TimCliff Witness Update 2018-01-27
Hello Everyone!
Here is what I've been up to since my last witness post:
- I have updated my primary witness server with the recent security patch released by the Steemit dev team. I am in the process of updating my backup and seed nodes.
- I have been spending a lot of time reaching out to various exchanges to try and get STEEM (and SBD) listed. So far I don't have any news, but I continue to work hard on this effort! (As do several others.)
- I am in the process of setting up a new seed node to replace my current one. It will have a lot more memory and processing power for better scaling into the future.
- I have been spending a lot of time helping out users with support issues (many related to account creation and bandwidth limits) in the steemit.chat "help" channel.
- I have worked on several pull requests to the condenser (steemit.com) GitHub repository.
- I continue to post the weekly Reports from the Witnesses series each week, which provides the community with an aggregated report of all the witness reports from the past week.
- I have been discussing with the community and other witnesses potential changes to downvoting to try and address the voting abuse issues that have been happening in the community.
- I tried to organize a Steem community roadmap with ideas on what we as community members can do to grow the platform. Unfortunately the participation wasn't as much as I had hoped for, but I still got a few good ideas of things to work on.
- I did a video interview with @davidpakman where we discussed SBD and other things about the Steem platform.
- I created a post explaining the current situation with bandwidth and explained the errors people have been getting + discussed potential ways to address them. There is also a post from @jamzed, explaining more of the technical details behind bandwidth.
Some Information / Suggestions:
- If any of you are already registered for the CEX.IO exchange - please help by voting for STEEM (details here).
- Everyone is able to vote for Steem on the Cobinhood exchange here.
- The Steem blockchain has surpassed 1,000,000 transactions within a 24 hour period!
- There were a few updates to the HF20 proposal here. I do not have any details on when it will occur, but I am currently planning to support the HF once it is released.
- A Steemian @fredrikaa is offering Steem gift cards - seems like a cool idea :)
- Check out this Steem GIF from @kyriacos that compares the Steem blockchain with Ethereum, Litecoin, and bitcoin. It is a great tool to use for promoting Steem!
- If you like Pusheen the cat, you should check out @pusheenliving :)
- @inquiringtimes has put together a great list of non-english how-to guides, as well as a list of resources for English users.
- If you are interested in helping to fight spam abuse, please consider delegating to @mack-bot and @spaminator.
- If you would like a way to buy gift cards using STEEM/SBD, check out steem.cards.
- @penguinpablo created a new block explorer (similar to steemd.com).
- Check out this WordPress plugin for Steem!
- If you are interested in following a talented artist, check out @miss.dara!
Forward Looking Plans:
- I plan to start looking into the Steem Dev Portal to try and see what updates I can make to better improve the documentation for third-party developers.
- Continue reaching out to various exchanges and trying to get STEEM/SBD listed. I know several others are working on this too. The more people that we can get reaching out to exchanges and asking for STEEM/SBD to be listed, the better. This means you too! :)
- Continue to provide support in the help channel of steemit.chat.
- Continue with the weekly "Reports of the Witnesses" series.
Summary of Current Witness Parameters:
- SBD Interest Rate: SBD is currently trading way above $1.00. Based on this, my interest rate is currently set to 0.
- Price Feed Bias: My price feed bias is also set to 0. I am not currently planning to use the bias to increase SBD production, because I feel the potential negative consequences outweigh the potential gains.
- Registration Fee: My registration fee is currently set to 0.1 STEEM. This makes it so that a new account costs 3 STEEM (non-delegated), which is about $18.00 USD at current market prices. Users who have accounts created with the minimum fee (3 STEEM) and are not delegated extra SP are likely to run into bandwidth limitations.
- Maximum Block Size: I currently have my block size set to 65,536. There has been some discussion to raise this due to users occasionally running into bandwidth limitations. Currently my position is to not raise the block size. I am hopign that the Steemit dev team will update the bandwidth rules (GitHub issue 1800). If it starts becoming a major issue for more users, I may reconsider. By post above on bandwidth has more information about my views on the subject.
