I don't think witnesses thought everything was fine because last year some considered hard forking out the steemit stake which may have been a far worse fiasco than this. I did not support it.
But you are correct. This happened on our watch. We took what action we could to protect the chain and something unprecedented happened where exchanges powered up and voted in sock puppets in a Sybil attack. That can happen right now to just about any DPoS chain. Hopefully we can improve DPoS governance to prevent this in the future.
What do you think we should have done instead? Forked out the stake? Done nothing to counter the statements made by Tron about moving everything over to their blockchain without even consulting the witnesses or the community?
I see a lot of complaining lately, but what would you have done if you were a witness? What would have been a better course of action to protect the chain?
If you say reach out and talk first, that's exactly what I tried to do. A mutual friend got me in touch with Justin (thought it took a few days). An email dialog started on Sun, Feb 23. He replied on Tue, Feb 25 saying Roy would reach out to me. I heard nothing for 7 days until I sent a follow up email, but by then the v0.22.2 softfork and v0.22.5 softfork and chain takeover were already done (along with the damage).
I would sincerely like to know what you think witnesses could have done better?