Blockchain team released an update a couple of days ago.
This release fixes a vulnerability in how the pending transaction queue is treated during block application. In the worst case, the previous behavior could result in block propagation delays and general instability/denial of service of the Steem network.
My witness node is updated after the release in a short period. You can find more information about the issue, here.
Hivemind
https://hivemind.emrebeyler.me/healthWhile having that maintenance time, I have also updated my public Hivemind instance to the latest commit in the master branch.
I had a quick look in the changeset, I have seen this interesting commit which lets Hivemind node operator mute certain accounts.
It expects a file of usernames (separated by space) and ignores these accounts on API responses.
This is handy if the blockchain is getting spams from certain accounts and the frontends can't render pages because of the sheer number of comments in a single page. Although, one can also speculate that this is a bad thing since it opens the gates to the censorship.
Projects: dPoll & Tower
dPoll has been getting great updates lately. (1, 2). In short, we have communities feature (pilot phase) and keychain support for voting.
I am planning to have some updates on Tower in the next couple of weeks. SteemInsights is one of the apps powered by Tower as a backend. (created by @dmitrydao) Check it if you didn't see it already.
Vote for my witness
If you like what I do, consider casting a vote on Steemconnect or on Steemit