Since putting together the FAQ a while back, we've seen significant changes to the Steem ecosystem and have had many new users join us, so I think an update is overdue. Given that the full document is 56 pages long, I'm breaking it up into smaller sections so it's not overwhelming for readers. I'll be updating and sharing it one part at a time. Included in this post is "Voting."
My following posts will include the categories:
- Security
- Technical Questions
- Other
If you have any questions about Steem, let me know and I'll try to get them answered or add them to the updated FAQ.
Voting
How do I upvote a post?
At the bottom of a post, you'll see something like this:
Photo can be seen in this FAQ Google Doc
When you click this upvote button, a slider will appear (if you have sufficient Steem Power, currently about 480).
Photo can be seen in this FAQ Google Doc
Adjust the slider to your desired vote power and click the upvote button again. You have now upvoted the post.
Photo can be seen in this FAQ Google Doc
When you have upvoted the post, the arrow will turn blue. Click again to remove your upvote. When you remove an upvote, you forfeit all curation awards for that post.
Why are my blogs posts not making much money? They are higher quality than a lot of the “Trending” posts I see.
There is no one-size-fits-all answer for this question. But, it takes hard work, consistency, and patience to build a loyal following on Steemit. Consistently put out high-quality content, and you should gradually gain followers. Eventually, some whales will see your work.
Additionally, when a Steemit user has a long track record of producing quality content, a collection of users tend to read everything she posts. This kind of relationship usually takes some time to build.
For strategies to improve your long-term success:
https://steemit.com/steemit/@shenanigator/what-william-learned-the-hard-way-your-strategy-may-be-crippling-your-steemit-potentential
My comments rarely earn any money. How can I change that?
A wide variety of things make for popular comments, but some of the best tips are:
- Spot soon-to-be trending posts and strike early.
- Praise the post if you enjoyed it.
- Highlight a point the author made and respond.
- Add useful information, correct something, or ask a question.
- Aim for one paragraph in length
https://steemit.com/steem/@donkeypong/writing-popular-comments-top-5-tips-for-posting-an-honest-high-paying-reply
What are the legitimate reasons for flagging a post?
When you click the flag button on Steemit, it shows some common reasons for flagging:
- Disagreement on rewards
- Fraud of Plagiarism
- Hate speech or internet trolling
- Intentional miscategorized content or spam
If you come across a post that appears abusive, please post it in the steemitabuse chat room:
https://steemit.chat/channel/steemitabuse
How is the value of a user’s vote calculated?
The value of a single person’s vote varies based on:
Steem Power - More Steem Power means your vote has more strength in the network.
Voting Power - The higher your voting power, the stronger your vote.
See: What is Voting Power?
Vote Strength - If you have at least one million VESTS (1MV), a slider bar will appear when voting. You can vote at any percentage between 1-100, with 100 being the most powerful.
Current value of a post - If your vote is worth $0.02 on a new post, it might be worth about $0.40 if a post is already valued at $200.
Number of votes being cast that day - If fewer people are voting one day, you’ll have more influence. However, if more people are voting, your vote will be worth less.
What is Voting Power?
Think of your voting power as a big tank of water. Every time you vote, a valve at the bottom of the tank pops open and squirts out some power. The fuller the tank, the more power squirts out the valve. The amount of power that squirts out the valve is one of the things that determines how powerful your vote is. (The other is your Steem Power, which you can look up in your wallet and is an entirely separate thing.)
If you vote and vote and vote without stopping, it's like leaving the valve open, and it won't take long before your tank is empty.
Fortunately for you, there is a steady drip of power coming back into your tank! This drip refills your tank at the same rate, always, no matter what.
What happens to the drip if your tank is full? The water gets wasted! Think of it like the tank just overflows if it's full; all that voting power is just dripping down the sides going to no purpose.
How voting power works
- Your account has a number between 0 and 100 called "voting power."
- When you vote for a post, slightly more than a 200th of that voting power gets "spent" on your vote.
- Your voting power regenerates over time at a steady rate and will refill from 0 to 100 in 5 days.
How to vote optimally
- Ideally, you should never vote less than about 40 times per day with 100% power on the slider bar. To be precise, the number is 39.2, but for simplicity’s sake, we’ll call it 40. If you do vote fewer times than this, you are letting your voting power go to waste because your "tank" is full some of that time, and the "drip" is spilling over the brim.
- Surprising news: If you want to maximize your total influence, it doesn't matter how much you vote, as long as you vote more than 40 times per day. Your overall influence is the same whether you vote 1000 times per day or 40 because of the constant drip of voting power filling your tank.
