I am really excited about the new changes in the UI, we're all tired of the unknown avatar image on our accounts.

Our friend @val is finally testing personal avatars which means the next update to the website will include personal avatars update. Might not mean much to some people, but for me Steemit becoming more social and group oriented is a great step in the right direction. Things I look for also is a profile, where people fill in a much info as they want. Profiles are not a great thing when it comes to privacy, but for those of us who care about personalizing the social media experience on Steemit, this will help a lot. In the future profiles might get advertiser's interest. 

More "Social" means we can link our Steemit accounts with other social media accounts as well. Let's be honest here, Steemit has a long way before it becomes a major social media hub, but these little things that went on being ignored help reduce the time to get there,  and we will get there.

It's true we are still in beta and everything needs time to be tested fully before being introduced. So I am happy with any progress we make.  Any progress is better than no progress at all.

A couple of weeks ago I posted about why some of our writers are leaving, what we need to do to stop that and change our retention stats. The more I went over the questions, the more I am convinced everyone cares. All of us care to make sure Steemit is a success.  It is not bad to have differences of opinions, because everyone is stating what he thinks is best. Everyone is trying to deal with the issues his way, I do not find this to be bad, because we do not really know what will click with everyone. Having more choices going forward is better, maybe we do not need to all agree on one thing, but trust me when I say when we all agree on something, it's always on what is better for Steemit future, nobody is working on reducing the value of his stake in the system.

I will get you answers to specific questions, but we are coming on some major changes in the next fork, not sure all the changes are good or bad. We all agree on cutting inflation, that alone should stop the price decay on the markets.

Another great thing that is happening, is that our SBD debt will be cut by about half in less than a week. I can not forecast the impact on Steem market, but if negative it will be short lived, and we will be much stronger with less debt and inflation reduction. A few people like @smooth @abit and @clayop are actively working on reducing that SBD debt. 

Some of the suggested changes in the next fork are still up for debate. As active/backup witnesses and community members take turns making suggestions at improving the proposal. Nonetheless everyone knows a change is needed.

I am reserving my Avatar what's yours?

@joseph