What's gewd Steemians,

Hey there how y'all doing, I trust you're all happy in the moment! Well it's almost a week since I wrote here and honestly I feel great about it. If you don't already know I'm a recovering daily blogger, I wrote about it <a href="https://steemit.com/steemit/@kenistyles/open-letter-to-the-future-steemians">few blogs back</a>.

It's a busy and fun filled week, lots of friends and family stuff happening. We're currently in Worthing on the south coast of England. There's also been soooo much happening on Steemit! Lots to talk and learn about, so let's get started with our weekly vlog!

https://youtu.be/29Z7NOH42-E

How awesome is it being a Dad! I mean you don't really know until you become one, however I often find myself falling back to absorb the moment as Kai and Mom do even the most mundane things. I get overcome with that warm, fuzzy feeling of unconditional love. Now I'm really not gloating or going soft, I'm just so thankful to be here sharing a happy, healthy and free life with them. When we start counting our blessings, we will see they are many! 

Ok onto some steemy stuff, it's nice to report some uplifting and positive topics this week! I know it's seemed a little doom and gloomy with our past discussions on <a href="https://steemit.com/upvote/@kenistyles/whale-self-voting-is-it-a-scam">whale self-voters</a>, autobot farming, shit-post spammers and our <a href="https://steemit.com/plagiarism/@kenistyles/plagiarism-what-can-we-do-about-it-the-story-of-my-first-flag">plagiarism problems</a> over the past month. However I feel having open conversations is important on the blockchain, it's good for us as to share full awareness of what's happening in the depths of the ocean. 

<center><a href="https://steemit.com/spaminator/@sherlockholmes/case-9-the-ecoworld-conspiracy-identifying-4-766-1-accounts"><img src="https://steemitimages.com/0x0/https://steemitimages.com/DQmfDGmi2MoLVkRHk7d1igqTZb8tywvnNMoKFA12LeWXtpf/sherlock_profile_money.jpg">
*Any opportunity to shout out the greatness of @sherlockholmes!*</a></center>

Thankfully things are diligently being investigated by folks like @sherlockholmes  and the ever growing army of bots like @cheetah as well as community projects like @steemcleaners. I feel the best we as Steemians can do is report plagiarists to Cheetah and personally tackle any spam that comes up on our path. Like picking up litter, if you see it, just deal with it and be on your way. That's what I'm doing anyways. 

So as I was researching the whole whale wank-a-thon, I personally came to the conclusion that hey, while maybe naughty it's not really my fight. I know that might seem slack to some of my peers, however my point is I'm much more attached to honoring liberty than disrupting any circle jerk mafia. 

I mean bottom line is, is it being done voluntarily? Yes? Well ok, do you with your SP. Don't mind others who dislike your choices, do no harm and don't deceive people. Shit posters eventually come out in the wash and even the newest minnow can smell that crap down stream. 

Onward. The silver lining is that this whale research brought me on to the whole Witness thing. I'm gonna do my best to simplify my innerstandings and keep it short and digestible.

You may have seen some bigger fish talking about voting for "witnesses"? What exactly does that mean? I don't EXACTLY know actually. So if anyone with a knack for keeping it simple wants to enlighten us, please post in the comments.

<center><a href="https://steemit.com/~witnesses"><img src="https://thecoolredhead.files.wordpress.com/2016/08/67195387.jpg">
*Explore the top 50 list of witnesses and use your votes!*</a></center>

From what I can see is that witnesses are the life blood of this platform. They contribute their hardware as servers to keep our beloved Steemit alive. As I'm sure you lot know by now, we as a decentralized network gotta exists somewhere right? Well it's on these server "nodes" that our blockchain is replicated and verified. Like what bitcoin miners do, kinda? 

Anyway since we're an active community, talking and learning with each other. It's easy to get to know our "node" providers, we can read their personal blogs and see what projects they are planning to serve the community with. While I'm not so clear on why there needs to be a vote, I do know that we can vote for up to 30 witnesses each.

So I spent quite a long time reading about the top 50 witnesses and reading through their posts. It's a fascinating rabbit hole to drop into. We have many kinds of witnesses, many with very different ideas and all wanting to help shape and serve the community in their own way.

I feel like they're kind of like our local politicians, well at least ones who are willing to speak for "we the people" and have their word and promises preserved on the blockchain. 

<center><img src="https://i.imgflip.com/pcf7r.jpg"><br>
I'm currently voting for the following witnesses:
@gtg, @timcliff, @pharesim, @furion, @clayop, @pfunk, @ausbitbank, @aggroed, @klye, @curie, @fyrst-witness, @blueorgy, @teamsteem, @someguy123 & @jerrybanfield.</center>

Now of course, we are all free to use our own due diligence on each vote. Our votes are our contribution to be an active part of a true democracy in our community. For sure you will find some witnesses that align with you and some that don't. I believe if you really want to, you too can get the hardware and set yourself up as a witness too. We are an example of the free world after all. ✊️

As you can see there's a LOT of reading so strap in for that. If you have any recommendations please post below, I've been reading about each witness one by one and I'm sure there's more out there than the 50 listed.

<center><a href="https://discordapp.com/channels/319885228464406528/319885228464406528"><img src="https://steemitimages.com/0x0/http://i.imgur.com/vldEhbq.png">
*Jump into the pool and meet some fellow minnows!*</a></center>

Ok this post has waffled on enough already. I hope you found something useful here and if you have more info or advice to offer get at me below.

Look forward to the next post where I'll cover a gem that I found along my witness researching way. The <a href="https://discordapp.com/channels/319885228464406528/319885228464406528">Minnow Support Project</a>, or MSP for short is an incredible collaboration that I feel we should all know more about!

I am doing my thorough investigation as we speak. What I can tell you so far is that WOW this seems awesome! It is a really exciting project and it surely deserves it's own post.

If you're impatient then please go ahead and jump in their discord and I'm sure you will get the same warm welcome I did.

I'll cover the whole process of how to join up and be a active member of the group step by step in my next post.

Sending lots of love and good vibes out there to the ether for you all!

Wholeness.
<hr>
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Image sources: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29Z7NOH42-E">1</a> - <a href="https://steemit.com/spaminator/@sherlockholmes/case-9-the-ecoworld-conspiracy-identifying-4-766-1-accounts">2</a> - <a href="https://thecoolredhead.wordpress.com/2016/08/26/can-i-get-a-witness/">3</a> - <a href="https://imgflip.com/i/pcf7r">4</a> - <a href="https://steemit.com/minnowsupportproject/@minnowsupport/msp-rules-guidelines-1503009558">5</a> - <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/steemitmastermindgroup/">6</a> - <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/1281526168558106/">7</a>