The STEEM witness team are an incredible group of individuals responsible for the daily runnings of the STEEM blockchain and her underlying software. While a seemingly easy job the truth is that being a witness is actually quite demanding at times and thus my fellow witnesses may find themselves swamped from time to time, unable to do their duty.
As software updates come out for steemd it's generally been common practice for the witness flock to get these updates running cellectively allowing the blockchain to upgrade to the next level. The last STEEM release is v0.19.2 but we're still waiting on a few of the high ranking witnesses to upgrade in order to move the network's version forward.
Why Upgrading Quickly is Important!
We as witnesses are essentially the gate keepers of progress of the network. While not all of us are directly working on steemd code it is our duty to deploy these upgrades as soon as they are deemed stable.
Without having the majority of witnesses upgrade to newer versions the work done by the Steemit Inc developers means very little. Until majority upgrades we continue on the older steemd version. While many wait till full versions or hardforks are ready to go it's to be said even the minor version upgrades must be deployed in order to apply the bug fixes that come with them.
I see a lot of witnesses still running v0.19.0 and v0.19.1 on their servers.. I ask these individuals to get their clients upgraded to the current version in order to not stifle progress within our blockchain codebase.
With that being said I realize many of my fellow witnesses lead extremely busy lives and may not always be able to upgrade in a timely fashion to new software versions. If anyone needs help upgrading or would like to hire someone else to do this task I am available. Given the nature of sysadmin work and the possible exposure of sensitive information such as private keys and whatnot it is to be mentioned that allowing non-trusted individuals into your server boxes may end poorly.
Top 20 Witnesses Still in Need of Upgrading
We're waiting on the following top 20 to upgrade to deploy v0.19.2 fixes:
Please don't take this as me harping on you guys above, in fact it is the opposite. Knowingly you guys are extremely busy working on stuff at the moment. If anyone needs help upgrading to the newest versions I offer my support in any way I can help. Our STEEM team is only as strong as our ability to deploy updates as they appear. Without us being on the ball about keeping our clients to the most current available all of the work done by the STEEM coders lay in hibernation.
Backup Witnesses are Important too!
Even if you're an up and coming backup witness it is important to keep your servers software updated. While it may seem silly to some it's got to be said that the backup witness that shows exceedingly high levels of dedication to the network tend to rise higher up the list than those whom do the bare minimums. Things like making sure your price feeds are updating and your steemd is kept up to date shows the folks on here that you are taking your witness duty seriously.
Choosing Witnesses to Vote
When voting for STEEM witnesses always consider if they are helping or hampering progress of network wide updates. While some take having their witness voted or unvoted quite personally the fact of the matter is that anyone who runs a witness should be doing everything in their power to ensure that our STEEM network progresses and keeps moving forward. This includes keeping software up to date, making sure your price feeds are valid and ultimately looking out for the success of STEEM in any way they can. While you may feel that your efforts go unnoticed.. They do not.
I'll be giving 24 hours for the witnesses I'm currently voting for to upgrade to the newest software version available, after that I'll be removing votes and placing them elsewhere. It's also to be mentioned this is absolutely nothing personal, we all want what is best for our community, network and livelyhood. Rather than personally contact all of you which in my opinion is a bit extreme I hope you see this post and take the 20 or so minutes as you find them to compile and deploy the latest software.
Anyone needing help in doing so feel free to conact me! I'm always down to help people who ask for it and need a hand. I'm here to help!
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