Hi, dear Hivers
In response to Hive account@bluemist's writing initiative, see details here, these are my top 3 witnesses.

Disclaimer:

Like most hivers, I rarely have the chance to directly interact with witnesses. Most of us, when we get to the platform, know very little about the technical intricacies of its functioning. We do our best to educate ourselves about the role of witnesses and the importance of the community in supporting those who really work for the platform. That being said, to understand what witnesses do does not come easy for the average folk and many of us vote for them based on some recommendation or assumption based on someone else's votes.

Some witnesses, like Hive account@therealwolf, Hive account@arcange, Hive account@lukestokes, or Hive account@cervantes, are more active than others. They post regularly and interact in the comment section of their posts. They are accessible and nice and that makes them liked and popular. They usually try to inform the community about changes in the platform and how to interact in light of those changes (especially HF). Because most of what they post about is technical and most of us understand little of it, chances are we grow distant unless we have an emergency and need to contact any of the witnesses to see if they can help us solve our problem.

That has been my case and this initiative gives me the chance to talk about it. I have cast my votes for a long time now. I did it when I was in Steemit and I have been trying to update those votes now in #Hive. I understand some witnesses are no longer active, so, I am removing those votes and giving them to other witnesses, again, based on a suggestion more than on actual follow ups of their contributions to the platform. I believe very few of us have the time or understanding to do that.

In either case, I do not have enough exposure to many witnesses as to make an educated selection, but the situation that moved me to contact some of them and this initiative have made me rethink my role as part of this community and the role of witnesses both in their technical job and their interaction with the community.

Hive account@ausbitbank

was one of the witnesses I contacted to inquire about a friend's blocked account and I did it because some of his posts are related to the subject. He responded promptly and even though the diagnosis was not very hopeful for my friend, it was pretty accurate and that was good. He also direced us to other sources of information, especially a post by Hive account@arcange, to help us take actions to try to have the problem solved.

Hive account@cadawg

One of the persons we contacted, because of his notoriety on Twitter and his accessibility, was Nathanmars and he directed us to Hive account@cadawg. He too was very accessible, kind, and helpful in trying to help us. We have not still solved the problem. Our friend's account is still blocked and recovering it may be a big issue because it involves steemit as a recovering account partner, or something like that, which I hope can be sorted out because I cannot believe that so much knowledge of the platform and involvement in its development cannot allow a team to help rightful owners recover their accounts. The issue has made us aware of the importance of getting involved and learning more about the platform and what we must do to avoid further problems, given some of the security limitations. So I guess that's the bright side of it. In any case, I want to highlight the accessibility and knowledgeability aspect of the interaction,which makes us feel welcome and protected to the best of their abilities.

Hive account@curie

My relationship with Hive account@curie is a rather sentimental one. Corny as it may sound, I fondly remember my first Hive account@curie upvote, which came in a most needed time after months of not much support back in my steemit days. I did not know anything about curie or their role as witnesses. That might have been my first witness vote.
However, I think that the role of Curie in supporting and promoting quality content is unlike any other witness. I do not know details of their code/node/or-whatever-they-call-it work, but I know that they have been very visible making bloggers grow and encouraging them to produce content that makes the platform a better place.

So, this has been my limitted experience with witnesses. I hope to close the existing gap, which as I perceive it may be caused by self-imposed intimidation, but also by lack of knowldge and understanding of what witnesses do. They too, should keep their effort to reach to the community, especially the newcomers and the old folks who have focused on producing content in detriment of learning about and contributing more to the development of the platform.

Thanks for stopping by