Hi,

Hello! Funny, been trying to reach you for days to no avail and yet you show up immediately when what you are doing is shown to those supporting you... funny how that works. :)

We are very thankful that another witness referred this post to us.

We have a Discord server and we are H24 open for discussions as long as they are respectful.

Some people thrive on misinformation, FUD, victimism, and drama. We usually take an empirical approach to problem-solving, considering that it is the best way to deal with these people, regardless of the time it could take thanks to our resilient team.

No one put anyone in a "bracket"... But bullying users isn't right, not matter the justification.

Using logical fallacies to mix what is good with what is bad to promote a flawed sense of justice is not a good thing.

Downvoting users posts who support witnesses other than yourself isn't protecting STEEM in any way shape or form. It's bullying, plain and simple and there is no place for that on STEEM. And it's certainly not "thriving STEEM". Investors sell their steem when they are downvoted like what you have been doing. You are literally doing the opposite of "thriving steem".

Fortunately, the community was kind enough to trust us as a consensus witness for quite some time and we are extremely grateful for it. Having witness votes from your presumed accounts would not have changed anything. Your reasoning here is flawed.

If you vote for a scammer who openly admits his act, you are essentially taking a public stance in support of his act. You are sending a message to everyone that what happened should be the norm and people can do it without consequences. Considering that a witness vote means that you are delegating the power of decision-making, users have the duty to exercise due diligence and impartially cast their votes based on merit.

You can try to twist this however you want, but the facts remain. I supported my friend Xpilar and so have several others and you are systematically going around downvoting them because they are not voting for the witnesses you want them to vote for.

We usually prefer data and facts rather than emotions and feelings when it comes to justice. We supported Xpilar way before you supported him because we deemed him a good contributor to the community. That is merit. This is why we voted for his witness way before it became a trendy business for profiteers and mercenaries, and way before witness votes were a ping pong game. The same applies to Steem-Supporter.

That being said, I am all for protecting the chain and helping STEEM thrive which is exactly why I want 20 Top Witnesses in there who don't all agree with each other! If you really want to protect STEEM you should want the same thing. The more diversity amongst the Top 20 the better. Having sock puppet witnesses within the Top 20 is not better than having people you disagree with... and that is the whole point of all of this.

We 100% agree that disagreement is a healthy thing and we refuse to have a copy-past witness mindset. Different perspectives allow different ideas and suggestions to emerge. It is always important to brainstorm from all directions because you never know where the right idea could come from. But there is a red line when trust and an essential contract between the witness and the community are breached, which is why we shifted our support. Things happen for a reason.

As a side note, protecting the chain also means working toward its momentum for growth acceleration that can be achieved via curation to facilitate user retention, which you should consider as a Steem Protector considering that all your power is currently mainly used to reward yourself via votes for delegation schemes. Of course, everyone is free to use their power as they see fit, just as everyone is free to regulate the reward distribution via negative voting as they see fit. Everyone is an investor to some degree. Some are oriented toward profiteering, while others actually try to do something to help Steem.

Well there we have it @upvu, they are perfectly ok with being removed as a top witness if steemsupporter is, sounds like we should honor their request.

"Sarcasm is the protest of the weak". You should probably avoid it when discussing serious matters. Prior to any real discussion, everyone is living in a tight, comfy echo chamber that is preventing them from understanding other people's perspectives. In addition to this, trying to degrade other people is usually not a wise strategy for conflict resolution.

Thank you again,