If you are invested in Steem either financially, emotionally or both... the past week or so has probably had some ups and downs. :)
I know I have experienced, some.. errr... feelings. :)

I have mixed feelings about where we are now and where we are headed and as I read and take in other's opinions, it helps me to form my own. So, I appreciate that many are talking how the HF20 changes impact their vision of the platform.
At this point my take is that we don't really know how the new Mana system is going to work and whether or not it will facilitate enough engagement for new users. Additionally, I've seen many calculating flawed numbers and making predictions , but at this point it is really unclear to me who is able to make accurate predictions.
I am for allowing access to the blockchain for everyone, and the OPPORTUNITY (not the results) to engage and earn.
However, I am also for limiting the usage of those who are spamming comments, creating spam networks, spamming wallets, resteems etc, and have not invested. I get that code and even humans can't easily identify who is trying to add value and who is just making noise and looking for an occasional vote. It could take some time to find a level that works for many different views. I have not reached any conclusions on what is the right level.

I get that this is a tough problem to solve and there isn't a perfect answer. While emotions are high and quality answers are scarce, I just want to go on record saying... I don't know, but I am interested in watching it play out. It's uncomfortable, it's messy and also it is part of getting to the next phase.
I find myself agreeing with conflicting commentary on the situation.
No matter what path we head down there will be those who are unhappy, those who stay and those who look at other options. It's normal it is how the world works.
After a messy week or so, I'm just watching it play out and forming my opinions.
Feel free to comment without voting if you are struggling with mana.
I share your feelings,
On the record - source : whatsup.
I understand what and why and when of this new HF20 Changes. But I am struck with conflicting feelings too and specially the growth of the blockchain because that is the underlying culprit that they try to handle, fix. My thoughts are then, what if there is a fixed size to the blockchain, a fixed size after which it is not anymore economically viable?
That would end our experiment with the steem blockchain.
And to be honest, I don't want to hear that voice in my head, talking to me this way. I get upset... maybe it's better to call it thinking.
Never thought that I could show these bipolar symptoms just because of an update, but hey, that makes me human too... :)
haha! I consider flip-flopping part of my process of refining my position.
Thats the best strategy in crypto world, going up and going down.
The 20.4 patch has landed, and I feel happy like a little boy.
I read and understood the need for a RC system over the current bandwidth system due to the intrinsic value of new accounts. I'm actually really excited to see where everything is going. I certainly got my feathers ruffled at implementation, but overall the system will settle. It also gave me a chance to get my head out of the trenches and take a look at the state of steem's competition. Nobody else is even close. I get it, we're all heavily invested in this community... even seeing people upset means they have emotional stake in steem... and in the end that's the best indicator of value.
Personally I think the biggest problem is that everyone is forming opinions without even giving the system a chance to work out. If you remember the last hardfork where minnows were voting for a dollar and whales had like 5-10 dollar votes for a few days it was a much different story. My suggestion is that cooler heads prevail and all of these people bitching about the platform being broken are making some hasty judgement on a system that hasn't even had a chance to reach equilibrium yet. I'm actually more annoyed that we're getting patches already because of the "whoa is me, I'm being oppressed" crowd is actually making developers backpedal to avoid a media circus in the middle of rolling out all of these changes.
TLDR everyone needs to check their expectations and entitlement at the door and calm the fuck down for a week or two in my opinion.
In general, I completely agree. Even if one has concerns there are ways to ask questions, request information and voice concerns without throwing rocks and a complete melt down.
I am a Maverick , I live my life that way. I form life changing decisions first and later look for data points ( if any) to validate the pre-meditated decision...deal with it !!
If I had any common sense, I’d walk away from the keyboard, give it some time, let the dust settle, and come back in a week to see how things are.
But common sense is a lot less common than you might think. I bought a little bit of Steem today and powered up another 71 SP.
Haha, If I worked on complete logic, I would probably be checking out... I am really hoping we see some signs of lessons learned. :)
Congrats on buying.
