I really like the @steemhunt project and I think the statistics and fundamentals behind the project are extremely optimistic. If you still don't know about @steemhunt please read the following article: https://steemit.com/steemhunt/@vimukthi/why-you-should-log-into-https-steemhunt-com-right-now-hunt-token-analysis The short version is if you Login via Steemconect and start voting and resteeming (and/or delegate SP) you'll be given free HUNT Tokens. Voting @steemhunt posts on Steemit, Busy etc. won't help you. If you have voted outside of https://steemhunt.com Log in and re-vote in the same manner to collect your rewards.

The New Improvements

When the project started, those with more SP got to the top and @steemhunt created a reputation based Account Based Voting system which still didn't do much and their bot vote still favored a relatively small group with large votes. Then they finally made a much better system and optimized the bot to vote in a way that properly reward those who are contributing to the platform more: https://steemit.com/steemhunt/@steemhunt/steemhunt-abv-2-0-introducing-hunter-level-based-steemhunt-upvotes-or-new-category-search-feature

Then we had this cool feature.

Then we had this little mess.

I noticed that I've been getting much lower votes despite having no real drop in quality and I post at the very beginning of a new "Today" section. Here are my last 4 days:

Here are the 4 days before that:

I noticed that I'm getting a lot less votes in the first few hours compared to what I used to get. I normally get 20+ votes and occasional 50+ votes but now I'm getting 5-6 votes for the same quality Hunts. You can check https://steemhunt.com/author/@vimukthi to verify.

Lessons From Dwarf Fortress

I speculate that this is due to the above mentioned little mess. Notice the blue squared part. You have to click it to get the Hunts randomized.

Earlier the default was to have everything randomized. So every time I Log in, the list was different and little fresh which was bit of an incentive to scroll down and vote for few Hunts. Now it's the same list every time based on the Hunt score and those with lower scores almost don't get noticed at all. With @steemhunt having over 8 times the amount of Hunts on Product Hunt (It's true. Read my findings here) it's pretty hard for a new post with no votes to even get noticed which is something I cn say about the Steemit trending page.

Most People Won't Use The Option

Don't take my word for it. Read some psychology experiments. You can find several. I'm just going to link two.

http://ethicsguidebook.ac.uk/Opt-in-and-opt-out-sampling-94
https://sparq.stanford.edu/solutions/opt-out-policies-increase-organ-donation

Here is a small quote:

The researchers then probed the beliefs of participants who live in countries with opt-in or opt-out policies. In Germany, an opt-in country, participants consider organ donation an ethically meaningful and costly action. But in Austria, an opt-out country, participants consider organ donation an ethically trivial and inconsequential action.Based on these findings, the researchers conclude that changing policies so that the United States became an opt-out country, rather than an opt-in country, would change organ donation from a meaningful and costly action to a trivial and inconsequential one. This change in meaning, in turn, would lead to an increase in organ donations.

This study targets people’s perceptions of what is the normal and usual thing to do—the status quo. People tend to conform to the status quo. In an opt-out country, the status quo is to donate organs upon death. A simple adjustment to the phrasing of the default option in the United States has the potential to lead more people towards organ donation and, consequently, saving thousands of lives.

Countries or states that currently have an opt-in policy and no religious or cultural beliefs that discourage organ donation would benefit most from changing their default policies.

Instead of having a button to randomize posts, have a button to rank them according to the HUNT score and optionally make the button easier to notice.

Happy Hunting!

Feel free to let me know about your thoughts and experiences in the comments.