New updates are coming to steem next week. 

Here's highlights for new features/updates from the git release log: 

• Bug fix issue from broadcasts on locked wallets.
• Adjustment for block size calculation.  The minimum block size limit will be reduced from 128k to 64k
• Liquidity rewards will be temporarily disabled. 

Payment Updates:

Posts:

The payout stage will now be weighted by 12 hours instead of 24. 

This is a great addition and content should now be less "stale" and cycle faster. 

Improving how content is displayed in terms of freshness should be an added welcome.  Additionally there is a second voting period set to 30 days after the first payout.  

Comments:

Root level comments have reward weight for the entire end payout of the post.  The first 4 posts in 24 hours will not be penalized.  After the initial 24 hours the weight is decreased from 100% and factored by your average posting frequency.  

Spamming will be heavily penalized going forward and a great addition.