Your solution is a pretty good one.
Maybe I am missing something - but I can't think of any reason why open ended voting on posts wouldn't be better. It really does seem like an added benefit for everyone connected into the STEEM blockchain.
maybe it could be open ended - but you get your first payout after a week and then every 2 weeks...or maybe it could just keep rolling every week and over time, everybody's weekly payouts start building up pretty good.
especially so when we hit numbers like $100 Steem :)
Thanks for stopping by and sharing your input.
cheers.
I think it has to do with the daily supply of steem, but I am not too sure. Each day there are a limited number of new steem given out for the reward pool. If posts from months ago are still being rewarded that can take away a lot of potential rewards from newer posts. I am sure there is a good explanation for it somewhere, but I too would like to see something that can be rewarded for more than 7 days
I too thought that if posts were open ended that it would hurt the daily pool available for voting.
But then I realized: Oh shit - no it doesn't - because everyone is now eligible for open ended voting on posts...and so there's no loss because everybody wins.
If anything it's just a +1 improvement for everyone :)
I think there is more to it than this. What happens if you have received rewards for a payout, then remove your vote and vote for something again? you could earn rewards over and over.
A decaying reward pool might be a valid option though, but would need to ask some one with more technical knowledge than myself. I wonder if @ned has ever addressed this?