- However, The more you vote, the less each of your votes is worth. So you could vote 1000 times per day, but each of those votes wouldn't be worth very much. Your total influence would be optimal, but your power per vote would be relatively small.
https://steemit.com/voting/@biophil/the-complete-definitive-and-yes-ultimate-guide-to-voting-power-updated
What is the voting slider?
The slider lets you change the strength of your vote. You can adjust it based on how much you like each post and how many times you want to vote each day. However, to maximize your influence in the network, we recommend not adjusting it unless you are certain you understand the tradeoffs.
See: How do I upvote a post?
Does the amount of Steem Power held by an account have a DIRECT impact on the visibility of its posts?
If the account owner votes up her post, then yes. It will add some money to the payout, which has the effect of making the post more visible.
Does flagging use up my voting power?
Yes, it does.
Does flagging bring any reward to the curator?
No, it doesn’t. However, sometimes reporting abuse such as spam and plagiarism to the steemitabuse channel on steemit.chat can earn you a reward in Steem Power from @steemcleaners.
How are curation rewards distributed?
Distribution of curation rewards depend on several factors:
Your Reward Shares (rShares)
Steem calculates rShares by multiplying Steem PowerVoting PowerVote weight
Amount of time (since posting) when the upvote occurs
In the early days of Steemit, many users were voting for posts by popular authors the moment they were posted because they would get a significant curation award. To combat this, Steem developers changed the system to reward waiting, and consequently, encourage reading posts before voting.
- If a post is upvoted the moment it is posted, 100% of the curation reward goes to the author.
- If a post is upvoted 30 min after posting, 100% of the curation award goes to the curator.
- Between 0 and 30 minutes, the amount going to the author decreases linearly.
- At 15 minutes it's a 50/50 split.
- At 3 minutes, 90% goes to the author and 10% to the curator.
- At 27 minutes, 10% goes to the author and 90% to the curator.
Post value when vote is placed vs. ending post value
If the post has a small value before you upvote it and it later becomes popular, you are rewarded for discovering valuable content.
https://steemit.com/steem-help/@liberosist/mind-your-votes-an-investigation-and-guide-to-maximizing-your-curation-rewards
https://steemit.com/steem/@steemitblog/latest-curation-reward-solution
Given all these curation rules, what is the best time to vote?
Curation rewards will be negligible us you have a decent amount of Steem Power. Until that time, just vote when you come across something you like.
If you have enough Steem Power to get a notable curation reward, there is a huge benefit to voting before others vote. However, there’s also a significant curation reward bonus for waiting up to 30 minutes after posting. Curators should weigh these two factors against each other to come up with their personal strategy.
Can I get curation rewards for voting up comments? Does the same 30-minute rule apply?
Yes, you can get curation awards for upvoting comments. No, the 30-minute rule does not apply.
Again, if you have any questions about Steem, let me know and I'll try to get them answered or add them to the updated FAQ.
awesome!!
I'm a bit confused about the number of times per day you should be voting. I wish I could vote as many as 40 times a day. But as a minnow I certainly can't vote that many times without my voting power being completely drained. And many people seem to recommend voting only 10 - 15 times a day. Am I missing something?
That 40 number is out of date. In a past hard fork, it changed to 10.
In my opinion, you shouldn't really worry about your voting power decreasing, just make sure your VP is always under 100. Any time your voting power reaches 100, you're wasting VP and influence.
I see, that explains it. Thanks!
Great post, thank you so very much for clarifying some points I was a bit vague about.
Over the course of the last few articles, I have tried to find a way to "PROMOTE" my articles, to give them more exposure and get higher rewards, but I don't have a "PROMOTE" button on the right hand-side at the bottom of the articles, do you happen to know why I am not "allowed" to promote my posts whether they are old or totally new? Thanks a lot for the offer to answer questions relating to anything Steem, it is very appreciated!
All for one and one for all! Namaste :)
Question @eric-boucher
Your above reply above has 2 votes currently, yet it is recorded at $0.00.
I have noticed this on my blog as well. I have posts that have 6 votes, yet my actual post is worth $0.00 for the past few weeks. Can you or someone clarify? I am very new here.
Thanks :)
Very good question! The more Steem Power someone has, the more this person can leverage the total amount of Steem in the pool to reward YOU or themselves for this matter, for the work or interactions you have with this person. Thus, if a lot of people without much Steem Power vote for you, you might seemingly have nothing at all, only fractions of a Steem Dollar. Yet, if a person with lots of Steem Power votes for you at a high percentage of their power, you may end up with over $13.00 for one vote! I hope this helps you understand some more the intricacies of our platform?!.
