Thanks for dropping in with some support. I really appreciate that.
A big motivation for writing this post was I was seeing some anti-witness rhetoric being spread around, which was largely ignorant of the real situation. I would prefer our top witnesses to remain good technical people who are trying to do the right thing long term for the platform....rather than playing populist political games for the sake of garnering votes.
It may be inevitable that our witnesses become less technical and more political, but it is a trend I am quite determined to help resist.
Thank you for your efforts. They are greatly appreciated. It's a challenging line to walk to say things which may be unpopular to some but may ultimately bring the greatest value to the most number of people. I don't want to be part of taking away anyone's extra blogging rewards, but I also don't want to make short-term decisions that have an opportunity cost which, in the long run, could potentially decrease what so many could have enjoyed. We should be thinking about the many millions of users who have not yet signed up, as well as the early adopters we have here now.
It's a fine line to walk, but if we focus on facts and keep integrity intact (as I believe we are both doing) then at least people can make informed decisions and hopefully these kinds of disagreements over the peg can be civilised so we don't get personal or end in flag wars.
For better or worse it is the best we can hope for. I am very pleased not to have been flagged for this post by vested interests. It was one of my concerns :)
I decided a while ago not worry about downvotes. I got downvotes for months from a certain controversial whale (often in the last 12 hours before payout so no more upvotes could undo it). I just accepted it and moved on.