My thoughts on recent events..
It's really painful to watch all this drama for the person who spent so much time trying to make this place welcoming and cozy for everyone.
I urge both parties to calm down and try to come up with some mutual agreement that will last. Please discuss everything publicly, let tokenholders to express their opinion and maybe even vote the things up on an issue by issue basis, don't retreat to tactics that don't leave the other party any space to be productive (these include tokens/votes seizing, no matter whether this is an exhanges voting with users' tokens or witnesses modifing the code so the other party cant cast a vote).
Now when the original witnesses are getting voted back, and there is a brittle status quo, I think it's time to get back to the negotiation table. If you are aware of any top witnesses who may share this position, please mention them in the comments so I can decide on whom to vote.
The Steem blockchain is currently being attacked by a central authority in order to take control of the witnesses. If you are not managing your witness votes, please consider setting @berniesanders as your witness voting proxy by clicking here to help restore the decentralization of Steem.