I welcome feedback if you think there are things that I can be doing better as a witness. If you think I am doing a great job, I would really appreciate your witness vote!
https://steemit.com/~witnesses
Thanks everyone for reading my witness report!
Thanks for such an informative update @timcliff.
I’m always curious about the price of SBD. Do you feel that it should be pegged at $1. I kind of became accustomed to it being above the value of Steem.
There seems to be a lack of updates coming from the Steemit marketing team at the moment. Do you know anything about this? I’ve seen a couple of posts from people who are getting a little frustrated at the lack of communication.
I am in favor of having SBD pegged to $1 as a long term thing. My proposal to make that happen is here. I don't think now is the right time to do it though. For the short-term, I support SBD trading above $1.
Regarding Steemit marketing, I can't really speak to that. Personally I think marketing will be more effective if it happens after a few more technical things are out of the way (streamlined signups, bandwidth improvements, and communities).
Thanks for the response Tim. I had a read of your proposal, it's quite a complex issue however I understand your reasoning for wanting SBD to be kept close to $1 US dollar.
I hope we see a lot of marketing coming from Steemit Inc. once the SMTs and streamlined sign ups are released.
You've just received one of my witness votes by the way. :)
Thanks :)
2.checked what are the updates to HF20, looks minor :) thought I might post in Hebrew about that but my last post is covering the main things anyway
3.that's really caring of you to help newbies in the help channel - must take a lot of your precious time :)
4.checked the new block explorer - looks really cool!
you are one of the most active and caring witnesses - I wish I could vote you as a witness again :) and thanks for the useful weakly witness update - I, at least, find it very useful.
Thanks! =)
Hi @timcliff a lot of efforts you are giving to make steemit and the steem blockchain a better place every day. Thanks @timcliff for your hard work!
By the way @timcliff , have you checked this latest post I made were I added you in a chart together with @blocktrades , @teamsteem , @lukestoeks , and @elear .
The Invisible Forces of Steem - @lukestokes @blocktrades @timcliff @elear @teamsteem @ned , developers - An Autonomous Decentralized Marketing Department of Steemit and Steem was born - (The Promo-Steem project + the @steem-ambassador Guild)
https://steemit.com/steemit/@gold84/the-invisible-forces-of-steem-lukestokes-blocktrades-timcliff-elear-teamsteem-ned-developers-an-autonomous-decentralized
Looking forward to your thoughts on this one.
Regards, @gold84
Thanks for outlining this so clearly. I'm fairly new to Steemit, and wasn't sure who to vote for, so I guess I need to browse through the witness category more often. You got one of my votes by the way.
Thanks!
Wow, you’ve been sooo busy! Thanks for the bandwidth post, so many users everywhere have been asking about it and your post gives an excellent thorough explanation. I’m still amazed you make time for so much. What do you do to de stress from it all?
Spend time on Steemit :)
Then don’t you dare leave us :)
Keep up the great work. Screw voting you for witness, I made you my proxy voter because I feel you know best what a good witness should be and have the best intrests of Steem at heart.
Cool, thanks.
What should i do to become a witness? What kind of server do i need?
There is some info in the pinned messages of the #witness channel of steemit chat. 32 GB of RAM is one of the main requirements.
Ah, wow 32 GB of RAM. Thanks for the info.
Thank you for your commitement for the community, voted as witness ;)
Thanks :)
Goodness, you are so busy! There's not much I can do to help but I can ask exchanges why they don't list STEEM/SBD (not that they'll take any notice of me, haha). I can support @miss.dara too. Thank you for the information and links.
Thanks for the update! I appreciate you, as well as some of the other witnesses, helping to keep the community abreast of what's happening on the magical platform known as Oz. I mean Steemit.
:)