But since then, things have changed considerably. Spam is less of an issue, and the current payouts make it unlikely that it will return in force... at least not in the near term.
I agree with that being the case right now. I just don't know how that will change when the limit is removed. I tend to think that it will increase. The other concern is about auto-voting, but I'm sure that those using auto-votes will notice that their voting power is declining and should take the appropriate steps to adjust. That's how it would work in theory. Who knows what will actually happen. I think people will be taking advantage of it until they see their votes/rewards drop.
Honestly, I have no problem with a reward limit for "over" posting. People can still post as much as they like - they just won't be able to receive max rewards for every post. With a limited daily pool, I really don't see an issue with that.
I'm somewhat skeptical about the change of payout from 24 hours to 7 days.
I'm also skeptical. If 24 hours is too short, then 7 days is also too long. Split the difference and maybe make it 72 hours? In reality, most posts make nothing after the first hour. Some will occasionally pick up a significant vote after several hours have passed, but the way that curating is designed, we shouldn't expect to see a lot of votes after the first 30 minutes to one hour.
Unless they're going to change curation, this extended period won't matter much at all regarding payouts. It will only delay gratification, as you mentioned, and probably become another issue that new users won't be so thrilled to learn.
Comment Payout
I'm completely against having a separate rewards pool - especially if it's at the expense of current post/curation rewards. I think it will just encourage more comment spam and abuse/gaming of the rewards. If this actually becomes a thing, the rewards pool should be small and it should not come at the expense of curation. With curation being only 25% as it is, a 38% haircut would make holding SP damn near pointless, which then makes the entire three-token system, including inflation and interest, pretty much moot.
By reducing curation rewards further, there would be no reason for investment in STEEM/SP. This will then have an effect on voting/engagement/distribution of stake...and likely STEEM prices.
There's not really anything wrong with comment payouts right now. As I've stated many times - the issues of engagement (and consequently, comment rewards) are due to a lack of a sizable active user base. You can't expect a bunch of engagement and comment rewards when not many people are actually reading, commenting, and manually voting. We need more users, not more reward pools (or guilds, for that matter).
Even if they don't, vote power reduction carries its own penality in terms of each vote being worth less. The system reaches a natural equilibrium where anyone who votes more than the minimum amount has the same total vote power regardless of the number of votes cast.
In fact it is quite a bit less than that because of the early votes causing curation rewards to go to the author instead. (Also no curation rewards on 30 day payouts, but that is a small factor and one which would be undone by the proposed changes.)
I think I would favor a general flatting of rewards (say replacing N^2 with N log N everywhere), which would tend to increase the share going to comments without a need for a separate pool.
Agree on all points.
I have heard the N^2 argument several times lately and I think that would probably be the best way to handle things. It's certainly better than creating new pools, new voting power meters, and new incentives for spamming. That route just seems like it would make using the platform less intuitive anyway. It's already complicated enough for new users.
Good point on complicated.
Steemit should be simple to explain to people. That's key. If I tell someone about Steemit, and it's too complicated for me to put simply in a few sentences, the person won't trust it.
As a person in the sales business, the fact that simplicity is key is always hammered home every time we have trainings.
Agree, curation rewards is the main reason people buy steem power, they should increase not decrease.
I'm in favor of keeping 24/h payouts. Instant gratification is everything.
This is my proposal for comment rewards