After the many years of promises, the day finally arrived. Communities was finally rolled out, albeit in a beta form. There seems to be a little work to do but at least they are live.
Many noticed a change in the Steemit.com website. The notifications was activated along with Communities integrated into the site.
This is not the only website to go live with Communities. Steempeak also added the feature in its latest update. The team there added a number of updates including adding Badges to the site.
Communities is an important feature that is going to enable users of the site to better access they content they are interested in. The previous way Steem operated was for content simply to be a stream of articles, with little ability to search or filter. Communities will enable anyone to target what they are seeing by honing in on the specific topics.
At the same time, moderation is available. This will help to cut down on spam along with people cross posting into categories with little relevance. The goal is to have more of a "Reddit" feel and give more control to the user base.
With it live on both Steemit.com and Steempeak, it is only a matter of time before it can be implemented into the different Tribes. Since they were a fork of the Steeemit.com software, the integration should not be all that difficult.
This is exciting news and a bit step forward.
On a different note, Justin Sun sent the world of Tron (and Steem) flying with his use of votes for their equivalent of the Witnesses. There were 3 applications voted in using the Tron Foundation stake.
This is something that many in the Steem community rightfully fear with Sun. Through the acquisition of Steemit Inc, he received around 50 million SP and an estimated 20M-25M liquid STEEM. This puts him in charge of the largest block in the ecosystem.
While Steem has more decentralization than Tron and Sun does not have a majority, it is still a healthy amount. To prevent his just asserting his wishes without any resistance (if that is his decision), the community needs to get out and vote.
Using the daily chart from 
The solution is for all to vote for the Witnesses.
As we can see, the Dolphins and Orcas control over 157,000 MVests. This is more than Sun's potential 75K. Here we see that these groups can vote their stake for at least the same 5 (minimum) Witnesses and offset that large stake.
This means that those 366 accounts can make a huge difference. Couple this with the over 2,000 Dolphin accounts and we can see how the community can come together.
https://steempeak.com/statistics/@arcange/steem-statistics-20200218-en
The mantra needs to be "Vote. Vote. Vote.". We often tout the power of the Steem community, here is a prime example of where we all need to come together in defense of our independence.
There is more than enough Steem Power presently staked to offset the original Steemit Inc stake.
Steempeak is also doing its part in bring the awareness to the Steem Community. Part of the update is a "Did you Know" feature.
The Steempeak team has consistently shown who's corner they are in.
It is good to see what is unfolding. Steem is marching forward in a big way. The updates that are coming out only make the community and what Steem is offering stronger. There are always going to be challenges and threats from the outside. Innovation, development, and cohesiveness enable Steem to overcome whatever happens.
After a two year bear, we are not only still standing, but the platform is improving. This is something that not all can claim. Throughout that time, a core group of people kept plugging along putting Steem in some very strong hands. It is up to us to exercise that power.
Decentralization is not an instant result. It takes time to spread things out. As we can see, through the efforts of the Steempeak team, Steemit.com is not the only game in town. In fact, on many levels, Steempeak far surpassed that application.
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Posted via Steemleo