It looks like the SteemIt Witnesses were engaged in a high wire act with the blockchain this morning. I took a few pictures of a crane the other day that seemed appropriate for the drama.
I came up with an idea that might encourage folks in the plankton to buy STEEM POWER.
Krill like me focus entirely on how much we receive from the platform without considering what we give.
This is impart because of the data we see. Most of the data on SteemIt and SteemD focus on the rewards we receive.
I contend that most people have an altruistic streak and are interested in how much STEEM they give out. The reports I encounter don't show how much I have given to other Steemians.
I've been here for 168 days. According to SteemItBoard.com, I've upvoted 1305 posts. According to the upvote calculator. The value of my vote during this period has probably been $0.0005 during this period at today's prices.
That means I have given a grand total of $0.65 to the SteemIt.com world. Most of this was washed away as a rounding errors.
I was truly shocked when I realized how little my upvotes give to others.
It took me a long time before I did these calculations.
I think that the best way to build enthusiasm for buying STEEM_POWER is to put up some metrics on how much people are give out.
My calculations show that if I bought $360 of STEEM POWER (480 STEEM) and got my account to the point where my upvote was worth $0.02; then my account would give out about $75 a year.
The reason to buy STEEM POWER is that buying STEEM POWER increases the value of one's upvote.
BTW, buying STEEM POWER isn't just about influence. Personally, I don't give a flying flip about influence. Quite frankly, I've never had a good opinion of the people who set out to be professional influencers on social media.
I am not motivated by the desire to influence people. But I do care about other people, and the fact that having more STEEM POWER would mean that I was giving something to others would motivate me.
So, here is my suggestion: The site steemd.com has metrics about accounts. Midway down the left column are two mysterious figures called "Curation Rewards" and "Posting Rewards" followed by two mysterious figures.
I have no idea what the figures by 
BTW: I am puzzled how someone could create a wonderful tool like SteemD.com and not create documentation that tells us what the figures actually mean?
Anyway, assuming that these figures indicate how much rewards I receive, it would be jolly good fun to create a similar figure that showed rewards that I have given to others.
Since I have little STEEM POWER it would show that I've contributed bug squat. Err, uh, I mean I've given out krill squat. (I've gotta keep with the paradigm)
Okay, I admit, I felt kind of embarrassed when I realized that, even with all of my upvoting, I've only given out a half dollar so far. I think SteemIt would encourage people to buy STEEM POWER if they understood that buying STEEM POWER increases the amount that they give to the creators on the site. That is the end of my suggestion.
BTW, I would like to thank the witnesses who had a terrible day working on problems with the blockchain. Here is a picture showing how tall the crane I encountered was. (there was a lot of smoke from wild fires making the picture hazy.)
