Before you Lose Your Stuff... Steemit is NOT "Broken"
So there were some "hairy moments" this morning as-- all of a sudden, at 8:00am US Pacific time-- suddenly all rewards on "open" posts reset to zero... and everyone's "reputation" score dropped to 25-- the default "new account" setting.
Full Steem ahead....?
Of course, quite a few people started running around in the figurative circle, shouting "The has fallen, the sky has fallen!!"
Welcome back to the NORMAL Internet!
Well, not really.
But I did have a moment of chuckling to myself... reminding myself how ALL OF US... might have been on Facebook, Reddit, Medium or somewhere else, where we happily would post away and get... absolutely nothing... for our efforts. Remember that? Yeah... take a moment to be grateful for this brave new world of Steemit!
But I can appreciate the anxiety. I wasn't too worried, as I like to keep up with "the news"-- not because I think myself "smart," but because I hate surprises!
Red Admiral butterfly taking a break
We've known for a few days that the formerly controversial HF17 update had been merged with the subsequent HF18 refresh into a single release that was quite publicly scheduled to hit today at 8:00am. I actually thought it was rather awesome that the witnesses reached consensus so readily!
Now, anyone who has ever been part of a "live" software change/update has probably also experienced those "grey moments" during a changeover where everything can go a little haywire, for a short while.
Experience has taught me that such things are not worth "losing your nuts over" unless some of the quirks prove to be "sticky" and hang around for days and weeks. Then there's an actual problem.
Indeed, our reputation scores went back to their previous levels within 90 minutes.
But What About the Zero Rewards?
I'm not entirely sure of the technical aspects of the algorithms, but it does appear that some posts that were published before the changeover-- but still had time left on the 24-hour payout clock-- were reset to zero. I had one such post... but I noticed the potential payout time is now six days away. So I'm guessing it became a "new post" again, at the moment of changeover.
White Hawthorn in bloom
Now, as for the way it now seems like new posts stay near zero in rewards for a reaaallly long time, that has to do with the payout window changing from 24 hours to 7 days. It also has to do with the way the rewards pool is allocated.
There was a pretty good explanatory post from @abit earlier this morning (before things started changing!), which I would recommend reading, if you still have concerns.
My takeaway is that it will take about 30 days before the new rewards formula is going to completely "normalize" and can be counted on as the new standard. Until then, putting too much effort into "trying to figure out EXACTLY how things work" may not give you entirely accurate results.
So what do we do now??
I don't have any "formal" advice, but I plan to just keep posting, commenting and curating as I did before.
A maple leaf backlit by the sun...
I don't think it's worth dwelling on whether rewards seem to be "accumulating slowly" or whether your upvotes suddenly don't change the rewards amount. If it's going to take 30 days for things to find a "new normal," I'm just going to put my faith in the belief that things are working as they are supposed to.
What I DON'T recommend is quitting or deciding that you want to stop posting "till things look better." Why? Because I fear you'll find yourself a week-- a couple of weeks-- maybe even a month-- down the road having created NO new content and suddenly having to play "catchup" with everyone who have been going about business as normal.
What do YOU think? Where were YOU, when things changed? Steem on!
(All text and images by the author, unless otherwise credited. This is original content, created expressly for Steemit)
Just a temporary result from the changing of the formulas. Steem on! :-)
Everything gets shaken up... and like a snowglobe, it takes a little while for things to settle back down in a new pattern.
Craig Grant has a really simple explanation. He reckons it will be about a week before the numbers finally balance out. He also said he will not be posting as often until then. However, another has said that if people do not vote or post then the reward pool will be huge and so those who do actually keep voting and posting will reap the rewards.
Never a dull moment on Steemit lol!
Yes, never a dull moment around these parts... I suppose I am just not that much of a "clock watcher" to where I sit and worry myself over these kinds of things. Things will find a new equilibrium, in time.
Agreed
Interesting post and take on things. To me it would be good to have an official news button here where announcements and/or explanations could be given. Communication on steemit is often based on guesses, speculation and on whether or not you saw a certain post. I did read the one by @abit but I could also have easily missed it.
I had mixed feelings about whether or not to continue posting as usual because the money aspect has corrupted my motives at least to some extent. I need to remember my core reason for being here and that is as a new "artistic" outlet and a fun hobby.
Keep up the great writing @denmarkguy you're definitely one of my favourites!
Thanks for the kind words!
I spent some time thinking about it and realized that I just enjoy the sense of community and friendship here... it reminds me very much of what blogging used to be, about 10-15 years ago. And I also realized that I really have missed that. Of course the rewards are nice... but if I were to compare Steemit to somewhere like Medium, or even my self-hosted niche blogs... there's far more interaction and communication here, and that's part of what I enjoy.
FWIW one thing I have learned from creating paid content on YouTube for 5 years is once you "take a break" from creating, sometimes its hard to find your groove again. Its not always easy to turn it on and off.
You said it @old-guy-photos! I took an enforced break from the start of Feb, due to some changes in our business circumstances, and although things have settled a bit, I still don't have my groove back on! A bit of reading, upvoting and commenting is as far as I've got.
I think it is like exercise, or going to the gym, once you get out of it, it takes a bit of extra effort to get going again...much like inertia. The good news, I believe is once you get moving or writing on a daily basis, before too long it will be a (good) habit again. Best of luck!
Yup, not planning to stop anything because of this.
I will keep posting as I did before. Yes, it's really a good thing to be paid for efforts, but blogging for blogging, cause I like it is an important thing too:)
I just simply enjoy the process of writing... so I would probably be doing this (or something like it), regardless.
https://steemit.com/steem/@whatsup/this-is-what-is-happening-with-the-reward-pool-and-your-post-rewards-i-think-maybe
Here is my attempt to understand it. ;)
Thanks-- I'll go check it out!
I was sleep when it happened