The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzjerry

If you haven't seen Hive account@jerrybanfield's latest trending post (no, not the one of him giving himself blowjobs for 13+ years, the other one about flagging).

Hive account@jerrybanfield had a $1,000+ trending post saying the price of Steem is falling because of flagging and he wants to remove flags from the blockchain. When he announced this previously on SteemSpeak he immediately dropped from #19 to #21 within minutes. Unfortunately, he got back to top 20 shortly after.

He recently went and made an hour video talking about how he gave himself blowjobs for 13+ years, so long that he has scars on his back and has major back troubles. This brought him down to #31 in a few days. While I don't think this is really witness related, the fact he put it on trending for $1,000+ is. Steem already has an image problem and Jerry's nonsense, inaccuracies, and questionable (scammy?) actions give outsiders the impression we are a bunch of idiots and scammers.

Take his recent post where he says Steem's price is falling because of flags and for the blockchain to grow (and as a result, the price) we need to remove flags. Removing flags would be the death of Steem, there would be no stopping the plagiarism, spam, and scams on the platform. Trending would be even worse than it is now. Jerry's post went from $1,200 to below $400 because the community disagrees with it. Regardless how people feel about flags, most flags are the result of one person caring about Steem more than another.

Jerry has admitted he doesn't even write all his posts, he doesn't even run his own witness, he frequently shows he has no clue how the system works, and frequently promotes shady and grotesque content to the top of trending making us all look like fools and scaring off potential investors and users. His only redeeming quality is his promotion of Steem (which he says he is stopping due to flags scaring away new users), but he promotes Steem in all the wrong ways and for the wrong reasons.

The fact the community feels Jerry Banfield is top witness material tells a lot about the current state of Steem. Do we have that many people who just don't give a fuck where we go and how we get there?

I get Jerry is passionate and entertaining, but he is frequently wrong and only really cares about himself. Want some examples?

Jerry's sorry post for his account creation service ripoff claiming he didn't know about alternatives (yet he posted about them weeks prior). He tried to charge 50 Steem to create a new account for users and a 10-20 Steem guilt trip "tip" for something that was available for 5 Steem.
Jerry ripping off the SteemFest brand for SteemFest 2.5 asking users to delegate 5,000 Steem Power to his bid bot for a ticket. Later changing the name and I think even cancelling it.
Jerry's 10X SMT that upvotes everyone 10x their delegated Steem Power. JBC SMT Launch Canceled, Buyers Refunded, Voting Bot Coming Back Online!
Jerry's $180 witness course promoting every user to become witness as it is a "get rich quick" position and charging for information readily available for free when he is the last person to teach being a witness.
Pay $999 to get an upvote every 2 days from a 15K account (roughly 5 year break even period).

Jerry frequently promotes absurd nonsense to trending making Steem(it) look like a get rich quick ponzi scheme then back peddles with an apology post worth a few hundred dollars. Is that the type of witness we want representing the community and our platform? Every vote for Jerry is another vote for this nonsense and ultimately the demise of Steem.

We already have a problem where a large portion of the witnesses in the top 50 are not part of the community anymore. Jerry's actions are even worse for the community. They make us as a community and as a young blockchain look bad.

"If another community presents a better opportunity for free speech on the blockchain and good rewards for authors before Steem removes the ability to flag from the blockchain, I will sell all of my Steem and use my blog here to exclusively promote that competitor."
_{- Jerry Banfield (your top 20 witness)}