardfork. This is a strong statement towards me, as you can imagine, and has left me quite disheartened and upset. This statement means more to me than just the hardfork. My concern was simply a concern, I did not suggest we should reject the entire hardfork. If the majority consensus was that we should, for example, try the new system, I would have happily upgraded and seen what the outcome would be. Perhaps it is even a great decision, and I just haven't caught on yet. However, I believe that although the devs can suggest improvements, it should ultimately be the community who ratifies them.
Myself as a witness moving forward.
As I mentioned previously, the difficulty for me to stay in the witness list is exacerbated by the fact that I am not a whale and cannot 'trade witness votes'. I also do not have the support of @dan + @dantheman. Although Dan has said he would no longer vote on steem, he continues to vote for witnesses, including witnesses that have not participated since HF13 (e.g. @bitcube).
I also said I view my position as a community elected one. The sentiment of myself as a witness tells me how much the community supports my initiatives: @steemcleaners, @cheetah, and @seraph. I have my voiced concerns recently about the community no longer deciding to support my initiatives (see here).
I do not like ultimatums, and I do not like threats. I will continue to be a backup witness, a block producer for the network, and I will still try my best to support Steem and Steemit moving forward. However, in the coming weeks, I will be considering shutting down all three projects ( @steemcleaners, @cheetah, and @seraph), as I currently no longer view the community's view on these projects as positive/supportive, and I will not have the funding to pay for them. I simply do not have the time and energy to apply the amount of effort that I currently am, if the community does not want them.
Perhaps I am overreacting, perhaps I am just upset. This political climate is not fun for everyone right now, and I did not think it would escalate this way. I need to sit down and think about it some more. Thank you for anyone who has read all this, and thank you to everyone who has supported me so far.
Here's the problem. You were apparently put up there largely by the team which is a sort of centrally-managed meddling. Therefore it was easy for a small shift in the winds to occur and have that centrally-managed meddling bump you out. I personally believe that you would sooner or later been voted in without the team votes, as many people recognize and support your work with @cheetah, @seraph, etc., And indeed will likely be voted in again in due time. However, it comes down to a live by the sword die by the sword sort of thing, when the team that put you removes (some) of their votes.
Personally I prefer to see the team voluntarily take a hands-off approach on the witness list and let the community run it, as a way to promote broad, healthy consensus. (The team still has an enormous role and great influence as the developer of the software, as well as being respected individuals whose opinions have great weight. It doesn't need to also pick the witness list, outside of extraordinary circumstances.) If that had been done generally, you would likely still be in due to broad community support, because the Dan votes on all the others above you wouldn't be there (as well as a few remaining Ned votes).
Please take a longer term view and wait to see how this works out before making any final decisions.
Upvoted for relevance.
I really hope the community brings you back in. Until then, if you need any support to keep the bots up, you know you can always contact me. It's an absolute necessary service. Should you at any point decide to stop working on them, please pass them on (or back)!
I do not think the community has the power to put me in the witness list, due to the largest stakeholders, Steemit Inc and Dan, are still voting for witnesses. The majority of people who would vote for me, already have.
I appreciate the support you offer, although I am not the type of person to want to take too many handouts -- I personally feel more valued if I earn something rather than am donated to. I am currently not convinced it is a necessary service, as the developers at Steemit have made their positions clear to me so far.
You seem to be mixing up different things here.
First, that decision to remove votes was solely because of their preference about the planned updates. What we work on is secondary in a situation like this.
Second, while they have a certain influence over the list, they do not have total control. There's more whales in the pool.
And finally, it's not about donating to you but keeping up a valuable service. I am willing to take over the cost in whichever way if you decide to stop, and ask you to preserve the code and the data for those that financed it until now - the whole community.
I might be mixing the intent, but I have felt this way for a long time. And considering that the vast majority of witnesses also did not support changing the comment pools at this time, and I am the one who gets kicked out, I can't help but take this personally. I'm the weakest link and am not necessary, is the message I get.
I understand and appreciate the intention, but I don't quite see it the same way. It seems like the idea is to kick me out of a place where my voice is heard, but keep the work I have done. It feels like a Tesla & Edison situation.
We are provisionally removing votes from all witnesses regardless of their opinions of HF17, pending publication of public transparency policy on Steemit witness voting.
Please don't take it personally. We sincerely appreciate all that you do.
@sneak, It's a bit too little too late to not take it personally. The actions have happened, and the reaction has caused my response.
Not to mention Ned flagging my post to zero just further pushes it personally.
@anyx, I assume that @ned flagged your post for being inaccurate.
In particular:
...is not a true statement.
I encourage you to reconsider.
Thanks for the thoughts smooth. You are correct, the sort of "power creep" that has happened with dan, ned, and steemit inc. placing witnesses in, that they approve of, has effectively given them a lot of influence over the list.
