Get your WITNESS VOTES in for a chance to WIN SBD!
Too many people are using Steemit without voting for witnesses. This contest is my attempt to change that. Read on to find out how you can participate and get a chance to win some SBD!
DISCLAIMER: No one put me up to this. I am not a witness. I am friends with quite a few, but you don’t have to vote for the same ones I do in order to be eligible to win. This is simply my personal initiative to get more people voting for witnesses.
Why vote?
Steem doesn’t exist without witnesses. They keep the blockchain alive and the top 20 witnesses are the ones who make decisions about changes.
If you are using Steemit, if you are investing in Steem in any way, you need to be voting for witnesses. If you don’t know anything about witnesses, read this post by @drakos to learn more. (This link is past payout, so don't upvote it, but some excellent info in there.)
Also, @rhondak recently posted a fantastic article titled Witness Voting Oversimplified. (Feel free to upvote this one if it's within the 7 day payout by the time you read it. She did a great job writing it!)
“How can I win SBD?”
This is what you really want to know. I get it.
But what I want is to see more people using their witness votes and participating in the workings of the platform. That’s why I’m dangling a prize out to motivate you.
If you are already voting for witnesses, THANK YOU! You’re awesome!
If you’re not voting for witnesses, do your research and get some votes in.
CONTEST GUIDELINES:
1) Upvote and resteem this post. The more this post earns, the more SBD I can give away. I will throw 10 SBD into the pot. Several others have donated, so see the current prize pool below!
2) Vote for witnesses. Research them. Be sure you don’t vote for dead witnesses as that will disqualify you from the contest. You can check witness activity on https://steemian.info/witnesses.
3) Comment on this post and tell me about at least one witness you vote for and why. Thoughtful comments matter. This is how I’ll be choosing winners.
GET 'YER BONUS POINTS HERE:
Want an even better chance at winning? Any of the following will help (but are not required).
- Attend the witness chat on the Steemit Ramble on Saturday, May 19th (details below).
- Write a post about witnesses (and let me know you did).
- Help other Steemians learn about witnesses and get them to vote! If you get someone to vote who has never supported witnesses before, I’m going to take that into consideration, so talk to your friends and make sure they’re voting for witnesses.
- If you have never voted for witnesses before, and do so now because someone helped you learn about the importance of witnesses, please mention their name in your comment!
MASSIVE #GRATITUDE to the following people for donating SBD to grow the prize pool!
- 5 SBD from @saffisara
- 5 SBD from @idikuci
- 5 SBD from @dreemsteem, on behalf of @welcomewagon, an initiative to help newbies learn about the platform.
- 5 SBD and 10 SBD from two separate anonymous witness donors who wish to support this awareness initiative, but want to remain nameless as they are not trying to sway any outcomes.
If you want to donate, I will be updating this list as I can. Thank you to everyone who is supporting this effort to increase awareness around witness voting!
The PRIZE POOL is currently at 40 SBD!
Participate in the Witness Chat, Saturday May 19th, 11am EDT
This will be the third witness forum hosted by @shadowspub on the Steemit Ramble Discord server. I learned a ton during the last one, and loved seeing how many witnesses showed up. There was laughter, discussion (sometimes heated), and exceptional participation by witnesses and non-witnesses alike.
In the words of @sircork, “Pay attention to the witnesses who show up.” I know he’ll be en-route to the Nashville Steemit meetup that day, so I don’t know if Corky will be able to attend the witness chat, but it’s worth taking note what witnesses attend. It also gives you a direct way to hear what they’re about, and ask questions if you have them.
Who I vote for, and why.
Below you’ll find some of the witnesses I vote for (in no particular order), and my reasons why. I’m not going to name all of them, ‘cause you can go to steemd.com/@katrina-ariel and look up my full list of votes if you want, but I believe in strongly in the ones I’m highlighting here. These are suggestions you might take into consideration if you don’t know who to vote for and are looking for good people to support, but please do your own research.
Reminder: you are not required to vote for the same witnesses as me in order to be eligible to be rewarded. I just want to see that you’re making informed decisions and participating. It’s up to you to prove this in your comment.
