I think HF20 has gone as expected. Now, it depends what your expectations were.
I wanted to start this post's title by "I'm excited!". But apparently some aren't, and I don't want to be the only kid on the block showing excitement, when others are cautious (nobody can tell them "I told you so" later), or downright critical on various aspects of the entire process.
While we are all focusing on the two most visible changes right now because of the small glitches, the voting mana and the resource credits mana, let's not forget the list of all changes that are of interest to regular users (some more than others).
Regarding the voting mana, except the glitch that made it so (un)popular, it's not much to say. It behaves EXACTLY the same way as the voting power did previously, with a minor change. You have a tiny MORE OF IT. Yes, I know it doesn't sound convincing now with the depleted voting mana, but it's true. The change will not be significant to any regular user, but it will have a certain positive impact on heavy voters.
RC mana changes are really interesting. While I made my own observations and tests before most of us were able to post again, the process of stabilizing the costs over the RC system will continue for about a week or so (or how @andrarchy is calling it "reaching equilibrium", to avoid using the word "stabilize", because thoughts regarding "instability" are bad to be falsely born in people's minds, and from some disproportionate reactions I've seen, I agree).
One thing I noticed is that costs of operations were reported significantly lower by Steemd during the morning, my time, and switched up as activity picked up.
For someone who has read @steemitblog posts carefully, this is RC system working as intended, and prices fluctuating with the load on the blockchain. A very important information to take into consideration for people running scripts! Intensive blockchain-related scripts should be scheduled while the costs are down.
A reason of concern I've seen expressed is the minimal possibilities to engage for new users. I don't know if after the RC system stabilizes, the costs will be the same.
Right now, a new user with full RC mana can only make two comments or about ten votes or a little more transfers/power ups.
Maybe it's a little too scarce right now, before everything settles, for the new users. On the other hand, Steemit did talk about gamifying the RC system.
DApps can add a gamification component which entices users to "level up" in a way they get more RC mana, to unlock more daily operations. After all, these are free operations users are doing on the blockchain, where everything costs, one way or another.
On the other hand, here are some positives of the same RC system:
- encourages power ups
- desincentivizes spam
- calculates costs more precisely
- lowers costs for witnesses
- prepares to scale up
While I kept my excitement in check, I can't help it but to offer you a virtual champagne. Welcome to Velocity!
Source
Although very good for the overall long-term vision for Steemit, HF20 did not go as expected. Steem Inc. (nor any of the top witnesses) expected the outcome of this release which caused negative RCs. Even the patch hasn't completely fixed the issue. We're all still waiting around for our accounts to recharge. And this all goes back to what I've said about testing. And very little was done prior to this release.
With that said, we should remain positive and see the bright future that these changes bring. We should also learn from these mistakes. But to say it was a successful release does not hold Steem Inc. (or the top witnesses) accountable for future releases. Unfortunately, many of the top witnesses (who actually determine which fork takes place) vote these things through without testing them theirselves. And for us (outside of the top 21), we have no choice but to upgrade if we wish to produce any blocks.
I noticed today that you removed your witness vote for me. And that is fine. Totally your choice. But please understand that there needs to be accountability or we will continue to have issues like this. And I have no problem voicing my concerns. I will not pretend that everything went perfectly fine just to improve moral. It didn't go perfectly fine. But that doesn't mean we're still not the #1 social media blockchain on the planet. :)
I mentioned the glitches too. I was expecting them. Not these in particular. To be honest, if these are the only issues after hard forking we are way better than I had expected.
I tend to agree with the opinion expressed by others that major updates should be hard forked separately, otherwise there is the possibility there could be conflicts and unintended influences between them that are more difficult to test and catch.
Maybe the next hardfork should be focused on one thing alone.
I also heard the opinion that exchanges don't want to have too much work to update the code after a hardfork, especially since Steem is not yet a top crypto, and they might choose to unlist Steem if hardforks are too often. Not really sure what to say about that.
From my information, very few witnesses are really capable to audit the blockchain code created by Steemit. That needs to change (and we need to know who the witnesses with these capabilities - and willingness - are)!
I still think HF20 went on as expected, if nothing else is found broken.
The issues with depleted voting mana and negative RCs are simply too minor incidents, to not consider HF20 a success. It remains to be seen how RC system stabilization goes, there might be some concerns there for small accounts. If the whole incidents would have lasted 1 hour instead of several days, no one would have even mentioned it. Patience and staying positive, as you said, and everything will be ok.
I'm sorry for retracting my vote for your witness! I'm considering giving it to someone I liked during this hardfork. But nothing is final. If I like your future projects as a witness, you might have the vote back. Since I have already voted 30 witnesses, any change I make automatically means another witness loses (at least temporarily) my vote.
I'd like to invite you to the witness steem.chat room so you can see the other issues we're facing. The end user doesn't typically get to see everything going on. But if you really want to learn more, join us: https://steem.chat/channel/witness
We've been very busy with this hardfork. I personally have been going through troves of discussions, staying up to date with parameter settings and patches, and getting an overall feel of what has taken place with this hardfork. For instance, we just learned that the account creation fee didn't update for all witnesses like it was supposed to, so we're updating that now.
Again, didn't go as planned. And for a social media platform it's vital that we do major testing on the testnet prior to updating the network. Imagine if Facebook went down (and you weren't able to post/comment), but they updated their code "successfully". Would that be a success? I highly doubt it. We have to hold ourselves to higher standards. And I know we can do that. But we can't pretend things went smoothly.
I guess I could pretend everything went smoothly and post a bunch of hype to gain more votes as a witness, but I'd rather see our platform succeed in the long-term.
I am watching witness channels carefully. Haven't joined, since I am not a witness, and I don't think my presence there would help.
Yes I saw about the account fee issue. And I saw the one-row solution too.
I don't think we should go on the discussion centralized versus decentralized, pluses and minuses.
I'm glad we both want Steem to succeed on the long term.
I can't still post on my account.. What can be the cause?
Try to post it with steemit.com. You will get an error message telling you how much RC you need (or you still need, I don't remember exactly) to publish your post. Then see how much you have with Steemd and what's your estimated max.
If your needed RC is lower than the estimated max, wait until tomorrow (but don't waste your RC) and post when you have enough RC.
If your needed RC is higher than your estimated max you have these options:
Okay. Thanks