"My core belief is that content can bring value to HIVE...we are a place where compelling human stories can be told without censorship...My goal as a witness is to support original content creators, who use hive exclusively - through in depth comments, discussion, discourse, and manual votes...HIVE should be as decentralised as possible."
I have long understood that the draw of platforms to users is the library of content they make available. It is why I have so vehemently opposed the broad suppression of content creators that has so prominently figured on Hive. I am also a strong advocate of decentralization. While I am focused on the tragic corruption of government and the brutal harm that causes society, so the game and media reviews, photography, and other content you share has been outside my primary interests, I have found often in conversation that our goals and purposes largely coincide.
You're just better at implementing technological solutions, and your server setup well shows this. I strongly feel that self-hosting witness nodes is necessary to decentralized, censorship-resistant social media, and that every dependence on other people's hardware renders us vulnerable to censorship every bit as much as dependence on software protocols and platforms does. Anything for which we require permission is a vulnerability, and your server epitomizes decentralization and censorship resistance.
I find it tragic that Hive gets so much right, but the constant flagging of creators counters and degrades it all by winnowing their number. I eventually have realized that the flimsy excuses and insensible claims made by those that practice such censorship are disingenuous and conceal avarice, because that censorship enables an oligarchy to maintain control of Hive governance, and that is the real reason it afflicts Hive. As a new witness you will be challenging that paradigm, which I strongly support and encourage.
It is serendipitous that just as you spin up a witness, I am notified as I read this post about it that I need to refresh my witness votes. One of my witness votes is going to you as soon as I perform that support maintenance, and I will look forward to your principles demonstrating your implementation and support for the security of Hive with my vote from now on.
Thanks!
I saw your comment shortly before I went to bed, and I appreciate your remarks on the matters that you write about. You clearly demonstrate a sharp, keen intellect, and your writing is impactful to those who do read it.
I do know that a lot of what I post is mundane and mostly ineffectual, but I am, someone - who after all my education (in which I did quite well) , stood to my convictions and decided to go study Visual Arts at university instead of the more "Traditional" pathways that were open and available to my "academic excellence" such as medicine, law and surprisingly - with a high enough score: journalism.
I am a stern and stoic believer in the value of Art as a critique upon society, and its potential to be used as an agent of change. I wrote a post about a month ago discussing that - "Art is a Threat"
I have no criticism of your interests and posts. I just only have so much time to research, and I need to focus. What is important to me is your technical ability and cogent understanding of the issues that matter, which I feel you do.
Art can be very impactful. Bansky's mural on an English court building has recently prompted the government to remove it hastily, because it showed a judge beating an English civilian with a gavel. That's a very strong metaphor for what is going on in Britain today, and millions of Brits will viscerally understand they are not alone - were they to see it.
Absolutely. Different pathways to the same scathing critique of the organised louts who masquerade in the public best interest, but end up serving their own, or the lobbies of nepotism that come out of the cracks like insects, eager to devour the structure; might they get the grant to rebuild it.
My technical ability is limited compared to the prowess of other witnesses. I do not see myself in direct competition with them, because, on a technical skill set, I would be bested considerably.
But I can hold my hand up with pride and say, "here is a node", "it is mine", and only enhance, learn, and grow my skills in operating a piece of software that allows this place to continue functioning.
It's not a competition to secure the chain. While there is clearly competition for higher rank, it's a cooperative effort to secure Hive, and I am aware that Marky, for example, whose chops are significant, has provided node monitoring software he provides to witnesses. In that cooperative effort interpersonal chops matter as much as technical prowess, because enabling all nodes to provide the best security depends on mutual effort. No witness can do it alone. If they tried they'd create a fork.
I will shortly be using the very same software that Marky has available on github to monitor my own node. Their help was instrumental in me getting the node up and running.