Here are some people who I think are doing good things for the platform:
@enginewitty
This guy is a personal friend. I trust him. Our kids are buddies. But the reason I vote for him as witness is because he is invested in the success of Steem and genuinely cares about people. He runs a witness server, actively builds Steemit communities including @thealliance, supports charities, and delegates to initiatives like the @welcomewagon. He adds quality content to the platform and is generously supportive in countless ways.
@drakos
Another witness who shows up with integrity and generosity, Drakos runs steemian.info, supports @the-resistance, delegates to @youarehope, and engages with me and others who are adding quality content to the Steemisphere.
@steemcommunity
This team of @abh12345 and @paulag is focused on, you guessed it: community. Truly, without community, Steemit isn’t worth much. Asher constantly impresses me with his focus on engagement, and particularly supporting newbies to the platform, as evidenced in his recent welcome to Steemit competition.
@sircork
This witness team is comprised of @sircork, who is the founder of @youarehope (a Steem-based charity helping people in impoverished situations) and the mastermind behind the @steemstarnetwork, and @rhondak, who is a co-founder of @thewritersblock, and also runs the animal shelter @tarc. They both work tirelessly to add value to Steemit and various communities on discord. They’re smart, funny, and outspoken, albeit in different ways. I’ll also be meeting them at the Nashville Steemit meetup next weekend, which I’m excited about!
@patrice
Patrice fights a necessary and worthy battle against spam and plagiarism on Steemit. Tune into her Trash Talk shows on the SteemStarNetwork to find out what’s new with her and her team. I find her easy to approach, and value her take on what’s happening on the platform.
@curie
This witness represents a group of curators who look for outstanding content on Steemit. They especially focus on rewarding newcomers to the platform. I’ve been fortunate enough to have several posts “Curied,” and can honestly say this helped me have confidence in Steemit. Curie is one of the reasons I’m still here.
@ocd-witness
Another curation guild, OCD looks for worthy posts to reward and resteem, bringing them more exposure. @gmuxx wrote a great post if you’re interested in the curation process.
@followbtcnews
Jeff and @crimsonclad run this server, which is in the top 20. Crimsonclad is super fun, supportive, and helpful—present in lord-knows how many discord servers. Here’s their latest witness update.
@guiltyparties
This witness is part of #thealliance and #steemsilvergold and supports veterans on Steemit. He’s active in building community and keeping the platform safe from phishing, as well as working with Steemcleaners. Check out his latest witness update.
@thekitchenfairy
Another member of #thealliance, she’s a friend and has just gotten her witness server up. Happy to see another woman running a witness.
@jatinhota
A core member of #thealliance, this witness is a founding member of @indiaunited, and is always there to help a friend.
@pharesim
This witness is active on the platform, supporting content creators and acting from a place of integrity.
@jackmiller
This witness is approachable and interacts with community. I like this line from his latest post on networking: “One of the things that I consider a responsibility as a Steemian is to look for what people have in common. What can help unite us as people.” YES, Jack! Yes.
@anarcho-andrei
I’ll be meeting Andrei in person at the Nashville Meetup next weekend. He’s also one hell of a writer, and on my #steemwars crew in @thewritersblock.
@timcliff
This heavy-hitter has a reputation for being helpful and genuine. He showed up to the last Steemit Ramble witness chat, and I appreciated hearing his views. Hope he attends again so I can learn more from him.
All of these witnesses do more than what I’ve highlighted here, and I still have much to discover about them and their role as the keepers of the blockchain. However, I hope this list gives you ideas of people to vote for, or at least ideas of what to look for as you do your own research. My votes are constantly changing as I learn more.
Yes, I vote for a number of friends. Why wouldn’t I? They’re keeping the platform alive, I know they’re good people, and I hope they’ll make it high enough up in the witness ranks to actually earn some money to feed their family. I do make sure to vote for developers/coders as well as social witnesses.
Take note, every witness has invested a good amount of time and funds to get their server running and keep it that way. The top 20 witnesses are also the ones who make most of the money. If someone you believe in is a witness and not in the top 20, they need your vote to move up the ranks!
Get Voting!
