Hi, dear Hivers
In response to @bluemist's writing initiative, see details here, these are my top 3 witnesses.
Disclaimer:
Like most hivers, I rarely have the chance to directly interact with witnesses. Most of us, when we get to the platform, know very little about the technical intricacies of its functioning. We do our best to educate ourselves about the role of witnesses and the importance of the community in supporting those who really work for the platform. That being said, to understand what witnesses do does not come easy for the average folk and many of us vote for them based on some recommendation or assumption based on someone else's votes.
Some witnesses, like @therealwolf, @arcange, @lukestokes, or @cervantes, are more active than others. They post regularly and interact in the comment section of their posts. They are accessible and nice and that makes them liked and popular. They usually try to inform the community about changes in the platform and how to interact in light of those changes (especially HF). Because most of what they post about is technical and most of us understand little of it, chances are we grow distant unless we have an emergency and need to contact any of the witnesses to see if they can help us solve our problem.
That has been my case and this initiative gives me the chance to talk about it. I have cast my votes for a long time now. I did it when I was in Steemit and I have been trying to update those votes now in #Hive. I understand some witnesses are no longer active, so, I am removing those votes and giving them to other witnesses, again, based on a suggestion more than on actual follow ups of their contributions to the platform. I believe very few of us have the time or understanding to do that.
In either case, I do not have enough exposure to many witnesses as to make an educated selection, but the situation that moved me to contact some of them and this initiative have made me rethink my role as part of this community and the role of witnesses both in their technical job and their interaction with the community.
@ausbitbank
was one of the witnesses I contacted to inquire about a friend's blocked account and I did it because some of his posts are related to the subject. He responded promptly and even though the diagnosis was not very hopeful for my friend, it was pretty accurate and that was good. He also direced us to other sources of information, especially a post by @arcange, to help us take actions to try to have the problem solved.
@cadawg
One of the persons we contacted, because of his notoriety on Twitter and his accessibility, was Nathanmars and he directed us to @cadawg. He too was very accessible, kind, and helpful in trying to help us. We have not still solved the problem. Our friend's account is still blocked and recovering it may be a big issue because it involves steemit as a recovering account partner, or something like that, which I hope can be sorted out because I cannot believe that so much knowledge of the platform and involvement in its development cannot allow a team to help rightful owners recover their accounts. The issue has made us aware of the importance of getting involved and learning more about the platform and what we must do to avoid further problems, given some of the security limitations. So I guess that's the bright side of it. In any case, I want to highlight the accessibility and knowledgeability aspect of the interaction,which makes us feel welcome and protected to the best of their abilities.
@curie
My relationship with @curie is a rather sentimental one. Corny as it may sound, I fondly remember my first @curie upvote, which came in a most needed time after months of not much support back in my steemit days. I did not know anything about curie or their role as witnesses. That might have been my first witness vote.
However, I think that the role of Curie in supporting and promoting quality content is unlike any other witness. I do not know details of their code/node/or-whatever-they-call-it work, but I know that they have been very visible making bloggers grow and encouraging them to produce content that makes the platform a better place.
So, this has been my limitted experience with witnesses. I hope to close the existing gap, which as I perceive it may be caused by self-imposed intimidation, but also by lack of knowldge and understanding of what witnesses do. They too, should keep their effort to reach to the community, especially the newcomers and the old folks who have focused on producing content in detriment of learning about and contributing more to the development of the platform.
Thanks for stopping by
Thank you for recommending my witness. It means a lot! I hope something can be done for your friend, but the only way I'd see possible would be an emergency HF which changes all
steemrecovery accounts to ahive-ioor similar account. Unfortunately, I think even if this were possible, it would take more than 30 days to implement and test. But I'll keep my fingers crossed. Your best bet would probably be the Top 20 consensus witnesses, although it seems that when it was reported to them, they didn't see a feasable solution either.Best of luck & best wishes.
~ CA
Thank you very much. I do think more consensus should be possible among witnesses, especially if that helps the security features of the platform. It is a scary prospect to face the impossibility of defending ourselves from theft, or worst yet an accidental loss of an account whose value goes beyond the monetary one. People get involved at different levels and invest more than time as bloggers here. But, I know every sector sees the picture from different angles and act accordingly.
Yeah, and I guess some would argue "you should've changed your account recovery", as if she had, this would've been avoided. But I guess this is unfortunately the cost of innovation. You can't have a trustless blockchain where someone can mess with your account without permission!
I too am going through my list once again, I have done so periodically on old Steemit and new Hive platform.
Unfortunately I concur we do not get to know what is going on in the back office most of the time, not being coders it makes it difficult. Will try to also do a post with my three witnesses and why over the weekend hopefully.
!tip
Good. Looking forward to reading about your experience. I have read some other posts and there are people who are well informed about what witnesses do and their specific technical contributions. Maybe this initiative will serve to promote that aspect a bit more so that we all know the basics of this pillar of the platform. More visibility is needed
🎁 Hi @hlezama! You have received 0.1 HIVE tip from @joanstewart!
Check out @joanstewart blog here and follow if you like the content :)
Sending tips with @tipU - how to guide.
Me gusto tu aporte dándonos tu punto de vista @hlezama de los witness
Gracias, @sacra97. Estoy pendiente de visitarte