Witness update #4 – An apology and @steemcommunity update
Empowering Curators, Community Leaders, and Minnows. Valuing engagement and positive interactions.
In this update:
- An apology for the 'Exclusion/Blacklist checker' detailed in the previous update
- Server update to v0.19.5
- Witness Rank
- Follows and votes given by @steemcommunity
- Future plans
Welcome to the 4th post from the @steemcommunity witness.
If you are visiting our page for the first time and would like to find out more about our project, please take a look at our initial contribution:
Introducing @steemcommunity - A Witness Project by @abh12345 and @paulag
We would like to begin by sincerely thanking everyone for the early support that we have had via comments and votes for our witness.
Thank you!
An apology for the 'Exclusion/Blacklist checker'
Dear all
Please accept our sincere apology for the production of an 'Exclusion list/Blacklist as detailed in the previous update.
Our approach to this lacked thought and input from the community, and for this we are sorry. In hindsight, we can appreciate how angry and frustrated you are given the consequences of our actions and take full responsibility for this.
Please be assured that the list was not used to ignore/unfollow/downvote a single account, and has been destroyed.
Yours sincerely, Asher and Paula.
Server update to v0.19.5
Last week, ourselves and other witnesses had a scare when the Steem Blockchain froze following actions described here by @holger80. A fix was quickly released and our server was patched to the latest Steem version - v0.19.5. Unfortunately, this event happened during the night on our timezone, and we missed 5 blocks during the downtime.
Witness Rank
At the time of writing, we are placed at 'Active Rank' #84. This is a small climb on our position around a month ago (89), but we are very happy with progress so far.
@steemcommunity currently votes via proxy to @abh12345, which holds almost 800 MVESTS. This is around the 30th largest vote on the Steem blockchain and aims to support a variety of witnesses, from core technical knowledge, development, and community.
Follows/votes by @steemcommunity
The @steemcommunity account is relatively small at present, but we hope in time it will grow steadily.
The aim of the account is to support community accounts, and the articles that are resteemed by these accounts. Voting continues to take place on and ad-hoc basis and is 100% manual.
Please let us know if you run a community account and would like a Follow by @steemcommunity.
Delegations / Donations
@steemcommunity currently delegates to (via @abh12345 and @paulag) @actifit, @comedyopenmic, @curie, @dustsweeper, @friendsofgondor, @ivoted, @minnowsupport, @spaminator, @utopian-io, @youarehope, and a host of smaller personal accounts - and we do this without fee.
@adollaraday, a project by @pennsif, is also supported with a weekly donation of 7 SBD.
We hope to give more and expand this list as time goes by.
Future Plans
Over the coming weeks, we are aiming to produce a plan to try and tackle one of the main 'issues' Steem has at present, user retention.
We are also planning a contest to create images for @steemcommunity's banner and icon, which will of course involve prizes for the winners.
More on both of these soon!
Thanks again for your kind support and for your time today,
Asher @abh12345 and Paula @paulag.
Useful links
Steemitguide: What is a Exactly is a STEEM Witness and why every User should Vote
Seriously, what is a STEEM witness? Why should I care? How do I become one? (Answer)
Steemcommunity Discord: https://discord.gg/Ycb4PTU
(Including #blockchainbi and #culturevulture)
Where to vote: https://steemit.com/~witnesses
How to vote for @steemcommunity
I just want to say, in the mildest terms possible, that while the exclusion/black list needed more thought and work prior to its unveiling, I don't believe it should define you, paulag or your witness.
There is a difference, in my opinion, between wantonly or negligently producing things and what you did—good intentions that fall short. Personally, given all that both of you have been doing, and all that you're attempting to do, I would have preferred a little less judgment and little more humor and decorum by everyone affected.
And maybe the biggest issue was ambition and scope. At present, we have a hard enough time here determining what constitutes favorable and unfavorable behavior and to what degree. Sometimes said behavior is fine, sometimes it's not, and in other cases, it's fine no matter what, because code is law. Which I suppose means if you can spam, you spam, and if you can plagiarize, you plagiarize, and if you can scam, you scam. Moreover, if you just don't care anymore and want to throw up whatever and get your own accounts and maybe even some other higher SP to upvote it, what's to stop you?
