When I woke up this morning, it was great to have a look at the witness ranking. At that moment in time we did have 10 of Our witnesses back in the top 20. More than enough to stop the planned HF.

But when I did want to make a snapshot to celebrate the power of the community, I was baffled. Look at the current ranking:

Looks like we didn't win the war, but just a battle! So what is happening. Is there confusion about who the community does want to have as witnesses? Because I do see some account voting for instance Goodguy24 as their witness. These accounts are accounts which are over a year old!

Just to make it clear!

If you do want to support the old witnesses and the majority of the community, they don't approve the ones with version 22.5.

So what's next?

It looks like Sun is getting support from some older steem accounts. Did those accounts did disagree with the statement of the community witnesses during the meeting with Sun yesterday? Did Sun did promise some gold to these accounts, now the power of exchanges has dried up? Or are they really just liking the shorter withdrawal period and are they preparing an exit plan?

It looks like we do have a split in the steem community. The majority wants to go right, the minority wants to go left. We all have to make our own choices! Some would have like more powerfull words from the witnesses in the meeting yesterday but according to me this will get us closer to a solution. Regardless of what your viewpoint is, Sun has the idea that he bought the mined staked which he could use as he desires. It became clear that Sun wasn't.isn't so interested into steem, but he did get a possibility to make a quick buck. I am affraid that Ned didn't tell him everything.

Autovotes?

Well most autovote services have paused their activities. To be honest I do think that this isn't perse a bad decision, altough I do rely on them, but the timing couldn't be worse. Let me explain you why! Each SP does count. The easiest way to get more SP behind our witnesses is to earn Steem from the reward pool. With almost all autovoters on halt, less steem is pulled out of the reward pool. So less Steem out of the reward pool, is less SP in the accounts supporting the community witnesses. This effect would become very visible within 6 days. Lots of accounts will see a huge drop in and Author and Curator rewards. SP which can't be powered up. So less increase for the power of our witnesses. So @mahdiyari and @steemauto, it would be good for the community if autovoting will be re-enabled on steemauto.

The Hardfork is planned on:

If we don't have at least 6 community witnesses in the top 20. Steem as we know it, will be gone forever! So it is up to us to decide. Are you going for an exit strategy and burn more or less steem as we know it to the ground? Or do we want a brighter future (in my opinion) by supporting the community witnesses!

It is time to act!
So, keep on curating, keep on writing posts, and for sure keep on claiming your rewards!

Cheers, Peter