Thank you for investing in our blockchain :)
If 90% of the people I follow have stopped posting but 10% are posting more - I'm noticing those ones and they are scoring brownie points!
Special brownies...???
Yes greenies!
I couldn't post until today - I replied three times yesterday and was down to 2%,or something! lol
oh - you have a regiment named after you..btw....! lol game on soon!
CLASSIC :)
Haha, I couldn't agree more! We are really finding out who is in and who is out
Mmmmmm brownies.. they "organic" ;)
I won't make my mind up until I see the end product. Obviously the past few days have been a disaster for users but it might just be a small term sacrifice for a long term win. If these few days can lead us to millions of users, new apps, development and a high steem price then we could be laughing about it this time next year.
We are only at the beginning of the road so sometimes we will meet obstacles along the way. That's what makes the destination even more worthwhile. Not ideal but not a death sentence either.
Posted using Partiko Android
Early technology carries with it great risk and often the occasional disaster.
look at your RC - MANA, the patch has landed.... grtz...
There is always going to be a learning curve with anything like this. Some of the witnesses mightn't have the coding knowledge to spot these issues before release and obviously there is a future to plan for so updates will be needed. Hopefully we will never see the whole system reset like this again but i think this is a quick hurt for a long term gain.
Yeah, its pretty hard to see for me too, but i invest a little to steem, and thanks to it, im a little better position like others. But the fact is fact. An act, for the greater good (aka anti-spam system with the action-limits), and disaster-like consequences, which hit the little and relatively new users.
Its like the law of power, the steem power. If you dont have, welcome the world of decentralized censorship. Your voice is worth something. If you can talk...
I hope, the new patch, the 10x multiplying will working well, and we can forget this few crazy days...
Well, in an abstract way, the bad apples again ruin the platform for good people who want to put out some content and see if others will engage with it. They are running good users away, creating bloat and draining the economy. Those with stake pay for that divestment. It's a tough dilemma.
I think, isnt a dilemma. If the steemit community want to the mass adoption, with more million active users, they have to accept the "bad apples", because in that way, noone can control anymore the quality, against the flood of quantity. It is connected, we cant avoid it.
These anti-spam acts work in only way, if the platform will be the same as now, with less than 100k user, and static, "bestoned" mode.
Just need a choose, what we want.
it's really a tough road been unable to make a post and I thought my voice worth something...
I'm hoping most accounts will be able to get to at least 10-15 comments a day: enough to not feel too limited and be able to get your name out, not enough to spam randomly. I'm also hoping on some cool condensers that make powering up a bit more gamified - something that can be done with the RC's as well I'm sure. Partiko has a leaderboard for heavy users, but I feel like we could use a condenser that makes all kinds of little milestones 'cool' by giving starts, badges, or whatever. The RC's are a more subtle way of measuring all kinds of activity so some very fine measured rewards are possible from now on as well :-) Who knows where it will lead us. And yes, I have feelings too and sometimes they are sad and sometimes they are optimistic - plus everything in between.
This would be a great starting point.
Between the devs and witnesses, we'll come to a balance where normal users can post freely but heavy users and spammers require more SP. Did you actually expect this transition to just happen smoothly with no problems? Last year we literally had a week with 0 payouts and then it was fine afterwards.
If we can't come to such a state where bandwidth is available for ordinary users, then that will be a failure. If there is some contingent who think bandwidth should be tight, then we should aim to keep that view from becoming policy.
We don't want to be like bitcoin and celebrate high fees and low user transactions.
The value of a network is in the network
I expected issues and I expected the emotional fallout. What I didn't predict was some of the people I previously considered to be leaders losing their shit and creating additional discomfort for all.
Sometimes people need to vent. Hopefully they can do it with us all and we can give them some reassurance and it passes
I haven't got a clue what's going on, i read what people have to say about it all then just keep my fingers crossed it works l. I've been here just over 2 years, not going to give up on it just yet. :)
Agreed, I don't like quitters.
the trick is to make it easy for everyone to sign up and use and to suck it up if some third worlder posts "Nice post dear" on every post, flag and mute those posters if they bother you
Well, there is that also, but if I have to choose, I'd go for engagement.
