All interactions on Steemit use some degree of the network's bandwidth. This includes posting, commenting, even simply voting on content. All of those functions require some data to be sent to the Steemit network, acknowledged, and returned. This had always been a sort of minor limitation running in the background of Steemit that rarely came into play.
Overall, except for a few peaks of activity several weeks ago, the Steemit site is fairly reliable. However, post HF-19, we've seen a continually increasing number of new users and more page views every day. Sometimes this lead to instablity, including on rare occasions, posts being eaten and drafts not being saved. Approximately 3 weeks ago, some users started being unable to interact with the Blockchain as it had gotten very busy! (clicky)
This issue has calmed down a little bit since, but with the numbers of new users and page views increasing each day, I suspect it's only a matter of time until it becomes a greater issue. Certain users like @netuoso are already warning of possible scaling issues in the future, due to RAM based restrictions, and I can't imagine that more bandwidth use on the chain isn't part of the same problem. (clicky)
Here, you can see the new Bandwidth slider that was added to Steemd several weeks ago:
I'm not too well-versed on the technical aspects of the Steem blockchain, but given delegation of Steem Power is already a supported function, could we also delegate from our bandwidth capacity to those users who need it? Possibly a collective delegation to a pool to be drawn from for new users? If this function would be similar to delegating SP, it might be fairly easy to add.
This would be a nice way to allow for some users to "stake" smaller users with bandwidth they aren't using, in a way that would require active load-balancing in the network and would therefore, hopefully, reduce the technical costs involved.
Sources: Steemd, @geordieprepper, @netuoso. Please check out their posts linked above!
I had this problem a few weeks ago but not lately. Either I've spaced out my posting more or it's improved. Interesting idea though with delegating your bandwidth.
It seems like, with the price pull-back, the bandwidth issue has subsided. However, with the explosive growth of Steemit, I will not be surprised if it comes back soon!
You also may have earned some Steem Power. Even a small amount gives you a noticeable nudge, given it only takes a very small amount to post and vote (from what I can tell.
That's probably part of it. I had an article that managed to bring in a good chunk and I'm thinking about investing some more outside money into the platform as well.
New user here, and this is the first time I've read about Steemd...
Thank you for showing this to me! :)
I'm happy I could help! Check it out, it's a great tool for seeing what happens with your account.
It's a good suggestion @lexiconical.