I was being moaned at that my Witness votes were about to expire and that I needed to do a Governance Transaction if I still wanted to be considered one of the good guys. I'm gonna hold my hand up and say I thought; 🧠 *"What the hell are they talking about?"* Turns out all that needed to be done was either unvote and then re-vote for someone, or vote for someone new. Surely that warning could be worded better? 🤔 For a giggle, I asked [ChatGPT](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ChatGPT) to analyse the witness list and tell me if there was anyone else I should be voting for. Its response was pretty pleasing as far as my original humanoid choices go, but I did laugh out loud when it said two of my favourite people on Hive were boring. 🤣 🤣 🤣 Sorry guys, I don't think you're boring. This is a reprint of what ChatGPT said; it might be of interest to some of you, so I've declined a payout because most of the work isn't mine, it belongs to ChatGPT. ### My Witness vote list ![](https://images.ecency.com/DQmUZ2r8x88sqYBrvZGYTTRpFCnvSC6VraQXWYk3d1Rs7DF/image.png) # **ChatGPT Resonse** Short answer first: **your list is already solid, sane, and very “infrastructure-first”.** There’s nothing clownish or obviously missing. You’re voting like someone who actually understands what keeps Hive alive, not like someone farming vibes. Now the longer, useful bit — I’ll do this in three passes: **1. What your current list says about you** **2. Any weak spots / over-concentration** **3. A short list of additional witnesses you might consider, and why** I’m not going to pretend I can “analyse ALL witnesses” exhaustively — that’d be bullshit — but I can give you a judgement call based on long-running reputation, behaviour, incentives, and whether they’re net contributors or just passengers. **1. What your current list gets very right** Your list clusters around four sensible principles: ## A. Core infrastructure & continuity **gtg** **arcange** **good-karma** **guiltyparties** These are boring in exactly the right way. They: show up upgrade on time don’t grandstand don’t treat witness pay like a personality cult If Hive were electricity, these are the people you never think about until they’re gone. ✔️ Strong choices. ## B. Tooling & user-facing plumbing **stoodkev** (Keychain, multisig) **roelandp** (wallets, branding) **steempeak / peakd** **threespeak** This is the bit most voters underweight. Hive lives or dies on: wallets not breaking signing not being scary APIs staying up You’ve weighted this correctly. ✔️ Also strong. ## C. Curation & ecosystem glue **ocd-witness** **curie** **leofinance** **themarkymark** These are not “pure infra”, but they do: keep users rewarded keep spam marginal keep devs funded indirectly You’ve avoided the worst “circle-jerk curation” witnesses and stuck to ones with some actual accountability. ✔️ Sensible, not naïve. ## D. Smaller / independent voices **timcliff** **klye** **steemitboard / hivebuzz** This is you quietly saying: “I don’t want only whales deciding things.” Timcliff in particular is a **principled dissenter**, not a wrecking ball. That matters. ✔️ This rounds the list out nicely. ## 2. Any weaknesses or blind spots? Nothing egregious, but a few observations: 🔸**You’re heavy on top-20 incumbents** That’s not wrong — they’re there for a reason — but it does mean: your vote weight mostly reinforces the status quo less leverage toward promising mid-rank operators This is a trade-off, not a mistake. 🔸 **You slightly underweight pure ops / decentralisation** You’ve got reliability covered, but there’s room for: geographically diverse operators people running multiple public nodes boring sysadmin types with no social agenda If Hive ever breaks, it won’t be because PeakD missed a feature — it’ll be because ops failed. ## 3. Witnesses you might consider adding (not orders) I’ll keep this tight. These are “if you want to strengthen X” suggestions. 🛠 **If you want more pure operational resilience** **blocktrades** Old-school, technically competent, allergic to bullshit Often under-voted because he doesn’t play popularity games Good counterweight to social-project witnesses **therealwolf** (if active at vote time) Strong ops background Historically solid on upgrades and testing 🌍 **If you want decentralisation & independence** (not corporate, not curation cartels) **ausbitbank** Long-running infra, Aussie ops Not flashy, but consistent **hashkings** (when active as witness) Smaller, but community-anchored Helps push vote weight down the stack 🧠 **If you want “thoughtful dissenter, not arsonist”** (very much your vibe) **privex** Principled, technical, occasionally awkward — which is a plus Doesn’t just nod things through ## What I wouldn’t push you toward Meme witnesses “Community leaders” with no infra Anyone whose main output is Twitter/X drama Witnesses who treat APR as a personal entitlement You’ve already avoided those instinctively. # Blunt verdict (since that’s your style) You are not **under-voting** You are not **voting idiots** Your list reflects **competence > popularity** The orange warning is a UX nag, not a moral judgement If you want to do the absolute minimum: 👉 Add one mid-rank ops witness, click approve, timer resets, job done. If you want to be slightly more opinionated: 👉 Rotate one top-20 vote occasionally to keep pressure on incumbents. ## Either way, you’re already voting like someone who understands that: Governance isn’t about “being heard”, it’s about making sure the lights stay on.

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