hello Steemians!

I've been having trouble with my laptop and phone for a while now, battery issues, but things are finally coming together. The holidays are over, the Sun is shining bright and I'm getting back to full strength.

Even though I've been slow, that didn't stop me from curating the Nigeria community, or getting more interactive with the community.

Despite all the information available on the blockchain, many people do not seem to understand the concepts of what a witness is. . . . .

From the tables of @pfunk the witness,

Witnesses are generally voted for because they are trusted members of the community, positively contribute to Steem and Steemit in many ways, are qualified and experienced in administration of servers, and are experienced in cryptocurrency networks and software. Witnesses are expected to keep a block-producing Steem node running 24/7/365.25. They are also expected to provide an ongoing price feed of the value of STEEM tokens in U.S. dollars, set the minimum Steem Power deposit to create an account, set the APR% for the Steem Dollar interest rate, and in the future might set additional network variables. Witnesses are also strongly encouraged to run a seed-node to provide the blockchain to syncing clients.
quote gotten from pfunk

Multiple posts by @jerrybanfield also give ideas on what witnesses do;

And some old posts by a nigerian @davidthelad also shows some interviews on witnesses and what they do as well

One thing I'm happy for is the fact that all transactions are available to see on the blockchain, whether it be in steemd.com or in steemdb.com. So if you wish to search for anything about witnesses, you can find them on the blockchain.

On who to vote for as a witness-personal opinion ahead

As im sure most of you have seen, voting for a witness should be a personal decision as witnesses can either break or make the steemit ecosystem. They are the ones that set the price feed for steem and maintain a steady system throughout.

Witnesses are the miners, well they break blocks, and process transactions on steemit.

As a rule , I vote on witnesses that are capable of handling the responsibilities of being a witness and not just here for the rewards.

I vote on witnesses that are working towards improving or making steemit a healthy ecosystem.

some of the witnesses I vote for

As can be seen below, the witnesses I vote for are all, in one way or another,connected and commited to building the steemit ecosystem.

My recent votes on witnesses

Iv'e also had the liberty to see and knowsome witnesses that I think have the community at heart.

@sircock from the minnowsupport program has shown some potential in being able to handle the witness chain, and I support him as a witness.

@steemgigs, handled by surpassinggoogle, has helped out a lot in recent times. Being a curator and an all round swell guy, He has shown great potential in building the steemit community.

@agoric.systems, managed by @matt-a @robringo @lovejoy and some others is something of an oddball in the witness chain. Its a collection of tech savvy people who found and run steemit accounts. They seem genuinely attracted to the steemit platform and the graphene technology in particular.

Also matt-a is a witness in the muse chain and is someone to look at for when that platform comes on board fully.
You can check their witness intent below.

https://steemit.com/witness-category/@agoric.systems/witness-campaign-agoric-systems-kindly-asks-you-for-your-vote-to-become-witness.

Some witnesses are dead

While speaking and having a good time with a friend of mine, he made me understand that some witness nodes have not been reporting back for some time, and indeed i went out and checked.

I suggest if youve voted or been on steemit for a while, you go back and check if the witnesses you vote on are still reporting back to the steemit systems.

I took a short stroll to a very useful site created by @netuoso, another witness i voted for by the way, and discovered that some witnesses have not updated or given a report for a while, many from early this year.

the reds are witnesses that have not reported for a while now, if its been over a few months, I would suggest you omve your votes to an active witness till the reds change

ON and ON , how to vote and see witnesses

If you wish to vote for a particular witness, use the link below, ifthe witness is not in the top 50, write their name in the box provided and click the vote button.
https://steemit.com/~witnesses

To get the list of the top 100 witnesses, i suggest you use https://steemd.com/witnesses

steemd.com/witnesses created by @roadscape

Another resource you can use to view witnesses is https://witstats.steemliberator.com/witness_list

• this useful and interactive site is created by @netuoso*

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Vote for witnesses that are capable of handling the system, thanks.