Go here to vote for witnesses: https://steemit.com/~witnesses
You’ll need your active key to vote for witnesses. When you’re finished voting, log out and log back in with your posting key. All of this might sound complicated the first time (it did to me), but it gets easy after a while. ;)
To vote for someone who isn’t in the top 50, you simply write their Steemit username in the box (without the @ symbol).
Spread the word and comment below for your chance to win SBD!
Resteem this, write a post, tell your friends… Get involved.
I don’t have a current statistic on how many people vote for witnesses, but the percentage of people who vote vs. those who use the platform is embarrassingly low, considering the fact that this blockchain does not exist without witnesses.
I’ll be awarding prizes after this post pays out, and after seeing who shows at the witness chat on the Steemit Ramble. I’ll also be travelling next week, so if it takes me longer to go through the comments, so be it. One way or another, I’ll choose some winners, send some SBD, and make a post about it as soon as I’m able.
I know this has been a long post, but it’s important. Thank you for reading, thank you for being here, and thank you for participating as we co-create this Steemiverse.
Peace. @katrina-ariel
(credit: gifs above via giphy.com)
Author bio: Katrina Ariel is an old-soul rebel, musician, tree-hugging yogini, and mama bear to twins. Author of Yoga for Dragon Riders (non-fiction) and Wild Horse Heart (romance), she's another free-spirit swimming in the ocean of Steemit.
dragon art: Liiga Smilshkalne
CLICK HERE TO VOTE FOR WITNESSES
Yes, I love @enginewitty. This gif ^^ is at the bottom of all my posts. Once again, you don't have to vote for him or any of my witnesses in order to win, but I am also free to show my bias in my footer. ;) Good luck! I can't wait to read your comment!
was about to upvote this one, but since @fyrst-witness was not even mentioned, I will just drop it for this time.
mentioned or not, doesn't matter, it matters that the witness thing was mentioned :-)
still, there's very small number of people that knows that witnesses exists
(and that being a witness has nothing to do with voting on posts)
Good job @katrina-ariel! :-)
Thank you, Gandalf the Grey! 💖
Y'all, if you don't know, @gtg is a witness. I vote for him, and this kind of comment solidifies my vote. He might not have been mentioned above, like a lot of other witnesses, but the point of this post was to encourage you to go out and make your own decisions. While you're at it, be sure to check him out!
Spoken like a man and not the selfish colleague.
WTF? Get back in here and throw %100 on this post. At least pretend you have a social conscience. @katrina-ariel is doing good for steemit. What have you ever done, you petulant little turd?
Trust me, I'm a doctor.
Considering you upvoted your own comment, that's pretty much a dick move. Remind me again why he doesn't have my vote for his witness?
Perhaps the lack of mention was due to lack of awareness of what the Witness is involved in at present?
@booster is a good clue for starters...
I came to this post in my half-hearted attempt to make sense of the witnessing thing for about the 4th time in a year. I jumped to the comments first and just look what I see at the top. Dang!
This one comment from our boosting friend puts this issue off my list and onto the back burner again. I'm not even going to read the post. And I sure know one witness not to vote for now if I ever get to it again.
But I just found out recently there are 100's of witnesses! - hidden some where - you have to know about them. Figure it out little minnow! Your vote is important LOLOLOLOLOLOLOL.
Holy Moly - the top of steemit is such a worry to me. 100 rich people fighting it out in 47 different battles - incomprehensible to the rest of us. ! I must be nuts but I'm still here.
Back to my posting, and no more useless distractions I hope.
Here is the list of us all: https://steemian.info/witnesses
We are number 97 ( @steemcommunity ) Feel free to proxy your vote through me to save research and selection, if you trust that my intentions are good :)
You can do that at the bottom of this page: https://steemit.com/~witnesses
And you will need your active key to make any choices stick - individual selections or a proxy.
Cheers!
Yes. There's a lot I don't know. I'm learning. And I mostly highlighted people in this post who I've had personal interaction with. Didn't intend to snub anyone, only to increase the awareness around witness voting in general.
Yes, and the fact that said witness has decided that supporting high quality content creators from The Writers' Block doesn't qualify as the kind of creative projects Booster is willing to get behind. . .just sayin.
