Being a steem witness isn't easy, whether it be technologically, sociably or betting on the future...
To address the 3 things we identified as the summary of this post:
Technologically, running a steem witness, once you get your witness node up and running does not mean you get to go asleep and wait for it to run on its own. It requires constant updates, monitoring, and a health check of your server cluster.
Sociably, running a steem witness, means you don't just put up a server steem witness, canvass for some votes, and then silently witness blocks and wait for a payout. You have to communicate. You must be visible as the witness node owner, and be approachable to answer questions. Technical aspects are tough enough. Add being sociable to the community you serve, and that requires a bit more effort than you might think...
Betting on the future as a witness... means.. you might have started up your witness node when STEEM was $3.50/STEEM each.. and saw it drop down to as low as $1.15/STEEM. Do you believe in this platform? Not only as an investor... but as someone who has bills to pay by being a steem witness?
Running a steem witness during high steem prices is easy. Running a steem witness at a loss, for many weeks or months, out of pocket, is the first thing that defines true steem witnesses vs those only in it for profits.
@intelliwitness is here for the long term. On our best days, we break even. On most days, we operate at a loss. This is because we have a long term forecast that operating our witness node will be profitable much later on as steem develops.
So if you have a few remaining votes, and want to vote for a non-top 50 witness that believes in the steem chain like you do.. please consider @intelliwitness as one of your 30 free votes that you are able to give.
With that being said... our witness nodes are fully up to date, with the latest security patches and upgrades, and we're here going strong, for the long term.
Thank you goes to those people who have already voted for us.. and we sincerely appreciate all of you who did.
As time goes on... and as steem price eventually increases, those early voters to intelliwitness will receive some sort of reward or gift back later. Those details will be explained in the future.
You got my vote @intellwitness I'll be checking in on you and up-voting.
Thanks! However, I just looked, you are only voting for2 witnesses so far:
https://steemd.com/@manorvillemike
swap you :)
mutual ?