Just another user. But that user better bring some heat, and probably some posse because if not, the backlash will be severe.
In the end, though, I think it's better to test the waters and fail, than never try. And it's best to live life as you would live it, rather than cower in fear or kowtow to the powers that be. In the end, that's not living at all. Only mute misery, and shameful servitude.
On a totally different and more fun subject (or nerve wracking, depending on where you're at) good luck this week with the semi-final match against Croatia. I think England has as good a chance as it's going to have to get into the championship match this year. Don't quote me, though. :)
Well it looks like I tested and failed, but I put my hands up, faced the backlash and lesson learned.
Thank you for your continued support for @steemcommunity and just for the record, I'm glad England are out :-)
Well, I've probably said enough about the backlash, so I hope you know that there's at least me, and I suspect plenty more, that don't mind the testing or the failing, particularly when it's done with the health and long term sustainability of the STEEM platform in mind. There are so many things that are going on here that rate far worse that could stand to have such an uprising.
Anyway. You're welcome for the continuing support, and as far as England goes, I'm kind of sad myself (which isn't to say much since I'm from the U.S. and I'm not that big of a football/soccer fan to begin with), but one literally lucky bounce is all it takes I guess.
Us Irish tend not to support the English in football, its an unwritten rule :-)
Thanks Glen
I appreciate your point of view on this and agree with the above. hopefully we can earn the trust again from where it was lost.
I'm looking forward to the football, tonight and tomorrow, and think they will both be engrossing games to watch. They are seemingly both too tight to call, so I'll be crossing my fingers and seeing how it all plays out. Cheers!
I haven't watched a lot of it, mostly the last few minutes of the last few games, but what I've seen of England so far, they seem to have the desire and the ability. The mental toughness has been there, too, but that can come and go in an instant even when you're doing everything right. One lucky bounce and it can come all undone.
It will be interesting to see how England reacts if they end up down a point or two and needing to make them up without letting any more scoring.
The little I saw of the Russia/Croatia game I didn't get a sense that either team was superior. I think they have some pretty good players and a lot of heart, but that's not necessarily enough. Which is why the games are played, right?
re: my point of view
Considering all that goes on this platform, and everything that people could get up in arms about, this was among the smaller items to ever get concerned with. Things got overblown, and if the two of you weren't a witness, and actually moving up the ladder, the reaction may not have been so indignant. People don't seem to need a whole lot to get triggered. If reputations were damaged because of this, well, there could be all kinds of reasons for that, the least of which being the lists. :)
Cheers Glen
There are much worse lists to be on, this one did nothing. But people can react how they wish of course :)
It's true, people can. That doesn't mean they should, nor does it give them free license or a get away free card.
I believe you two are taking the higher road by basically saying, "Sorry. We messed up," but sometimes, and this might not be the time, backing off isn't what's required.
Being on a list that does nothing and then getting up in arms about it, when there's so many other things, but even it there weren't, just makes me wonder more what's behind it all. It's not the list in and of itself, and it's not the two of you in and of yourselves. The witness you run and the ground you're making up and the respect that you have among many of us in the STEEM community? Politics? Jealousy? Self-importance? Not bothering to know who you are or what you're about?
I'm sorry, but I'm having a hard time letting this one go, even if I'm getting the feeling you'd rather I did. :) Okay, maybe I'll give it up. For now. :)
You have my witness vote. Finally some community minded witnesses! =)
Thank you very much @leoplaw!
hay @leoplaw how are you? we all need to work together for steemit, no matter what, everyone here has the same wants, and that is for steemit to succeed. how we get there might cause a difference of opinion but healthy debate about the matters will result in a better steemit.
Thank you so much for your support
I can't completely agree that everyone is interested in Steemit succeeding. There are a good deal of people that are just interested at "success" for themselves on this platform and will abuse it to the detriment to the community. Such people have no long term foresight.
You, on the other hand see the bigger picture and do much to help the rest of us understand the bigger picture. You understand that we are in it all together if we want Steemit to be around for the long run. I value your work and contribution to the platform and therefore enthusiastically vote for @steemcommunity as a witness. Thank you!
