Hey, I'm sad couldn't read this article earlier, before Your Steemit workshop talk.
I have studied mechanics of Steem curation for weeks also. Agree to most of the listings. There are only a few misleadings.
- It’s better for me to vote as number 2 after the large upvote of a whale, than to vote as number 5 after 5 low-value upvotes have been cast.
This is common misleading spread over the community. The number of voters before You doesn't matter. The combined voting power from them is important. Now You have to precise if whale vote < 5x minnow votes summed up.
- Because of the bots, there is no point for me to try to make money by upvoting the content of popular users.
- I should not give my votes to already popular users if I want to make money.
Voting is almost always worth in case of making money. Even if You are last voter!
According to @jga'a mathematical analysis there is guaranteed reward no matter the value of the post. You have approximately vote value/8 assured payment as a curator. If You vote trending post for $1, You get back at least 12.5c from that.
This is why whales earn a lot just by throwing their voting power into the pot.
There is an exception to above. Sadly to minnows, if Your vote earn less than minimal amount 0.001 SP back, it is lost. That's why it is important for newcomers to vote for 100% to not waste their votes.
Hey, thank you for the reply. Very helpful! I think I pretty much learned all the basics just by formulating all of the hypotheses in the post and looking more closely at them and review. I'm sure there are still some things to learn, but I've got most of it.