I'm interested to read this today. I have been here since June 2017. I voted for a few witnesses when I got here and never looked again. Recently I went to look at what I have done and added some votes and removed some.
I seriously have no idea what a witness does beyond "making steemit work." I'm all for that, glad they get paid for their efforts, and I'm glad to support them if I can.
What struck me when I got to the witness page was that I have never even seen the names of many of them - never seen posts - never seen anyone else post about them. This was a big surprise. I expected to see mostly people I know had have to make difficult choices. Instead I saw only a few I know and voted for them and made a few write in votes for others.
I'm posting on steemit constantly and feel like I get around pretty widely. If I am not seeing the witnesses so that they make an impression on me - neither are any of the other minnows.
Yes, the top witnesses gained their position early on and now don't seem to interact much publicly.
The new design I have proposed for the witness voting page will help address this by showing a link to the latest witness update post from each account: https://steemit.com/utopian-io/@ura-soul/suggestion-improved-witness-voting-page-for-steemit-com
ok - I will put this on my list to look at. Thank for helping us little guys figure out what to do :)