Same!
Things are still stabilizing as and as bandwidth and voting power comes back analytics will be able to help provide a direction for those that manage the blockchain to adjust if necessary. I don’t think their intent was to limit new and much less smaller users as showed today by their release of some patches to scale down costs. It will unfortunately take some time but more data and experience needs to be seen before demanding changes in my opinion.
Yeah, I think we need at least a week or two to let this all settle.
It's got me to where I'm afraid to do anything because I'll use up my mana. I lost 56% of my voting power posting one time... I'm afraid this is going to turn out poorly, if people are afraid to vote, rewards will disappear (and so will all the people except the whales). I'm posting on WeKu now... they don't have the same BS and it's set up just like Steemit!
Actually, I don't think you "lost" the power, I think it just calculated it after your first vote. I'm not sure though. I do know there are many conversations going on about how it works and how to adjust it.
Very conflicted myself. Let's see how it all plays out dear.
Its fucked. End of mana again,short answers only. sorry.
I'm not sure the amount of text costs anything, or if it is the transactions that are "charged". lol
No idea what is going on. :)
Well, Steemd said 16 comments. When I posted my long comment, it got down to 14. I imagine this one will take it only to 13.
edit: Yup, and now 12 with this edit.
Good god. This is worse than any Dystopian novel.
Posted using Partiko iOS
Im sure it depends on size of post. I couldnt make a long reply to someone earlier. Im sad. But this is two tiny replies.
You should be at 100% now
I am thanks. Making hay while the sun shines....and measuring what Im using lol
You and your loved ones have a wonderful weekend....
Did you ever consider becoming a witness ?
Wishing you a good weekend as well.
I don't have the right skill set to be a witness, I'm kind of hung up on the idea people should be good at what they do.
Problem is the terminology. Witnesses to me should be guardians and people entrusted to protect the community. People who care, not just people with the knowledge to update a computer. Thats a skill that can be learnt. Empathy and compassion and the skill to think ahead, to see effect from actions today can't.
You would make an excellent witness
I agree what you whatsup, its a murky mess, for a while there I was tempted to revert back to the pre-fork.
Now with the RC fix I want to observe, and honestly if it works fine now and works for large scale steem users such as @steemhunt, @fundition, @steemmonsters @dtube, @steem-bounty @steemitboard, then I think resource credits will work.
Although we need a better TEST environment, and maybe a criteria that testing is done with a weak newbie account, since 99% of users not being able to interact due to insufficient mana sounds like an area that would and should have been noticed when RC was tested.
For the communities that contribute to steemit however use a lot of RC's to delegate perhaps SMT will be the solution although for now I would say delegations is likely the best solution, otherwise we would end up with more of these cases for new ideas on steemit.
https://steemit.com/steemitboard/@steemitboard/steemitboard-knock-out-by-hardfork
It's indeed very rough. I feel as if I had been walking through a mountain and gotten scratched all over throughout the way.
I'm having a hard time predicting what's going on. For now, I can only make 16 comments, according to Steemd, and the RC price of each comment keeps increasing over time.
I have like 700 SP right now. Imagine those with less. There are many people who can't do anything right now. And as you say, it's really hard to know who has the right numbers to predict the future. With this in view, the uncertainty is one of the biggest I've faced during my stay in Steem.
I still keep posting every day and looking to interact, but wow, it's tough to look down and see the lava and feel the wooden bridge move left and right.
I too feel uncertainty, but I don't like to have kneejerk reactions.
Many are concerned, but I agree with the course of action... Just keep plodding through it.
Hi @whatsup!
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STEEM is just over two years old.
We seem to forget that. Think of any other startup of that age serving 50K plus clients per day.
It's already a great achievement. It may not work out, but it may go amazingly well. It's risky. And with risk comes potentially bigly rewards
The road was very very rough and still it is for sure but the things are getting better with the rolling out of patches hopefully all will be good
Congratulations @whatsup!
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