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.