Curation is by far the hardest thing to get right. I can maximize it which only makes sense in niche cases. I can trade votes (or worse sell them). I can just vote for whatever interests me. I can curate to make Hive a better place.
I think the best thing to do is a mix, aim to maximize rewards while minimizing trading or scheming.
The one thing interesting about curation is unlike posting, it scales better. For example, by posting twice as often you probably aren't going to double your posting rewards, but by doubling your HP, you are likely to earn double your curation rewards (at least until you are a whale and your vote is like).
Another interesting thing is if the value of Hive increases a lot, your curation rewards increase directly proportionate, however, your author rewards won't. This is a little less obvious, but the main idea is a lot of people start shitposting when Hive is worth a lot, so there are more people to share the rewards with. Also, curators tend to reduce the amount of vote per post thinking 50 cents or whatever their vote is worth is enough. So it's way more sustainable (and easier if you don't care).
I constantly think I need to improve my curation, but I rarely think I need to improve my posting.
And this will be getting increasingly more important over time as blogging here as a source of income gets harder and harder. Good curators will be even more needed to separate the wheat from the chaff.
Copywriting has always been a thing, but this doesn't require much understanding of Hive. You can publish your post on any platform with little change to the content.
However, curation is highly platform-specific. There are already a few large curators on Hive who have hired specialists or built up special communities, so it's actually becoming a job. The exception seems to be TIPU which is taking a different approach to curation, but that's why it's often so weird and poorly done (ex. curating a popular whale or orca's post).
Personally, I don't want to become a specialist but I do want to hold my own and be better at curating. Ideally, I want to become great at recognizing great curators. It's much harder than recognizing a good writer (someone who interests me).
I agree and I think that the way "maximization" happens matters. If I can get more by adding value to the community, why would I scheme - for most people, this would be the case. I think a lot of small accounts especially would benefit more through honest participation than trying to maximize their own stake.
For sure.Through participation, it adds up fast, especially if adding a bit of value along the way.
I am glad that this idea is spreading - I have been hammering it for 3 years now :D
Curation is a gamechanger but because people are short-sighted, they don't see the future of it
I think the easiest explanation: curation is what makes Hive valuable. Posting only really adds value to Hive in the first 7 days, and although neither is perfect, there are a lot more problems with people trying to game posting rewards than curation
This is true and I would assume that there is more leakage in curation attempts