Bot vs manual voting
Before hf19, I had experimented with using bot voting as well as manual voting. My vote counted for only about one cent however, so the curation rewards were usually very low. With hf19, the value of my vote is potentially around 50 cents but with only approximately 10 full powered votes availabile each day at 100%, voting with bots makes less sense. Instead, I have been more sparing with my votes but have spread them around to more minnows than before.
Upvoting yourself
I saw a debate about this subject. All Steemians appear to upvote their own blogs when they tick the relevant box on posting but since hf19 there has been more upvoting by Steemians of their own comments. Is this "ethical"? In my view, it is on a par with buying a vote from @randowhale and has a similar effect. When you upvote yourself, the comment jumps up the list of comments depending on how much your self vote is worth, so it is more likely to be seen by other readers. When paying @randowhale for a vote, you are paying for potential additional financial reward and influence. I do both but not on every occasion.
Timing of votes
Post hf19, I understand that we should still aim to upvote a blog at between 20 to 30 minutes to maximise our own portion of the reward for voting. We should also aim to vote within the first six and a half days. In the last 12 hours of the 7 day period, the vote will not count in terms of financial reward. Please correct me if I am wrong here 🙂
Steemnow.com
This spin off site was created by @penguinpablo and is incredibly useful for various statistics. In particular, you can find out how much voting power you have left and how much your vote is worth at any given time. I have been voting and curating rather enthusiastically and so my current voting power is down to 19.02% and my vote at 100% is worth 10 cents, but this is still better than before hf19!
Conclusion
Hf19 has been a huge improvement to the Steemit experience for the majority of minnows and dolphins 🐬. It encourages less bot voting, curating is financially more rewarding, the financial returns from an upvote are generally higher even with fewer votes and overall there is less inequality, which can only be a good thing for the future of Steemit 😊
I welcome your input and views, @fleur 🙏🏽
