I completely agree with @riverhead.

You should all visit steemit.chat and read the message from @riverhead.  Choose your witnesses wisely, many of those with top 20 positions currently haven't done shit to contribute and just suck up rewards rather than providing a great service like @riverhead did.

Current message on Steemit.chat:

Where is steemit.chat?

If you are reading this then @riverhead, and by extension steemit.chat, has been fired.

What?

The Steem blockchain is run by paid witnesses. As many know witness positions are highly coveted as pay at current prices is around $200,000 - $500,000+ per year versus around $50k - $90k for the 21st position and dropping sharply after that. There is a HUGE difference between the top 20 and backup witnesses. As @klye mentioned the other day, "These are the rockstars of witnesses".

One should be able to look at each name in the top twenty and understand what value they bring to the ecosystem versus those outside of it.

Witness List

Most in the top twenty bring a lot of value to the system other than just signing blocks and running a price feed. My (@riverhead) contribution was running this chat service. That has worked out well for about a year or so now but as time passes folks in the top 20 get complacent, and large stakeholders lose interest in keeping track of who does what for the ecosystem.

In my humble opinion this chat service provided a lot of value to the community and worthy of a witness postion. Those with the voting power to shape the witness list disagreed which brings you to this page instead of whatever community you’ve built over the last year or so on steemit.chat.

Don't Panic!

I have found a willing and able team, lead by @followbtcnews, to take it over. That should happen by the end of the week but it's entirely up to him. He'll have the full data set so things will likely just pick up where they left off but on better hardware if that's the direction he wants to go.

In the meantime we can all take the next couple of days to reflect on what it means to vote for witnesses that bring value to the ecosystem.

Have a look at your top twenty witnesses, who votes for them, and try to figure out why. For example @jesta is a strong witness and you can see who supports him here.

I wish @followbtcnews all the best and I hope you show him the same kindness and support you’ve given me while providing this service to the community.

See you space cowboy...

Riverhead