Vote Value Increase
With the latest software upgrade at Steemit (known as HF19), most of us have seen a dramatic increase of vote value. This increase is the result of two reasons:
The votes of a minnow (small SP holder) has the same weight in relative terms to a Dolphin, Orca or Whale. This is known as the linear vote curve. Before the software upgrade, the vote curve was exponential (square root to be exact) of the amount of Steem Power; Someone with 10 times more SP would have 100 times more value. Now someone with 10 times more SP has also 10 times more value.
The vote power at 100% has increase with a factor 4; meaning when voting with 100% power now, this vote power is 4 times stronger than voting with 100% power before the software upgrade.
Many users here at Steemit saw dramatic increase of vote values. I've experienced myself more than 8 times increase of values at my posts and more than 5 times increase in value of my 100% vote. Before the update my 100% vote was worth 0.12$ and right after the upgrade it was worth 2.56$ with 0,64$ for a 25% vote power (adjusting for the vote power increase at 100% - point 2 above). That is still in increase of more than 5 times.
Vote Value Decreasing
Since the software upgrade and the increase of post pending payouts and vote value, we see a gradual reduction in our post pending payouts and vote values.
Again two reasons:
Before the software update many Whales did not vote since some month or more ago an experiment was started to give the Minnows more vote power and value on the platform. The Whales stopped voting, resulting in more rewards available to the Minnows since the Whales would not receive anything from the daily created Steem. (note: each day the same amount of Steem is created to distribute to us as rewards to our posts and comments).
Steem value decreased in last couple of days quite a lot, from more than 2,20$ to around 1,80$ today. Earlier Steem peaked even higher, at around 2,50$.
Real Vote Power
The vote power and with that the vote value is relative to your vote power left. The system is created in such way that each time you vote with 100% power, your vote power decreases with 2%. That means when starting with full vote power left in your bucket of vote power, after 50 votes your vote power is zero (50 times 2% = 100%), and with that your vote value as well.
In the post by @scrooger (here) the vote power is explained in all details, including tips how to go about voting.
Good sources to view your vote power are:
Real Vote Value
What the real vote value will be when all the Whales are starting to vote again, we don't know yet. More Whales started to vote again; But maybe not all of them. The fact is that our vote value will always fluctuate. It depends in the end on how many votes are casted, the vote values, and your vote power. These variables fluctuate constantly.
A good source to view your current vote value is the earlier mentioned https://Steemnow.com.