It was based on a previous though unimplemented hardfork code change that was written by steemit at a previous time that intended to set authorities to the null key for a different list of accounts
Actually I believe it was based on a Steemit-developed fork which WAS implemented. I could be wrong though, I haven't reviewed the code fragments personally and have heard this stated by others.
Rare communication from a CTO would be fine. Rare communication from the CEO and defacto overall community leader is inexcusable
I would say this depends actually. CTO can be a communications driver and this works quite well for some other companies and crypto projects, particularly when the CTO is a visionary with good communications skills and communication is development-focused (such as when the platform is immature and in a phase of constant development). What is really more important is that there be someone doing it.
HF20 allows for discount account creation tokens, but the flagship app of the platform doesn't let you claim or use them and effectively we're in the same spot as a community where onboarding new users is still a bad and unclear experience
Add to this that the @steem account has stockpiled about 30k free account tokens, and rather than loosening the restrictions and allowing more users to sign up, in fact there have been fewer, and now there is talk of transitioning to a paid signup model. This is insanity.
I'm glad all this talk is on the table, I was calling for this a month ago.
Indeed! As if half of the world would be waiting to join STEEM. We urgently need new users, much more than they need us - so we should make it as easy and pleasant as possible for them to join! Even if it is for free, I always have to work hard to convince new people to create a STEEM account. Most of them wouldn't sign up if the first thing they had to do was paying for it.
I have had to pay to open accounts for others, because I knew if they waited for @steemit to open their accounts, they would have lost interest and probably ignored the email after waiting for weeks.
Sometimes it feels like they brainstormed all the things that would prevent new users, almost as affectively as they made it to mine the coin, that has created the skewed distribution of STEEM power amongst users.