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Based on my observations:

In most of my posts, I get somewhere between 55-60% of the post value shown after curation.

I would say the impact is significant when it comes to curation returned to the pool. You should do some analysis on that.

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Yes you are right in the end what I think all this does is move the author/curation split super slightly in favor of authors. Maybe like 55%/45%. Although the effect is probably even smaller especially now with the new curve. That curve reduced the early voting rewards quite drastically. I am glad the tribes do not have it :)

Yes, numbers would be nice.
Maybe it isn't a big deal.

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Do the curators get less rewards in cases where the snipers snipe?

I think, for sure, that the snipers prevent real curators/normal users from getting the largest returns.

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So, only impacts the potential for manual curator's returns by taking up early positions?

The snipers' sp is so low as to make that a wash, too?

how would you distinguish snipers from "real" curators?

Snipers are scripted?
Real curators read the material.
(POB?!)

I guess if ai was doing the reading, that would be ok.
But to just blanket my readers with bs votes?
No.

It is an option, they can have it.
Same with early voting, they can have time agnostic voting.