Price? Every user gets 30 votes to allocate to witnesses .. and they don't cost you a thing. Witnesses are crucial to keeping steemit up and running as they process the blockchain... and we desperately need more active witnesses in the top 20 like @curie. I would also point out that currently it costs a witness ~$440 per month to run a witness server.
If you care about steemit and want it to continue then I highly recommend you read up on witnesses, what they do, who they are etc etc and cast some votes. To few steemit users vote on witnesses.. and without active witnesses the blockchain wont get processed and steemit will stop functioning and then this party is over.
I know I haven't explained it very well but I highly recommend you find out more about witnesses and vote on the ones that really care and contribute to the community. Here are some posts that explain what a witness is quite well:
I hope this helps provide you with some greater understanding of why witnesses are so important to be voted for.. That being said, don't feel compelled to vote for @curie .. do some investigating and choose the witnesses that you feel would do the best job and vote for them, just don't let your votes go unused! :)
@fiftysixnorth while I completely agree with you in regards to the good that @curie does, I do think the objection here is the abusive manner that this author has employed to call upon those who have benefited from @curie's work to vote for their witness. And I agree with that sentiment very much.
While I would support anyone voting @curie for witness. I will not be supporting @steemitcommunity's witness because of this distasteful behaviour. I take that stand with considerable reluctance as I would like to support @paulag
I'm sorry you feel the post to be 'abusive' and 'distasteful', thank you for your comments.
I get that, though personally I don't think @curie should be punished for that. I was more responding to the fact that @r00sj3 said she hasn't voted for any witnesses yet or understands what its about. I found it a good opportunity to inform on what witnesses do :)
I wouldn't dare to presume to tell anyone who they should vote for.
I think I made it pretty clear, I wont withdraw my support of curie over this author's ill-conceived post. I will of his witness though even though it means not supporting someone I would dearly love to support.
Thank you, that helps a lot! Spending a lot of time on "good content" doesn't leave me much time to investigate the fundamentals it is built on. This made it much easier! I will look into it!
I know what you mean, it took me quite some time before I actually looked into it myself, but then I discovered that it is quite important. I hope these links helps :)
Thank you @fiftysixnorth. I also did not understand witnesses... I will be digging in, learning and participating now.
@abh12345 thank you for getting my attention on this witness topic.
No problem, its a topic well worth getting familiar with.
Thank you for your comments and the links provided.
my pleasure!