After a recent discussion on a discord thread, I learned more about what the witnesses are supposed to be doing and that I'm supposed to care.
I was told, "vote for witnesses that agree with what you want the STEEM blockchain to become".
Huh. What I want it to become? pffft. Give me a break.
That seems a bit naive to me since the notion of "democracy" on the Steem platform is convoluted and lopsided. All the of the steem voting 'power' of collecting rewards goes to a very centralized group of devs and capital investors.
My question, to which I'm still waiting for an answer is, "How do I really KNOW who is a "good witness" and who is willing to say whatever I want to hear that makes them sound like a "good witness" to me?
Why do I have 30 votes? Is there a reason for that number or is it arbitrary?
I realized I pay little attention to the "witnesses." I looked over the votes I'd given out, and all of them were given because a person who had their name on one of the steem apps I was playing with at one time. Is that enough to get my vote? Is the fact that someone created a different application for the steem blockchain the same as agreeing with what I want the steem blockchain to become?
I repeat: "Pfffft."
You know what? Why do I care?
Why should I care?
Why should I put forth the effort of researching anything outside of the incentivized actions of curating and creating original content?
Will I get more reward for voting for "good witnesses"?
If I vote for a "bad witness" according to someone else's standards, will they then start downvoting my posts in punishment? Why not?
What stops them?
There are people who make shit posts for steem all day long and make hundreds on them by way of the various hustles we see all over the place. Do I vote for the witnesses who the shitposters are NOT voting for since, by the transitive nature of intention, if someone who is doing something I don't like and they are voting for a witness, I should treat that witness as someone who is working for the blockchain which I don't want to become?
So.... forgive the rant. I know a lot of people eventually make posts like this, after they realize their 'good-faith'efforts at generating income for original material is wasted when a handful of people, playing by the rules, are able to post, upvote themselves with bots and dummy accounts and others, butthurt about those people are able to downvote those posts using votes and dummy accounts.
One of my first experiences on steem was stumbling on a haijin post, voting on it, and then getting downvoted and harrassed by a bunch of 'steem justice warriors' who claimed I was helping haijin "rape the reward pool." I didn't know about the political situation and found myself victimized because of my vote.
That is a negative mark on ALL of steem.
I'll wrap this up... there is no point I'm working towards. Simply venting because I'm coming to the conclusion that steem is not really worth my time.
I've heard rumors of a "steem 2" being created.... I have split feelings about that. But, at the end of the day, participating in steem is fun for some, rewarding for others, but not worth any of the time and energy for almost everyone else.
Getting back to the point of this post.....
Hey witnesses..... who are you and why should I vote for you and how do I know you are lying like politicians in every democracy do to get votes?