My opinion of the success of the STEEM platform is only partially influenced by the token price but that is a lot in part do to the fact that because the technology and what has been built here is in a lot of ways superior than anything else blockchain related including EOS.   I believe that because of poor execution, poor distribution, and a range of other factors the price isn't as insulated to these large drops like it should be.   The fact that there is an incentive to be VESTED should partially insulate from large drops but there has to be other revenue streams to support the price in my opinion.  

When you bought at $3 and $4 and the price dropped to $0.07 you were more vocal about the mountain of issues here.   Your situation has improved here and you are in the money so in some ways it may seem that things have improved but from a lot of people's perspective things haven't improved they have just changed.   During that time I'm sure people saw you as a complainer and Steemit INC probably didn't like the criticism.  I never thought you were a complainer. I thought the concerns were valid.   Now I'm a complainer though because I'm bringing up concerns to those in power.  

When I jump off cliffs I not only depth check but I usually will jump after someone else jumped and when I see them come up safely I try to land in the same spot they landed in to reduce my odds of getting hurt.   Running Witness and Seed nodes can get expensive and when you are out of favor or not popular among the few with power then it is unlikely to be profitable.   It can become a money and a time trap so I have to ask myself does it just make more sense to focus on masternodes where it mainly comes down to having the appropriate amount of coins  or take some chance that will require other people's votes.   I just have seen so many highly skilled individuals who were great members of the community fail at the witness game and then ultimately devest their interest and leave.   There is a reason for it.   One example was this guy.   https://steemit.com/@nonlinearone  Had a Phd, was super knowledgeable about blockchain, was always positive but in the end he wasn't part of the club so these people leave one after another.   


A person could certainly go broke campaigning when they could have focused their money and effort on other opportunities.   There have been many times when I have thought about completely devesting my interest in STEEM and to stop posting here to protect my time and energy.   I'm just a really stubborn person so I have a hard time quitting even when I should. 

I personally don't think that the incentives are inline to make the changes this platform will need to really succeed so it is more about learning from what I perceive to be the pitfalls of this platform.   That only serves me if I can join a team building another platform or if I can get the funding to build my own platform.   Otherwise it is a waste of time. 

Even if I thought there was a 30% chance that I could even get in the top 40 on the witness votes I would go for it but I feel the odds are much lower than that.

@lukestokes

It goes to the root question of what people expect from a witness , I have heard varying opinions but some playbook for witnesses would be great to see who is following good practices and who is not.

https://steemit.com/contest/@itstime/5-steem-giveaway-what-do-you-expect-a-witness-to-do-for-steem

Nice !!