The reward pool and people raping it. This seems to be a recurring topic that keeps raring its head. Somebody is doing something that takes rewards away from another. Someone feels a post is not worth as much as the value gained. Someone is voting on their own account for $50 and raping the reward pool.

This same mentality repeats itself again and again, only the name of the person changes. Rape is a very serious charge, if you are going to accuse someone of rape, You better make sure its true. Rape seems to be the word decided upon to start a campaign of sorts, Somehow someone managed to figure out a way to get delegation by claiming rape happened. So a bunch of nonsense built up around it. I would like to take a look at this.
My understanding of the reward system might be flawed, If so, Maybe someone out there can enlighten me on where I misunderstand.

So, there is a reward pool. This reward pool gets topped up each day at a set rate. Each day the same amount of Steem will be generated through the process involved in creating the Steem. The amount displayed in the reward pool is the amount that is there over the last seven days basically. A division of 7 to the total amount in the reward pool will show how much can be rewarded per day. Note this is an estimate as the reward per day may still vary. It is a good estimate and the variation is marginal in comparison day to day.

Just to keep things simple. If the daily reward pool is 70K then the daily reward would be equal to 10K, basic mathematics. It does not matter if the reward pool is 70K or 700K the %'s are the same. There is only ever 100% of the reward pool to be distributed. Adding more to it does not increase that %. There is still 100%.

Then there is the Steem Power. The Steem power determines the level of reward you can give. The more Steem Power you have the bigger the reward you can share. If I have 10 Steem Power and my vote is worth 1. A person with 100 Steem Power would have a vote of 10. That seems fair to me. Your vote gets valued at the % of the Steem Power you hold.

I think what I have said above makes sense. If it does not, STOP READING! Write a comment on why it does not make sense so far and I will reply and try make it clearer.

So we have a division of two different things combining together to give the reward level. The % of the total Steem powered up. And the daily % of the reward pool. The reward pool % you get to give is in direct relation to the % of the overall Steem there is powered up.

If there is 100 Steem powered up and there is a reward pool of 100. If you hold 10 Steem powered up, you would give the reward value of 10.

1000 Steem powered up and 100 in the reward pool and you hold 10 this will mean you give a reward of 1.

I hope this is all straight forward so far.

When a vote gets placed. That vote gives a reward value which gets displayed. Accumulated votes get added to the total and they are also displayed as a total. This will be the amount of reward the post will get at the time the Steem reward pool release to the publisher. There are fluctuation to this amount dependant on market prices. If the price of the currency rises then the reward value will rise too. The amount of the vote does not change. The vote remains the same, it is only the market value of that reward which has changed.

The start of a new day. We are going to make our first vote. Not only that we are going to make the very first vote of the day. No one has voted before us. The clock hits 00:00 and before it hits 00:00.001 we get the first vote in. YAY! first vote. How much is the vote worth? It is the same as if you were to do the last vote of the day. There is no variation in this unless it is due to market forces or a large power up or down on the Steem Power.
The value of your vote does not alter as another person places a vote. It remains the same, It remains the % of Steem Power you hold in relation to the amount of the daily reward pool. This remains constant and does not change with the general actions of others.

The amount of reward we give when we vote is predetermined The amount of rewards which can be taken from the pool on any given day is also limited by the amount produced.

Somebody voting to their own account and only to their account takes no more from the reward pool than their Steem Power allows. If they vote their stake to a post published by someone else, it makes no difference. The amount of the vote they use can make a difference to the size of the reward pool tomorrow. If they do not use their vote, that amount of Steem will not get paid out and will be added to the total reward pool for a seven day period.

I have a vote and it has a value of 100 Steem. I have a total of 10 of these I can do in a 24 hour period. This amount will replenish also through that 24 hours, leaving me a daily vote of ten. If I only use 9 of these votes 100 Steem will be added to the reward pool. It does not matter where I place these votes. The amount I can vote with is already set.

The same thing goes when voting bots are applied. Anything the voting bot or bid bot votes with and distributes to posts has already been allocated. If these voting bots do not vote the vote goes unused and the reward pool for tomorrow increases slightly. A service is provided and used. A user exchanges their Steem for the service. Is this not what we want to happen, the ability to use Steem to better our lives?

My conclusion here is. You cannot rape the reward pool, everything you can do with your stake is already pre-set. You can choose were you will delegate your stake. You can make individual or group choices. You can concentrate your efforts strictly on financial generation or on the publishing side of things. The reward pool is outside of the control of others to rape or pilfer. The ability to concentrate financial rewards is there and is used by many. Everyone holds a measure they cannot go above or beyond when it comes to the reward pool.

You could look at it that those who flag published content because of the use of bots are preventing free trade of goods and services and dictating where another should spend their earned Steem.