Namaste :)
Thanks for the quick response. Yes it helps, somewhat so. Steemit is not so easy to understand. Thanks again for all your help.
Are you trying to promote the posts after the first payout? If so, that isn't possible.
No, I was trying to promote it from the get go, but I simply don't have the button that would allow me to do so, neither can other people see a button there either. So, I'm stuck not being able to promote article for which I spend 5 days and over writing! Grrrrrr... Any idea who or what i can do to solve this?
Thanks a bunch for your quick reply, it is very appreciated, namaste :)
Must be a bug. I'd post it in the steemit.chat #dev or #witness channel and see if they're familiar with that bug.
I would gladly post in the steemit.chat, but I can't get access either! Thank you so very very much for your guidance so greatly appreciated. All for one and one for all! Namaste :)
How much steem power do i have to get rewards with comment and vote?
Ahh I think I may have maxed out. I better take it easy. One of my stories got 3 votes but only = 0.01 Im a little bit confused about this. It's not a big deal or anything like that that, It's just the first time this has happened. Would be nice to know why. But it's ok, I'm very thankful to my followers reguardless of how much their vote is worth.
Thanks for the tips I really learned a lot.
@shenanigator why whales like you do not upvote comment on their own post? its not for being bad i just want to know because i notice whale do not upvote often really often
Thank you @shenanigator and also thank you for having a positive perspective on people still being categorized low such as me (currently :) ). Solid information, neatly presented and lively enough to not bore. Good job!
awesome good
wow thanks
You are welcome. Thanks for reading!
Thank you, again, for a great post!
Upvoted and resteemed.
Thanks for the support!
Great advice thank you :)
You're welcome. Glad you found it helpful!
I've saved it as I know I'll be needing it. Thank you :)
@shenanigator. I have a question about your vote being worth more after the post already made some money. I have been searching high and low about this. Where can I find the most recent info on this.
So if you vote on a post that already have some good votes. Let's say $20 my vote will be worth more when I upvote that post compared to upvoting a post that made $1 from current votes
It used to be true that your vote was worth more on a high-paying post, but after Hard Fork 19 that's no longer the case.
my mom sent me this link and told me to stfu
I haven't upvoted anything for 2 or 3 days....I read somewhere that the only way for me to get my voting power back up was to not vote for five days. Now I know it's more of a trickling effect over a duration of 5 days to get me back to full power. This shall be the first post I've upvoted in some time! Thanks so much.
Thanks for this article. Answered a lot of my questions
Great explanation! Thank you very much for making it clear :-)
is there a difference for voting post vs comments?
If you vote for a post, the rewards go to the writer of the post. If you vote for a comment, the rewards go to the writer of the comment. Otherwise, there's no difference.
Great !
Really informative dear @shenanigator !
Thank you so much for your effort !!
Thanks a lot sir. All my doubts have been now cleared. I am slowly beginning to understand how all of this works.
Hello, Thank-you. This is a fantastic platform. I think I understand most of my reading, BUT¿
Is it possible that somewhere that I've missed, there is a navigation post simplified for 'idiots'. I'm perfectly willing to be an advanced blogger's 'idiot' for feedback on their series of step by step navigation thru steemit. I don't know how to get menus. Not the ones I want. When I do I find them difficult to refund. The icons are a mystery. Many speak of voting, witnessing, curating, but although I've an idea what is meant, I've no idea how. I've read FAQs that say this and that, but not the 'how to'. If there were a download PDF, that would be great, as I am not a longtime computer user. I lost my directions and haven't found the menu with drafts for hours. It is very frustrating.
Wow... this is an Amazing Post! I’m new here and I just learned so much from you. Thank you for sharing your knowledge ;) Happy New Year!💫💫💫
wow this article was so helpful. all the other ones i read were so difficult to follow and so confusing! thanks a ton this is amazing! @tstarnes
Ok, a few questions.
Is the vote slider a thing of the past? I just joined yesterday and I have not seen it, just a straight upvote button.
The idea that curation money is split 90/10 after 3 mins vs 50/50 after 15... is that also a changed percentage? I read somewhere it was always 75/25
It seems like all of the 'rules' create a community of artificial actions ie, waiting certain amounts of time to upvote or comment, people asking for upvotes in a popular article. Doesn't this really ruin the idea of a fluid exchange of ideas?
Hello, thank you for valuable information, but let me ask few things, which are not clear to me:
Thanx for answer
Thanks for your post.
If I have above 1000sp then I would have given you 20sbd for sure. This post is worth that much bro!!