Aw, that's too bad. It's pretty easy to edit, you know. I'd probably throw you a vote if I saw some goodwill being shared, but sometimes it's nice to see support from a witness BEFORE I cast my witness vote. Curie earned my loyalty this way, and because of their dedication to supporting quality content. I would think, given @fyrst-witness's interest in wanting people to vote for witnesses, that he would get behind this initiative.
Vote for me I will be online next month.
Really? A $21 self vote for your crap comment. You are part of the problem, @booster...
Yeah right !! Iam like WTF. Doesn 't make a lick of sense to me why people would do that
I makes sense only if the person is of bad character. Taking that into account, his adolescent reason for not upvoting the post is shallow arrogance and the reason for commenting was simply to steal from the awards pool for monetary gain.
This huge flaw in Steemit is why I will no longer support the platform.
The protocol was designed so Ned could become rich. He is a fake and Steemit will fail. It is certainly not the Bitcoin of Social Media, it's a mirror of the failed real world of Western Politics, which is a Centralized Oligarchy.
You know what, @notconvinced, I don't appreciate that kind of negativity on this post. You're free to say what you want, of course, but I'm trying to make Steemit a better place, and you're here shitting on the whole idea of it. There are good people here, having fun, being themselves. No, it isn't perfect, but it's also very new. Witnesses are the ones helping drive this ship. It can be changed. If you don't like it, leave, or do something to improve the platform instead of bitching about it.
Yes, I think @fyrst-witness could've made himself look good and shot this post to the trending page. Whatever. All I know is what I'm about, and I'm going to continue to work hard to make this platform a better place. If you're not going to do the same, please go elsewhere.
Well said, i knew i liked you. You ever decide to run for witness...
So if another's truth doesn't match yours it's negative? Sounds quite fake to me.
People need to understand the opposing view to know what fixes are needed. Your shallow view will fix nothing.
I will choose to stay or leave at MY will. Peace out!
Yes, people need to see opposing views. I'm not against you pointing out what needs to be fixed. What I don't get is you badmouthing the platform in general, when you're here. You don't support Steemit, but you're here. Doesn't make sense to me. But you do you. Peace.
Why is your understanding necessary?
Thanks for doing this @katrina-ariel .
I will like to also make myself known. I run the witness called yensesa. A few of the ways we are helping the Steem community is:
Launching the first Steem/SBD to fiat exchange for the African Community. This makes it easy for us to exchange our Steem to fiat using the existing mobile money infrastructure. Most people lose a lot of money trying to convert Steem to other crytos and moving it through multiple trading platforms before they are able to cash out. (https://yensesa.com)
Yensesa Basic Income : This project is to help at least about 60% of Africans that are on Steem to be able to get $5 upvote per day to support themselves. This is $150 per month which is a good basic income for someone joining Steem and working hard with quality content. This also gives us the power to be able to say NO to corrupt governments. Because with a basic income we can at least live on that.
I will be happy if you can add @yensesa to the list of witnesses in the post above.
Your 2nd project sounds very interesting, good luck!
You have my vote. I'm in for a good cause. I will be following your cause and see how it develops.
Thanks @enforcer48, glad you voted for us.
@yenesa i like what your project is all about especially in the aspect of helping steemians earn $5 worth of upvote daily. That's pretty awesome....
I'd like to know more about it
Thanks @funshel, you may join us on discord https://discord.gg/3v2A4An
This is really great.....Are you the guys in Ghana? I think I heard about your project in passing. Would check out your blog in a bit. Cheers
Yes we are in Ghana
Thank you for letting us know what you're about, @yensesa! I've listed only witnesses with whom I've had personal interaction, but your comment here has added value to this post, and others will see it! :)
Thank you for making the post that sparked this great conversation. We hope eventually you will have experience with us as our programs grow to support the community at large.
Phew, finally found some time to update my voting list.
I have my votes mainly for people that are trying to build communities and quality content, or at the other end, removing the trash that can accumulate.
I guess many people have talked about the content supporters, so I would like to talk about the people that try and keep the ecosystem tidy. @anyx and @patrice have the annoying but essential job of taking out the trash from Steemit. It must be horrible to have to deal with the bottom of the pool, but without someone doing it, it would be much harder for genuine content to come to the surface. I really appreciate the effort they do in reducing the amount of trash there is in our beautiful ocean!
