Learning new things every day

"Vote for witnesses", the tab said, just a bit further down from the Welcome and FAQ tabs. I was brave enough to click on it a few days ago when I first started exploring steemit. The page informed me that I could vote for 30 witnesses, and there was a list of 50 names. Apart from that, it contained little additional information that I could easily take in at that moment. I didn't have much of a clue what a witness was, let alone who or what these 50 were. So I didn't dare vote for anybody and it went to the too-hard basket for the moment, one of the things I could come back to at a later stage, when the time was right. And then I forgot about it because all the rest of steemit completely took over and used up all my time and attention.

So how come I've now already cast my votes?

Well, I could pretend that I was smart enough to figure it all out myself, haha, but of course, I had some help from some amazing steemians, and particularly @dreemsteem and @welcomewagon through whom I keep finding content that is most helpful indeed. So, just by chance (or was it?) I came across a mention of @katrina-ariel who has posted this witness-voting contest, and on that post I found a link to this post by @rhondak which explains witness-voting in a way that even the newest newbie can understand. I instantly understood that voting for witnesses is super-important. I then read a few more posts on the topic such as this one by @drakos as well as from steemit itself.

How did I choose?

At first I got so excited that I wanted to enter @katrina-ariel's contest immediately. Then I realised that I can't do the requirements justice. First of all, it will be 1am where I live at the time of the Steemit Ramble witness chat, and second, being so new and reliant on other's guidance, the choices I made were really borrowed choices, and I don't feel that makes a sophisticated enough entry for a contest. So I will not enter the contest but I voted anyway and I upvoted the contest post. The choices I made are a mix from the suggestions made in these and a few other posts, all by people who say and do things I like and who seem to know what they're talking about. Before I voted I went to the profile of most witnesses to see if they generally appeal to me, and I also checked here that they weren't dead or otherwise inactive. I thought their "missed blocks" number should probably be low and in the green, so I was confused why other people had voted for @pharesim but this post by him somehow tells me that he's a good one. If someone could please confirm that for me, I'd appreciate it.

Somehow, my list doesn't appear yet when I try to look it up here. I found that feature in @rhondak's post and thought I'd try it with my name, but maybe it takes a while for it to show. When I click on "Witnesses can be voted for here", all my votes are there.

I would really like to know if I accidentally voted for anyone that people think was not a good choice for one reason or another. So below is my list of witnesses, and if you have a legit reason why I should take a vote away from one of them, please let me know and why, and preferably also name a good alternative I could give the vote to instead.

@gtg
@roelandp
@timcliff
@ausbitbank
@someguy123
@aggroed
@pharesim
@lukestokes.mhth
@followbctnews
@curie
@drakos
@busy.witness
@utopian-io
@teamsteem
@yabapmatt
@blockbrothers
@raggaemuffin
@patrice
@ocd-witness
@adsactly-witness
@sircork
@enginewitty
@swelker101
@jackmiller
@jrswab
@guiltyparties
@gmuxx
@noisy.witness
@steemcommunity
@danielsaori

I can't believe how much I've learned in the few days since I've posted my introduceyourself post. Thank you to all and everyone who makes my experience here so enjoyable!