Who To Vote For?
I asked @berniesanders a while back if my witness votes really mattered or if they had any impact at all. He told me that all votes matter, but honestly speaking, it doesn't feel like they do. I'm definitely not speaking for everyone. I speak for myself.
I have 16 votes remaining, which basically means that I can vote for 16 users I think deserves my vote. That's right. Deserves. Not everyone deserves my vote, and that's why I'd never vote for them. If my votes matters or not doesn't mean a single thing in that regard, because I can't vote for people I don't think deserves it.
The biggest issue with witnesses, in my opinion, is the fact that I have zero insight and literally no experience or knowledge. I don't know how they operate and frankly speaking, I don't know what most of the witnesses are doing... Due to lack of understanding and communication.
That's why I decided long ago to vote for people I personally like or for people I believe are doing good things for Steemit. My votes have basically been decided upon what the witnesses have done or said to me personally, but they are also based upon what the witnesses have said or done to or for others. My votes are literally based upon the people's intentions more than their actions, because I don't know what they are doing as a witness.
- And I guess that I'm not alone...
With Time I Started To Ignore It...
I know that witnesses are needed and that they are very important for Steemit to function, but I stopped caring about it because I felt like an outsider, and I still do. More than a handful of people have asked me to become a witness and I won't, so this is not an announcement of me becoming one.
This post is to openly admit that this whole witness-shebang on Steemit is pure mumbo-jumbo for me. I do understand the part about producing blocks so Steemit is available for its users... But I can't really say that I understand anything more than that. I get very limited information from witnesses in general. I have no idea what's going on "behind the scenes", and that's frustrating. - Especially as that puts me in a situation where I need to get the information and base my votes upon details I've managed to get.
- Without the help from many of the actual witnesses.
Witnesses I Vote For:
@aggroed | @ats-witness | @ausbitbank | @danielsaori | @krnel | @lukestokes.mhth | @neoxian | @nextgencrypto | @patrice | @steemcommunity | @steemgigs | @teamsteem | @themarkymark | @therealwolf
With this being said, above is the users I vote for. Above is my witness votes. To tell you the truth, I basically got "smashed" when I first voted for @nextgencrypto. The person who seemed to literally hate and/or despise me for my decision obviously wanted to know why I voted for him... I can't remember exactly what I said at that point in time, so I'll give you a brief explanation. However, this explanation goes pretty much hand-in-hand with the things I've already stated earlier in this post.
- Are you ready?
@nextgencrypto doesn't take shit. Period. He also tell it "as it is". (In his opinion.)
Sure, I can't say that I love everything he does and I don't agree with everything he says. I'm not that fond over the crap posts he publish or the fact that he spends an equal amount of money buying votes for those posts, as I earn in a year on Steemit...
However, something I like is the fact that no matter how shitty the posts are, he rewards the users who writes comments. He rewards his audience in ways many others would never do... Or never have done. - And that's something I really like.
He might be the big, bad and angry wolf some of you hate or despise, but I don't. He might have millions of dollar, he might be greedy to the extent that he wants to earn hundreds of dollars per day or whatever... But I don't care about that at all.. Because he cares about others too. And that's crucial when I decide if I want to vote for him or not.
The same can be said about more or less everyone I vote for. Yeah, I'm serious. All of them are greedy to some extent, in one way or another. I am greedy too. And so are you.
- We wouldn't even be here if we didn't want to earn money.
You can try to talk your way out of that by telling people that you don't self vote or that you don't buy votes for your content. You can show evidence and try to prove that you support others and that you're doing many good things for others instead of acting greedy... But the truth is that you're thinking about your own rewards at the same time.
Want Me To Prove It For You?
I am just a small fish. I'm literally at the bottom of the ocean and I often refer to myself as seaweed on Steemit. I vote for my own articles but I never vote on my comments. Up until recently, I voted on all the comments I got on my articles and I replied to each of them too. I did that because I never want my readers or my audience to feel ignored or neglected. I'm not like those dirtbags you see sitting on the trending pages with hundreds of dollars in rewards who never replies or support any other user.
However, I changed my approach a little bit, because I need to earn. I need to grow and due to the fact that I delegate 100% of my Steem Power to others, I automatically reduce the rewards I earn, so I had to make up for it.
Even though I earn interest on the Steem Power I have, which basically means that I still earn even though I delegate all my Steem Power, I also delegate a small portion of my Steem Power to @brandonfrye. I do this in an attempt to earn something extra.
Okay, I might have been a little harsh earlier... Perhaps it's not greed. It's about thinking about yourself and what's best for you, but for Steemits survival and existence, we need to think about what's best for others at the same time.
This is where I believe that our witnesses should come in and pave the way for everyone. But I can barely see the shadows from most of the witnesses. So, instead of witnesses working for Steemits survival, I do it myself.
I'm seaweed with ~1000 Steem Power and I delegate everything to others. I focus on the @asapers project which I've successfully launched together with @shai-hulud and @insideoutlet. That's my contribution to Steemit and this platform. That's our contribution towards the survival of Steemit.
Meanwhile I sacrifice the potential curation rewards I could've earned using my Steem Power on and for myself, I know witnesses doing far less than me, but they're getting paid hundreds of dollars doing literally nothing.
- Is that really how it should be?
We Need More People Like @fulltimegeek.
He's not only the creator of the former SOG, (stewards of gondor), he is also the user who basically single-handedly tried to slay the reward-stealing troll. He gave me strength, motivation and inspiration to launch the @asapers project. And lately, you've probably seen him, at least in the shape of any of the 100's of bots, who rewards an insane amount of content... Just recently, it seems like he's doing even more.
It seems like he is rewarding authors who produce @dlive content directly by sending them Steem straight to their wallets! - How awesome is that?!
@fulltimegeek is someone who deserves my vote. I would vote for him immediately... But until he realize how valuable he truly are to this entire platform and to Steemits survival and existence, I'll have to vote for other people instead...
So my question is...
- WHO am I supposed to vote for?
To vote for someone who seems to do nothing but hosting one party per year seems weird... To vote for someone who does nothing at all publicly seems even more odd... - And this is not some sort of "hate speech" towards these witnesses. I am sure they are great people... But how in the world am I supposed to know that when I never get any updates?