Introduction

Finally after some time participating and blogging as a graphic designer here on Steemit I got my voting bar! I'm so excited to have reached this goal as user and as a person because this means I'm on the right path growing and helping the community to grow too.

I felt it would be cool to make a post about the fact of getting my voting bar but as I was writting my excitement of having it I realized the need of making a valuable post about what is the voting bar and how it works.

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What is the voting bar?

This is not an official definition of Steemit Voting bar, but I'm using all my knowledge, research and experience to make this as clear as possible without long technical terms.

The voting bar is a tool service geared to manage how large or how valuable is the post or comment from one user perspective.

Please notice I'm using "user perspective" to claim that there are tons of low rated post treasures with much valuable information than other posts with a large number of upvotes and value.

The scale

Once a user reaches 1 M Vest which right now equates to 482.398 Steem Power you are allowed to use a scale which uses a porcentage value of 1% to 100% selected by you in integer numbers of 1%. Currently accounts with Vests and SP lower than this number vote with an automated 100% vote weight.

Example:

100% value

99% value decreased by 1%

How do I get the Vests or Steem Power

1. This can be earned by making valuable posts having as a result gaining Steem Power from upvotes,
2. Buying Steem Power from Blocktrades,
3. Transfering Steem to your account and Powering Up,
4. Delegation Leasing Empowerment. You can check this post for more information about it: Delegation Leasing Market (DLM).

Where can I look at my Vests or Steem Power (SP)

You can go to www.steemd.com/@[your name] or www.steemdb.com/@[your name]

SP located on the left side of the window below your name.
Vests located on the top right side of the window

SP and Vests located below the profile box on the right side of the window

How does you Vest balance Change?

• You can Increase your Vest’s balance by; Creation, Curation or Powering Up.. You could also be a Witness/Miner
• You can Decrease your Vest’s balance by Powering Down

Powering Up essentially creates new Vests. This action does not reduce the value of other users Vests, as the share creation is relative to the Steem investment.

Reference: Steemit Education Programme - What are Vests?

What is the value of Vests converted to Steem Power (SP)

Accordingly to this post: Investors - Earn up to 49% APR with MinnowBooster.net Delegation Leasing Market (DLM), the SP amount shown as VESTS, vests are a more accurate representation of SP as shown on the blockchain, basically SP x roughly 2100 + VESTS.

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How much you can vote?

Right now you are limited to vote 40 times at 100% per day, if you are under 1 M Vest or 482.398 SP you are let's say "obligated" to vote no more than 40 times but if you are above this barrier you can use the Voting Bar tool to distribute your Voting power as you desire meaning more than 40 times if you decrease the % of your Voting Power.

As you cast votes you will notice that your Voting Power is lowered by around 2% at 100% voting strength

Example:

• 40 Votes at 100%
  

• 80 Votes at 50%
  

• 400 Votes at 10%
  

Value of the Voting Power Example:

• Let's say your full upvote at 100% gives $10.
• You have used a lot of votes today and now you have a 50% of Voting Power. This equals $10 x 50% = $5 voting value
• Now if you use your Voting Power at 25% again your upvote will give $1,25 (5$ x 25% = $1,25)

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Conclusion

Steemit is a community who is evolving and integrating each day. At first when I was getting into it I did not care too much about the posts to be honest... but it started to feel good to give some helpful comments or upvotes to posts which I actually enjoyed reading. So that's the soul of being an steemian.. to be able to enter everyday to the community and see something that enriches you, for this reason you may want to give back value and upvote.

Sometimes it is important to discern about what are those more valuable post on this increasing community that's why you have given the power to choose. This situation encourages the people to care even more about making quality content every time so it can reach more audience and heavy upvotes. Personally I enjoy everyday reading and learning from good posts and I like to spend time finding authors that gives me more value than an upvote can do.

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Do you want to help me?

I'm a self employeed graphic designer who dreams on having his freedom and full time dedication on his design passion.
I'm spending time and effort with so much energy to bring cool content almost daily!
If you want to extend your love to my ideas it is super easy to do :)
You can decide on:

1. Upvoting
2. Resteeming
3. Commenting
4. Sending SBD or STEEM tips to my account @carlosd15

Share the love !