As a witness for Steem, there are a couple of major problems that are obvious in the Steemit.com website that need to be resolved quickly (but probably won't be since they have been here for a long time already)...
The first one is that the witness voting page stops at #50 in the list, even though there are currently over 130 active witnesses.. I have already posted about that in detail.
The second one is the focus of this post - which is that there is a longstanding bug with the witness voting page on Steemit.com whereby votes for witnesses are often not logged. I have lost count of the number of people who have told me they have voted for me using the Steemit.com witness voting page, but where, in fact, the vote has not been counted.
@timcliff informed me earlier that he has opened an issue for the Steemit.com project (condenser) in Github, here which logs the issue and attempts to find the cause of it. Unfortunately, neither Tim nor I (nor apparently the other witnesses in the steem.chat) are in a position to quickly find the source of this bug and it appears to be a tricky one to track down. I have passed it on to the other Steem developers though, to see if they will have a go at it!
Solutions!
In the meantime, here's three solutions to this annoying problem - one is for making single votes to specific witnesses and one is for general voting. They both involve using SteemConnect to handle the witness voting instead of using Steemit.com's own witness page.
1. Use @steem-plus
The handy dandy browser extension for steem by @stoodkev called 'Steem Plus' contains a page for witnesses that allows you to view data about the current profile you are viewing. If you view your own profile and then view that witness page, you can then add or remove witness votes.
You will be asked to sign in to Steem Connect once you make a change to your votes, which should be no problem.
This appears to work very well. Win!
2. Create a button
We can create links or buttons to use in posts or websites, as I have done at the bottom of this post, that also make a vote via Steem Connect for a nominated witness.
Just insert the following code into a post somewhere, replacing my name for the name of the witness that you want to make the link trigger a vote for:
https://steemconnect.com/sign/account-witness-vote?witness=ura-soul&approve=1
Alternatively, if you want to cancel a vote using this link for some reason (Such as that you want to include a link in your footer to unvote the witness you like the least.. lol) - then just change the 'one' at the end of the link to a 'zero'.
3. Use the Witness list at Steemian.info
Thanks to @drakos for pointing out that he has added support for witness votes and unvotes into the witness list at Steemian.info. He also used Steem Connect for that, so if you want to see witness stats all together and make votes at the same time, Steemian.info is for you!
That's it! Workarounds might be the best we can get here for a while, since the Steemit inc. team are so busy working on other things.
Wishing you well,
Ura Soul
Vote @ura-soul for Steem Witness!
View My Witness Application Here
(Witnesses are the computer servers that run the Steem Blockchain.
Without witnesses there is no Steem, Steemit, DTube, Utopian or
Busy... You can really help Steem by making your 30 witness votes count!
Don't forget, there are more than the 50 witnesses you see on the witness voting page in steemit.com)
You can also vote/unvote for witnesses at https://steemian.info/witnesses, I implemented that a while ago. The voting is done through SteemConnect.
Ah, great - yes. I edited the post to include that option. :)
Ah, great - yes. I edited the post to include that option. :)
I love steemian.info, it invites reflection.
For instance, there are several things that I notice and still puzzle me: when does the blockchain decide that a witness has become inactive (in order to replace his public witness key to one with "111111" in the middle) ? After a number of missed blocks or is there some special "ping" off-band ?
The other is the "bias" - I do not understand how it works (I'm not proficient enough to be able to read the code). A bias of 50% means that for each 2 STEEM there are 3 SBD going into the reward pool ? For a bias of 1000% does it means that for each STEEM going to the reward pool there are 10 SBD too ? Or am I completely off the mark ?
Thanks
Thank for shearing this with us I have one question..
What is the benifit of steem witness vote for us? @ura-soul
Witnesses are the people/servers who run the Steem Blockchain. Witnesses are responsible for setting some of the parameters of the blockchain, such as the price of creating new accounts, for example. The most important role is that we have to decide whether or not to adopt a hard fork for Steem, when they are proposed... So basically, witnesses - collectively - decide the rules of Steem and so also decide the future of Steem.
You can read more details about all of this in my original witness application thread.
Excellent post, @ura-soul! Let's not forget the third issue of inactive witnesses still taking up spots in the witness hierarchy. 😎
Thanks! Currently there is only one in the top 50 though, so that isn't such an issue now, thankfully.
Also, inactive or disabled witnesses are not scheduled to produce blocks and are therefore completely ignored by the blockchain.
The complaint about the dead witnesses being in the top 50 was that they prevented active witnesses from being seen in the witness voting page on steemit.com. This would be resolved by just updating the witness voting page along the lines of the design which I already suggested that shows more witnesses than just 50:
https://steemit.com/utopian-io/@ura-soul/suggestion-improved-witness-voting-page-for-steemit-com
wow i guess steem-plus is the best and easiest way to vote a witness. Have resteemed this post to my followers too.
There will be a time when Facebook will delete from everyone's heart and enter the project.
Thanks you information
Semoga sukses selalu
Great way to creating witness...
I don't know about creating witness.. Thanks for sharing with us..@ura-soul
super post,information do working
In order to be a witness you have to invest in computing hardware and internet bandwidth.
IMHO anyone who does so to aid the steem blockchain is worthy of having their name put on the list.
The top 50 is either... the developer was just looking at normal sorting web pages, or they were evilly trying to keep anyone from climbing in the ranks.
Anyway, the list should include everyone who runs a witness.
Even if the programmers have to bend over backwards to get it done.
It needs to be done.
(Do you have the ear of any developer, whom, if given the code, would implement the fix?)
I will go for the second option, it's easy and direct.
Thanks you....
interesting as usual, I have a rough idea about what witness is, but what is hard fork? I went thorough it fast but did not understand really the meaning of this term
'Fork' is the name given to the situation when software is split into multiple concurrent versions that co-exist. So you might have two versions of the same software that are managed by different teams that now compete. When Steem forks, there is a need for witnesses to choose which version to adopt and whichever one is chosen predominantly by the top 17 witnesses will become the version that everyone else needs to use if they want to carry on witnessing.
OMG, I'm sorry that I asked, you have killed my dream of becoming a witness assistant even...Just kidding, thank you so much for the clarification, now i have an idea about witnesses and fork thing.
I done vote last month
Thanks for a golden post.
Thanks for a golden post.
I think this was really a wonderful initiative by drakos, it makes more sense