Good post @jerrybanfield, even tough I think that anyone wanting to start a witness should think both once and twice before joining up as a witness. It's not like any other mining process since it's what makes the network tick.

We need to talk and write more about how important witnesses are. Especially now with the discovery of @lukestokes post How Many Steemians Are NOT Voting for a Witness? I Found the Answer!

I wrote another post about the confusion about voting that some users may feel when we talk about it in The Difference of Votes and "Witness Votes"; Don't waste your Witness Votes on Dead Witnesses!

What some might not think on is that since all transactions on Steem is free, posts, comments, votes etc, so is also the cost for setting up a witness on the network. Advertising a new witness on networks like BitShares or Peerplays (that also uses Graphene and DPoS) can cost up to $100 - $150 in initial costs.

Starting a witness on Steem is easy and inexpensive, but you still need the trust from the community in form of votes.

Anyone becoming a witness should ask themselves:

• Do I have enough time to do this?
• Do I have enough time to read about new releases?
• Do I have enough time to listen on what the community wants?
• Do I want to learn new things?

If the answer is Yes to all of that, Welcome as a witness! :)