I unfortunately do not think dan will voluntarily stop voting for witnesses, however, as despite suggesting that he will no longer post/vote on steemit, he has already broken this promise. I think it was you who said the community should ratify the development proposals, and you couldn't be more correct. I hope this situation improves in the future.
I will indeed take your advice, and try to take a longer term view, I won't make a rash decision. Yet.
I love @seraph ! And @cheetah too
I totally agree. Cheetah did a lot for the community and Steemit in general!
whats @seraph actually doing as im not sure? :)
If you recall the account @asshole downvoting all new members and all new comments, @seraph was countering the downvote with an upvote in order to make sure the content did not get hidden.
aight cool, yes i do remember it... how could i forget heh
@seraph protects a group of users (like myself) from downvotes. @seraph will give an upvote to counter it.
i think i also got its upvote
I have stated how I feel about some of the politics on here more than once, AND that is why I went on #SteemitStrike for a week, to stand behind my principles, and just came back y-day.
Regardless of which side of any political fence there is, it always takes guts to write something like this.
@anyx, I am happy to see that you are back to top witness.
Barely (#19) but still top witness.
Hey, thanks for the support. I really appreciate it!
Oh, and the title caught my eye because I have climbed that mountain actually. I have pics of it on my Fascistbook LOL
I was there one of the days, they had Wahlberg there, filming on set for the movie SHOOTER --- like, literally, I was there for a lot of the cabin scenes. I was staying just down the road--- about 5 houses away from the entrance sign for Grouse on the road there -- Nancy Green Rd? or whatever it turned into, the road splits there at some point heading up to Grouse.
#GrouseGrind people -- it is a real thing and I did it sub 60!!
Nice! It's a beautiful area. #GrouseGrind needs to go trending, its fun! :D
You missed the D but I fully agree. I had some super times in that area.
#GrouseGrind
for life.
Heh, oops! Fixed :)
Maybe one day we shall meet.
I have honestly been thinking about your post most of the nite except for the time I had to focus to get mine up.
I have appreciated your work and wanted make sure you know.
I guess a token vote from a minnow like me right now will do you no good eh
Good update for people, on my new post today, Charlie Shrem has launched a DASH Crypto to fiat debit/credit card proposal for the masses. It is on my page if you like.
Grouse could be bought by this card, if their values keep climbing LOL
Followed also. I thought I had long ago. Apologies.
@anyx I'm sorry you're off the top witness list but since you are still a back up witness perhaps we won't have to shut down @cheetah and @steemcleaners because the community really needs both ( If I'm wrong I stand corrected) - having said that perhaps it won't be necessary to shut them down - perhaps we could ask the community to fund it like what a few of us did with @crowdfundedwhale.
IMHO, @cheetah and @steemcleaners are both very essential to prevent plagiarism here and unless there already is an alternative to that I hope you reconsider - that solution. Perhaps you could also ask the community to fund them instead.
Thank you for the support. The community has had every opportunity to support cheetah and steemcleaners by upvoting things they do. They have historically not, although perhaps I have seen a decent amount more recently for steemcleaners (perhaps with the whale no-voting experiment).
Yet have seen next to zero support for cheetah. No one upvotes cheetah comments.
Now that I understand the situation I will upvote @cheetah comments. I had never thought of @cheetah as having been created by someone who needed my support! Now that I realize that there is an amazingly talented person behind it how could I not upvote @cheetah comments!
I just went and UPVOTED your last 10 @cheetah comments and I'll remember to do so in the future!
@anyx I see a solution so you won't have to shut them down.
I 'll try to remember to upvote @cheetah's comments from now on - as for the @steemcleaners I've been doing that already I think I have just missed a few posts cause either I wasn't online or doing something else.
I hope you hid the advice Javier threw you up there - or consider giving it to someone for now . I understand that you feel so being off the top or are you back? However, having seen Ned's consistency I have a feeling he knows what he's doing and I haven't read anywhere here that a top witness is guaranteed to be where they are for good. I still haven't removed you as one of my witness and I am not planning to but I respect anyone choices of casting their votes - it's their right to cast it and take it off anyone. Having said that - he could also put you back up again isn't it possible, too?
As for cheetah - I really love that cat and what that cat does to the community so give the community a chance to show you our support to that cat besides you created it for the good of the community so if you need to step back for now - then do so but I hope you take leaving the cat to someone willing to manage it - into consideration.
Yeah, Ill be taking smooth's advice for now. We'll see how the community responds moving forward. Thanks for the support :)
I use the cheetah comments as a guide when I'm doing the Steemit Ramble.. it's gives me a headsup there may be a problem with the post. Maybe add a comment to the community in cheetah's comment that an upvote if they support cheetah's work would help? I have never thought to do so. Similar to @namescreen's comment when he notifies someone their post is on the undervalued list. An upvote shows support.
