What an incredible few days. Hard Fork 20 was the best thing that ever happened to the STEEM blockchain.
Yesterday's post dealt with my conclusions about some of what is taking place. This expressed what I believe the benefits of the hard fork to be.
Today, I am going to deal with why the fiasco that took place was the best thing to ever happen to STEEM. The hard fork, itself, is going to do wonders for STEEM yet it might pale in comparison to what else took place.
There is a lot of finger pointing, whining, and complaining. Many are upset with what took place. Here are some of the sentiments expressed both on STEEM and Telegram.
STEEM is done.
Steemit failed us.
The Whales want to destroy STEEM.
It is only for the rich to get richer.
They want to get rid of the Planktons.
I can't do anything.
Steemit are liars, crooks, and/or incompetent.
I could go on but you get the point.
Now I am going to lay it all on the line for everyone.
We getting exactly what is deserved. The truth of the matter is it is our own fault. We created this so it is time for us to own up to it..
This is blockchain, We all need to learn what is going on.
Steemit.com does not run nor update the blockchain. Yes, they are the ones who write the code for it. They also can make suggestions and try to influence what is adopted. However, what took place is not their fault.
Steemit.com cannot implement anything.
The Witnesses appeared to be at fault. In fact, I mistakenly called them out. But the more I think about it, this is incorrect. Sure, they might have been ignorant to the testnet, too distracted to fully use it, or too complacent. At the same time, they might have been nervous about going counter to what Steemit.com suggested.
Whatever the reasons, this is not the Witnesses fault either.
The responsibility lies with us. This is our blockchain. In the past I wrote about dedication and commitment to the blockchain. With that, comes responsibility. The fact that we absolve ourselves of it means we get what we deserve.
One of the biggest advantages to the blockchain is that there is no central entity that runs it or owns it. We are the ones who are the stakeholders. This includes those with 1M SP or the newbie with .001 SP. Both are stakeholders in the ecosystem and have, not only a say, but a responsibility, to what is going on.
Now some of you might be thinking that I am getting a bit too intense about this. After all, this is only a social media site. Placing responsibility for an online place where I post and upvote on top of everything else in my life is absurd.
Well if it is only a social media site, why the upset about the hard fork issues? If that is the case, then it matters little.
You see, people cannot have it both ways. If this is just a social hangout site, then whatever happens means little. We all have been on sites that ended up shutting down. We moved on, not the end of the world.
If, however, STEEM is a lot more than that, and judging by the reactions, it is, then we have the responsibility to step up our game and do our part.
The witnesses are the ones who decided to adopt the software upgrade that is Hard Fork 20. They are the line of defense between us, the community, and Steemit.com. Yes, as it turns out, things went poorly and the witnesses embraced something they should not have (at least in the manner/timing it was done).
Yet, the truth is we are the ones who put them in that position. Whatever the faults of the witnesses, they are only there because of us. We are the ones who have control over that.
The process starts with voting. This is where the STEEM community completely fails. Ironic, the ones screaming the loudest, just from looking up a few accounts, are the ones who seem not to vote at all. If you cannot even be bothered to vote for a few witnesses, how can you complain about what is happening?
Worse than not voting at all is upvoting 30 witnesses on a whim and then forgetting about it. This is another sign of absolving ourselves of responsibility.
I mean seriously, if one is renting a place, and a pipe breaks, is that person going to sit and complain about or do something about it? Doesn't one get off the couch to shut the water off? Isn't it true that one gets his or her stuff out of the way? Perhaps grabs a few towels to dry things up.
Why does this person do it? Because he or she is a stakeholder.
Yet, we seem not have the same mindset with STEEM.
Of course, many will say that they have so little voting power it makes no difference. That could be true on an individual basis but on a collective basis, votes from a few thousand Planktons could move a witness from 22 to 20 or vice versa. That is a huge difference in that witness' standing.
Voting is not the only thing that is required. How much do we vet these witnesses? Those without voting power, did you write a post or two about particular witness or asking some questions? It could be true that nobody would read it since you have no following yet, if you use the #witness tag, there are many who go through that.
There are other ways to get to these witnesses. 
Discord is also a mecca for witnesses. Utopian has a discord channel where a lot of witnesses hang out. I do not frequent it since they speak a lot of geek but that does not mean it is inaccessible. Many of you heard me mention 
I believe there are many others on this blockchain who would do the same thing.
There are just a couple ideas off the top of my head about ways we all can be more attentive to what is taking place here. It is a mistake to blame others when this is our blockchain. We are the stakeholders. Yes, so are the witnesses but we are the ones who need to hold them accountable.
https://busy.org/@wwf/trust-is-a-fickle-creature
For all the issues, Hard Fork 20 being such a cluster-you-know-what put us all on notice. It is time to turn that into the positive. What are we going to learn from it AND, more importantly, what will we do differently? This is how we move passed this in an upward manner.
Fortunately, we are already seeing the benefits to this:
Here is a video with 
https://busy.org/@lukestokes/steem-is-broken-a-conversation-with-sida-of-partiko
Here is a post by 
https://busy.org/@aggroed/hf20-has-incredible-potential-the-roll-out-has-been-less-than-awesome
And by the way, he hosts a Witness Forum where anyone is free to join in. Here, again, we see a resource available to us. Perhaps more Steemians will participate from now on since we saw what happens when we are remiss in our own responsibility.
https://busy.org/@aggroed/steem-witness-forum-tomorrow
By the way, the ones I linked to here happen to be on my Witness voter list, which should tell you what I think about them. However, do you own due diligence to determine who to vote for.
Also, I would caution against only looking for witnesses who post a lot of content. There are many who are fabulous geeks (I say that with great admiration) yet are not writers or big time content creators. They might be too busy coding and doing other things on the blockchain that we do not see.
The final point I want to make with this is that we are seeing some people step up and take responsibility.
https://busy.org/@edicted/fulltimegeek-is-already-99-witness
I will reiterate that anyone who has been on here for more than a few months has seen what
Another one who stepped for is 
https://busy.org/@fknmayhem/i-wasn-t-going-to-post-about-hf20-yet-i-am-going-to-post-about-hf20
One thing I can say about
In fact, this gem is from that article:
There needs to be more pressure on this chain. Pressure to achieve excellence. On all possible levels.
It took me almost 1800 words to express what was said in a handful. This is what it is all about.
The benefit of the fiasco that accompanied Hard Fork 20 is that it served as a wake up call to all on here. It is our responsibility to learn what is going on while putting pressure on those who are entrusted with our collective best interest. If someone is not getting the job done, then it is up to us to remove our vote while spreading the word as to why.
Here is the bottom line: if we do not like something, it is imperative that we make the witnesses aware of what our views are. At the same time, we need to pressure them into action. If that requires them going to Steemit.com and having something different done, then that is what is needed.
Fortunately, it appears this mishap was as much of a wake up call for the witnesses as it was for the rest of us.
The golden age of STEEM is ahead of us.
When I was drinking, I was piledriven into the pavement by alcohol. That was not the end of me but the start. We all were driven into the ground by this Hard Fork. Yet do not believe for a second it is the end of STEEM.
Instead, it is only the beginning of something much bigger and better.
If you found this article to be informative, please give it an upvote and resteem.