Well said. As a new miner I was drawn to the largest pool (suprnova) because it felt the safest and I had no idea which ones could and could not be trusted. It turns out that I was right. @ocminer does a great job of running that pool. However, as I learned about the importance of spreading out the hash rate, I started looking into other places to mine. It's not an easy choice to take a leap of faith like that but it's up to us to keep this thing balanced.

There are other options out there that are just as trustworthy. Just ask around and find a pool run by a well-respected member of the community. They might not be the biggest pools but the earnings are just as good (if not better). I've also found that the communities in these smaller pools are fantastic. Everyone exchanges strategies and ideas to help the entire community grow and make more profit together.