Where have all the votes gone?

in #stats7 years ago

With the new voting power distribution after HF19, people have been upvoting more, using different voting strengths and for many people upvoting on their own posts has become much more material. This is very positive, but it feels like for many they are getting less votes for their posts. What has happened?

The following analysis is based on data for the month of June. The raw data was provided from Steemdata.com by @furion.

Average Votes per Post

I have certainly felt that my posts have been getting fewer and fewer votes in recent weeks. Especially since HF19.



This first graph shows the Number of Votes divided by the Number of Posts, daily for all users.

There clearly has been an big increase in new users so lets look in a bit more detail at the drivers.

Comments

People are now earning much more for commenting on posts. As well as building great connections it also is possible to make significant rewards for just posting comments to posts. At one stage I was seeing comments getting hundreds of dollars.

Highest earning comments in June since HF19



@onceuponatime is doing very well!

It could be that comments and votes on comments are taking the upvotes from posts?



Clearly there has been a big increase in people voting on comments in the month. Combined with HF19 this probably means that people have less spare voting power to use on posts.

Posts (Log Scale)

Finally lets take a look at the number of votes on posts.



I was expecting to see this dropping, based on my own experience, but votes on posts are still strong despite a drop after HF19.

It is notable that there are a lot more posts which probably means that votes are getting spread around more. It's also possible that people are commenting on posts more and forgetting to upvote. That keeps happening to me anyways.

Total Payouts in June

I did two posts in recent days on this topic. The first looks at how much was paid out on posts and the second looks at how much was paid out on comments. Some very interesting trends. I will be updating next week this analysis for payouts since the beginning of July.



Thank you for reading this. I write on Steemit about Blockchain, Cryptocurrency, Travel and lots of random topics.



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I feel like HF19 was supposed to "fix" a few things by spreading power around like a socialist paradise. Let's give voting power to people who haven't earned it yet! We'll balance it by making votes drain tf out of voting power!

All that was accomplished was a broken system where only whales and cheaters are making money. I was doing alright before the hardfork, building my following, and my income with it, but since the hardfork, I'm not so sure this can be my second job unless things get "fixed" again.

"socialist parasite" is how I read it, which is what you meant to say I'm sure

Are you factoring in the reduced Steem price in this analysis of your income, sweeney? It is normal to be earning about half what you did before due to the price alone, without factoring in HF19.

I do factor that in. However, since this post was written, SBD is up about 10%, yet my potential payouts have all dropped by about 15%... I know why that is, do you?

Great post @eroche, lately I have also earned more on comments than on posts.

Have you got a strategy your using?

It's a great way for new people here on steemit to get started. It can be difficult to come up with things to write about all the time, and it can be disheartening to write a post and get nothing for it. Comments can be throw away if you like and you will keep your motivation up. I have been doing a lot of writing this last month but I will be taking a bit of a break in the coming days and I will be reading and commenting more.

Not a strategy really, more like vacation right now!!😎 I don't have the time to write good posts, the family demands attention...

Do you have a chart of post per user? I know I am posting more although I am running out of things to say!

Is this any help
https://www.steemdb.com/@ender/posts

There are some great stats on steemdb.

Does me (and everyone else) pretty much no good for me to vote, since my vote is, at best, worth approximately 0.01 cents. 0.01!!! So my vote is pretty much literally worthless.

I must confess I don't bother much anymore. Would definitely consider starting again if my vote were actually worth anything, though.

I'd just like to echo what @eroche said here. Your vote (and mine too) might be worthless to bigger accounts but for people just starting out it's definitely meaningful. I've decided to try and stop voting on posts that are above $50 or $60 and instead give my votes to posts that are paying out much smaller amounts.

I agree. I think everyone loves to get an upvote, whether or not there are any cents attached to it.

You would be surprised what a vote can mean to some people. Especially to new people getting started. Nothing beats engagement with comments though.

I suppose there is that. ^.^

Since HF19 I have seen my upvotes and comments decline drastically, or so it feels, even tho I feel my writing has improved. I've been sending out a few posts trying to encourage new minnows that they can vote more then 10 times in a day.

I remember when I got to the point that my vote was finally worth a penny. I was stoked. New people are pissed that their vote is only worth a few cents and don't see the point in upvoting. They fail to realize that HF19 made that possible for them.

I think all writers here on Steemit go through ups and downs. Sometime posts I put my best into get little, sometimes a quick photo or comment gets 20 bucks. There doesn't seem to be much reason to it, but I hope over time we will build up a following and it will be worth it.

that's pretty interesting I like your post thanks a lot for sharing and keep on posting ;)

Thanks for reading.

good information here, following

I love these posts, thanks for putting in the effort and going through the data!

Thanks man, appreciate the support.

I really like see all these stats. Trying to make sense of them is a little bit beyond me though.

Hundreds of dollars on a comment?! Christ. I think anything over a dollar is huge for a comment, hundreds is just ridiculous.

It sounds like a lot, I haven't looked into the specific comments but they must have been good :)

I've made $40 on a comment before. It can happen.

Haha, I can only imagine how good they were.

thanks for the information. I too have been looking at the database and hope to share some report in the next few day

I have to echo what @the-dagda and you @eroche have said 'Your vote (and mine too) might be worthless to bigger accounts but for people just starting out it's definitely meaningful'

Great information!

I thought it was just me not getting many upvotes. Good article mate cheers mike

That s interesting... hope some things will be changed after hf20

I hadn't thought about the comments. Thanks for writing.

Great post. I feel like the HF19 f'd up the community while repairing a portion of the monetary inequality. I honestly don't know if the fix was worth it. Vote begging and follow begging increased while votes, in general, decreased.

I found that in spite of the steem price halving, my vote amount has gone down 4 times. It doesn't make sense. Would love to know why?