Thanks for this latest update @steemcommunity.
I've read it through - all of it - and found it very helpful. New to supporting your role as one of our all-important Steem Witnesses, it was an encouragement to me that I made a good decision. It got some prior reservations "out of the way," so moving forward ...
Both of you, @abh12345 and @paulag, appear to work from very good intentions, "from the heart," to do what you can to build our Steem Community.
Thanks for all that you do!
All the best to you in the weeks and months to come. I'm confident you will continue to "climb the charts" ... 👍 😊
Hi and thank you @roleerob, that's really encouraging to hear :)
Are intentions are good, but sometimes the execution has failed us. We'll continue to try our best for the community as a whole.
Cheers!
we have loads of good intentions and we have loads more to do for steemit and its community.
Thank you very much for your support, let hope the weeks and months are good to us
I can understand the problem with user retention. I Love Steemit but it is has a slow user verification process. I think if this is automated,it would be a huge step forward. 😀
User retention bugs me. But with so many alt and bot accounts, the retention figures produced are very skewed.
I'm not sure automation would be ideal, and think that would likely open the floodgates for more spam and abuse. Registration is being looked at though and the name of the next hardfork is 'Velocity', sooo... 😊
That does make since, I really like Steemit, i have been trying to tell all my friends about Steem/Steemit but so sad no one is into Crypto they just give me that blank look :(
I know the feeling!
Just wanted to stop by and say congratulations on the continued growth and success. It is great to see the support for so many worthwhile community projects. I am excited to see where the future could lead.
Thanks for the support @headchange, I'm looking forward to seeing what's in store too 😊
thank you for stopping by and for your support. There are loads of good things planned for steemit in the future so its going to be an awesome ride. Im glad to be part of it
Agreed I am always glad to just be here and be a small part of the beginning stages. The potential is there for Steemit to become something big. Watching the future unfold could turn out to be a memorable experience for us all.
Hi Asher and Paulag. I trust you guys and know you only have the best interest of this place at heart. I am glad you are going to concentrate on user retention.
user retention is very high on our list of proprieties :-)
Why does the brain "retain" the memory of the hurt from yesterday?
Hi @cryptoandcoffee
Thanks for the support, let's see what we can do re:retention :)
Congratulations on climbing up five places @steemcommunity.
Could you explain this bit? I didn't understand it. Thanks! 😁
Thanks @gillianpearce :)
@steemcommunity's witness votes are cast by me, as are Lynn's and fulltimegeek's. Which is why in this table, I have a lot of 'proxied vests'.
My own VESTS, for the 11500 SP I have total 23 million, but with the people proxying me, I gain their VESTS and so my witness votes carry more weight. Cheers!
Something else I learned today @abh12345. I had no idea that voting weight was also proxied. I just thought it was the vote itself. 😊
It's a seperate thing to delegat/ed/ing Steem Power. The setting for the proxy is at the bottom of the witness voting page.
I hope this post is seen by the many critics of the blacklist from your last update, and that your apologybos accepted. There were some pretty vitriolic comments among them.
I hope this is the case also.
I think its time to move on now, lets not worry about the comments :-) lesson learned
I can't argue with that sentiment
Thank you for the updates. It is wonderful to see your witness position rising. I particularly value your love for engagement and manual curation. You guys rock @steemcommunity
Thank you @gabriel90sson, very kind. Are you a part of my or @paulag's Engagement league? And if not, would you like to join?
I think i indicated interest yesterday. But please, add me up if I have not been added, thanks
Oops, so you did! Yes I added you only yesterday, my memory is not what it once was. Thanks!
cheers @gabriel90sson, thank you for the support
Many thanks for your continued support of the A Dollar A Day project.
Host of The Alternative Lifestyle Show on MSP Waves Radio.
Editor of the Weekly Schedule of Steem Radio Shows.
Founder of the A Dollar A Day charitable giving project.
Our pleasure @pennsif, thank you for your great work here!
you are most welcome @pennsif, thank you for setting it up.