What a mess this platform has become. The CEO himself hasn't bothered posting on here in over a month. What does that suggest about the future of this place?

I see almost daily developmental updates about EOS and other up and coming blockchain projects. Smart Media Tokens? Oh yeah, we have a white paper to reference from September without further insight on the roll out status. As long as Steemit is considered the brand face of Steem, this blockchain will continue to lose market share to more dedicated dev teams.

Grumpy and others touting self-proclaimed rules of engagement embody the Animal Farm atmosphere that has run amok on this site. At first I thought Grumpy's initiative was admirable, considering the lack of guidance from Steemit Inc on the issue of voting abuse. Yet a more in depth look reveals that he himself engages in extensive self-voting, as Hive account@sircork has pointed out. It's hypocrisy, full stop. Anyone not calling it out for what it is also is a hypocrite.

And anyone supporting this nonsense contributes to the madness - it's easy to pick on the small fish, but if engagement drops further, all you're left with is a silo of sanctimonious enforcers of arbitrarily designated laws that controvert the very code that the platform was constructed upon.

Address the code and apply reform across the board equitably to everyone. Targeting users on a whim is not the way to go about encouraging a systemic quality culture. The apparent indifference of the top Witnesses to all of this, despite the oft discussed issues plaguing Steem, is inexcusable.