@themarkymark is another witness that I want to highlight. For quite some time, I was only using his bots, as he appeared to have an ethical take on a tricky situation (should upvote bots be part of this ecosystem). Well, the question is a bit moot, since they are part of our ecosystem, so the best thing you can do is to at least make the bot service decent quality and not trash and spam. I believe he has done this, via blacklists and spending his own time and effort to personally vet content.
@yabapmatt is another witness that I respect. Again, if you have this bot situation, at least it can be transparent for those of us that can't delve into the Steem chain so easily. With Steembottracker, he has given us the tools to use the bots in a transparent way. Also, other tools like delegation are made quite easy to use on his site.
I'm not going to mention any more, but I respect the witnesses that I have voted for, and I believe they do have the best interests of the ecosystem in their minds. I am looking forward to them leading us to the future of Steem!
EDIT. Whilst reading the comments, I added @gtg.
Thanks for this post. I had written a post about learning more about witness voting and @pathtosuccess shared this link with me. It was in response to this article.
https://steemit.com/witness-category/@realestatecoach/seeking-suggestions-on-witness-voting
Upvoted and resteemed. Now researching your suggestions.
submitted a witness vote for @patrice. I like the fact she is focused on cutting down spam and I enjoyed her post about her new home. Yes, posts in my niche get my attention. :)
Thank you for your comment(s), for sharing your post and that @pathtosuccess helped you find this one! For the record, self-voting your own comments is generally not a great practice, as it looks like you're just trying to reward yourself rather than interact with others. I'm not sure if you know that, so I'll overlook it for now. I would rather see you upvote other people's comments, personally. Anyway, you are entered in the contest. Keep researching witnesses and adding to your votes. Feel free to come back and tell me about any others who inspire you!
i was already voting for some of these witness but thanks to this posts i just voted for @pharesim @patrice @enginewitty @curie @followbtcnews @fyrst-witness .
See? That is why this post is so good! Excelent idea @katrina-ariel
i was thinking on doing something similar but with the spanish community!
Thank you for your comment! So glad you like the idea. I'd be happy to support if you do something similar for the Spanish community, so please let me know if you do!
nice: love your mission and education! @steemcommunity!! @timcliff! @dragosroua! @yabapmatt! @curie! ... some of my favs... not throwing my hat in for the contest per say, but just wanted to highlight these ones for influence's sake :D!
I like the shout out for witnesses you can get behind. Thanks for your comment!
100% upvote lady. YES. so much yes!!!!
I'll toss in 5 SBD to the pot too :) I love getting to know witnesses and adding them to my list!
THANK YOU for doing this! and i love all your bonus points in there. hehehehe fabulous idea.
I'll be resteeming this for the welcome wagon tonight!!!!
oh and by the way - i do NOT want to be entered into the contest hahahaha.
Thank you for your donation and humble support! 💖
💖💖💖💖
One of the witnesses I voted for is @sircork. I supported him before he became a Witness team.
The man himself makes a lot of sense when talking about topics that involves the growth of the Steem blockchain, not just Steemit.
@rhondak is a great example of activism and the hand of diplomacy in the team witness effort as she reaches out to connect with those who are crucial for change.
I decided to append the post here @katrina-ariel.
https://steemit.com/contest/@enforcer48/vote-for-witnesses
Thank you for participating!
Thank you for the mention, @enforcer48 . I do think we need change in a few areas, and I'll keep chipping away until we see it! :-)
Great initiative. 5 SBD into the Pot.
Thank you very much for your donation!
I voted for utopian-io, because what they do ensures open source apps do not remain stagnant, but they encourage the community to effect changes where necessary, leading to a better experience in general. There are many great witnesses out there of course!
Edit: After getting to read a post by @paulag, and finding out she's the one half of @steemcommunity, along with Asher-who I just got to know via his competition, I've voted for them.
Also voted for @curie, for the wonderful job they are doing for the community, even though I am yet to benefit from them. lol
And after going through the comments section, I have also cast a vote for @yensesa
Thank you for your comment!
You are welcome. Thanks too.