Speaking of Cheetah, who I know I did not like at first but have since come to appreciate as his code has improved, are you also running the same bot on Golos?
Indeed, I update the code weekly if not daily. It has been a huge project for me, and I thought it has gotten much better over time. I'm not so sure anymore.
I have a fork of the bot running on Golos with slightly different logic (enabling Russian, basically). The cheetah there is going through growing pains as well, and if I shut it down here, I will ask the Golos community if they would also like it shut down there.
Don't shut it down, please. Just perhaps add a line telling it not to complain when I repost my Steemit stuff there! I haven't see the Steemit version commit any gross mis-tags like that early time I encountered it. It seems to work rather well now here.
If you're linking to the original source and you've verified with me that the content is your own, there is a good chance that you won't get the cheetah comment. There's more advanced logic nowadays on top of the whitelist.
I actually never thought about up voting @cheetah comments. I've never considered voting for a bot. Yet, I also did not know you needed that to support @cheetah. Knowing that would make a difference in whether I voted for such things or not.
It is like the weather. Fight through the storm. You are still #24 when I just looked so it knocked you out of the top 19, but you are still within reach.
As to shutting down @cheetah. If you've not shared it's code you could do "Two days without @cheetah", etc or longer if you want.
If @cheetah has been cleaning up a lot of trash then people will get to see what it does. You've had my continued votes from my account @chaospoet, but I am small in terms of steem power.
I however, witnessed first hand the problems your projects fixed.
A lot of people did not witness this and do not know you. You are relatively quiet, so it is only those of us that have been around that know a lot about you.
A little campaigning with new people and I suspect you could get back into the top 19.
Also the PR backlash of such voting is important.
I did see that ned unapproved a lot of witnesses recently and that is what I thought it was likely over.
I personally would like to see a lot more frequent hard forks, but with much fewer changes so we can more easily determine which change has which effect.
I'm willing and eager to try any and all of those things in HF17 as experiments, but with them all going on at the same time it'll be really hard to pin down which change had which effect.
My view on this is actually rather unfortunate. I, historically, would have seen this experiment akin to "Lets burn the house down to prove it is flammable." In this situation, if I stop cheetah, that's would be the end of my "stake" in the situation, so to speak.
I'm glad you valued cheetah, but the landscape has changed from months ago. I am no longer convinced that the above is true and that cheetah is desired or necessary.
Well you would know. I am not sure how much cheetah is having to clean up and handle these days.
A metric fuck ton.
Then that could be an eye opener if it didn't clean it up. I remember when the new category had about 10 bot posts per 1 human post and you had to wade through those to find the real posts. Cheetah killed those.
People are convinced that if I don't do it, someone else will. And perhaps they are right.
Main thing I have to say is remember the community is about more than just the guys at steemit, inc. so if you keep doing what you do, but occasionally outreach to the community to let them know what you are doing. Preferably something personal rather than something in report format I don't think you'll have problems getting back into the top 19. I really don't.
As far as you a witness. Keep doing what you do, but perhaps let the new people know more about you. I believe you can get back into the top 19 even without steemit inc
Looking at the witness voting, I am convinced anyone who would support me already has. I don't see a path to get back in at the moment; its the same issue that spawned the no-whale-voting experiment. The whales have extreme influence.
Sorry to hear that. Well not much I can say other than I hope you keep doing what you do, but if you cannot AFFORD to do it for financial reasons then reallity dictates you should stop.
You're position has actually increased a few steps already.
I personally think that both steemcleaners and cheetah should get some support from Steemit Inc because it does good work towards keeping the platform real. I really think that needs to be considered @ned and @sneak
If you do shut down @cheetah, please either open source the software or detail the methodology you use for it.
Best of luck weathering the storm 😐 I think you're a very valuable witness.
It's an interesting question about giving the project to someone else. I spent so many months improving the logic, gauging response, tweaking code, and so on. Hundreds and hundreds of hours.
To be kicked out and to have to give all that work to someone else to run simply because I, myself, am no longer valuable to the community, but the bot is?
Seems like a giant kick in the teeth. Sounds to me like an oligarch stifling out opposing parties by taking what they have. Reminds me of Tesla and Edison.
I'm not sure where you're directing that but I hope it's not at me 😨
What I'm saying is simple: open source it if you want it to have a life beyond you, come rain or shine. I think the perspective you've outlined relies on a feeling of competition which I do not see regarding @cheetah.
Not you, the current situation! My point is that cheetah is my pet. It's a package deal. I'm not going to allow Steemit to kick me out but keep her.
@ned and I are withdrawing all witness votes for the moment, regardless of their opinions about HF17.
If we vote for any witnesses, it will be in accordance with our forthcoming public policy on the matter.
I was happy to meet you at steemfest and I appreciate your contributions to the community and sincerely hope you continue.