Hi, @ned, I don't know if you're reading these or not, a lot of people have some pretty hostile responses here and while I feel them I couldn't blame you for feeling like this was going nowhere. However, I have a suggestion for addressing some of these issues, and I hope you'll consider it.
Part of the problem here is that witness rewards aren't tied into testing, code review, and so on. And I believe that they shouldn't be - there are different skillsets required for being a good dev and a good witness. But that means that sufficient testing of the hardforks is unrewarded, which is why no one was doing it.
I propose that we set up a Utopian-like system, supported with SP from Steemit Inc. and the top witnesses, specifically for Steem blockchain development. New code, code review, unit testing, bug reports, testnet experiences, and so on could all be done publicly through posts and rewarded through votes, so that instead of every witness having to do a private review of code that is scattered through github, there would be a reviewable public record of the testing that was being done, and more importantly, everyone could contribute to it. This would provide the incentive for more extensive testing that the current system is lacking without putting additional burden on witnesses, or requiring that any dev who wants to be compensated for that work also run a witness.
This would provide the witnesses with a collection of data they could more easily review, and expertise from a larger group of people reviewing the actual code and supplying their expertise, before making their decision to accept an update. It would also put their information-state on a par with the rest of the community's, so we would not be assuming that the job was being done in the background.
YES. I love this. And I also love that it would make possible and enticing the idea that even hobbyists could contribute. One of my favorite experiences recently was taking a look at the new code for when @steembasicincome will be automated and checking for any logic bugs with my little knowledge. Now, I didn't find any, and I don't know how helpful I was, and I didn't understand all the nuances of what I was reading, but that little real-world experience helped me learn so much about Python.
I can imagine a whole part of steemit dedicated to explaining what each section of code does and how it does it, and having that explained to the laymen. I think this would go not only a long way in helping find and fix potential errors, but also in getting so much more of humanity on board with what blockchains are, how they work and why we're using them.
Finally, some good input on how to improve STEEM.
Seems like there will be a bunch of arguing back and forth about each change where the consensus would be against change as people fear change.
How about we take your idea but instead place a bounty reward for anyone (not just witnesses) who can identify a bug? An account can be set up with SP with delegation renting to accrue more value until the next fork. This way it pays for itself.
I would name it http://SteemTest.io as the place where the test version of Steemit can be as you have stated, or we can call it something else, but something easy enough for enough people to know how to find for observing, testing, considering, contributing, for some feedback, and a great failsafe and also a great public record of it all just in case. Thanks for sharing this with the world.