In the github release notes for the upcoming July 26 Steem hardfork, it says the following:
"Each root level comment has a reward weight which impacts the end payout of the post. We are targeting 4 posts in 24 hours. Your first 4 posts in 24 hours will not be penalized. After that, they weight is decreased from 100% based on your average posting frequency. Having a frequency just barely higher than 1 every 6 hours will have very little impact, while spamming will be penalized heavily. This change is aimed to increase the quality of content at the cost of quantity."
Can someone please clarify what they mean by "root level comment"? Is a root level comment an actual post (submitted via "Submit a Story"), or is it someone who posts a comment as a direct reply to someone's post?
Yes, root level comment is the actual post.
Thank you!
After submitting the answer I started to doubt it myself and read a few posts and comments about the hardfork. It seems that the I was wrong . Every root level comment seems to be a direct reply to the post. Every root level comment has a weight which determines your final post reward. This weight is slightly different based on commenters steem power. But when you make more than 4 posts in 24 hours - the weight is decreased from 100% to a smaller percentage. So lets say that the average root level comment weight is 2.05 (random example) and you get 10 root level comments then if you post more often than once in 6 hours, the total reward will be 2.05 * 10 * 0.8 (an example of 20% root level comment weight reduction) instead of 2.05 * 10 * 1
Also keep your eye on this thread - people have the same dilemma there:
https://steemit.com/steemit/@ervin-lemark/steem-0-12-0-hardfork-this-tuesday-will-bring-spamming-penalty-if-you-will-post-more-than-4-posts-in-24-hours
Hehe, yeah. So your new post is basically why I asked the question. I've seen conflicting info on this. Even with the info you posted, I am still not confident/sure. Are they limiting posts, or top level comments on someone else's posts?