🐋 @randowhale set for change? What we learned from yesterday's monster window 🐋

@randowhale was awake for nine hours straight yesterday and voting at four different bid levels. Is this the shape of things to come? We investigate what the future may look like.

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@randowhale numbers: Sunday 15.10.2017

So there was no announcement, no press release, no chorus of angels or fanfare. But yesterday something changed behind the scenes at @randowhale. A monster shift of nine hours without a break raised some eyebrows. An automated error message: "Incorrect amount sent - send exactly 0.500, 1.000, 1.500, or 2.000" suggested something more fundamental than just a prolonged bout of insomnia.

The vast majority of posters stuck to the script. The $1.00 (or 1 Steem) transfer has been in place for over a week now. The calibration of upvotes here looks unchanged from earlier in the weekend: A 4.15% base layer offering around $1.60 early in the window with a 56% chance of receiving this lowest level. Four further levels above this base, each offering around 15c-20c more than the last, each a little harder to come by. A lucky few hitting the jackpot with the 25% and 50% upvotes.

Note that different upvotes can be received even for the same upvote percentage. Looking at the blue 4.15% base layer, the highest three bands, visible in the 160%-170% range, are for the three different randowhales (original, @randowhale0 and @randowhale1, the latter comes fashionably late to the party). The upvote amount drops down through the "levels" as the window progresses and the vote power falls. A 4.15% upvote will drop down to the next level at 96.6% voting power, so pretty early in the window, and then again at 84.5% voting power, around 17h30 in the chart below. Top tip? Get in there early!

A smaller crowd, opportunistic, wedded to the old ways or perhaps just plain forgetful, ad-libbed with a $0.50 transfer. The calibration here mirrors its larger brother. Perhaps a little more bang for your buck but not overly significant.

No 25% or 50% upvotes were seen at this transfer size, although with a much smaller population of upvotes this could simply be down to chance.

Finally a courageous few ventured into the unknown with transfers of $1.50 or $2.00. "Upvote / transfer" ratios were a little thinner here compared to those for smaller sums. Perhaps this is to be expected. There is a balance to be made between providing competitive upvotes and draining the power available.

So was this an experiment? An abberation? A sign of things to come? @minnowbooster have announced changes are in the works so was this a preemptive strike in an upvote bot contest between the two biggest hitters?

From a personal standpoint, longer windows would be a big plus. The ability to immediately upvote a post and get it visibility is the key attraction of insta-bots like @randowhale. $1.50 or $2.00 transfer levels? Not if they drain the power at the expense of awake time. Plus there are plenty of other options for larger bids. But having a choice between $0.50 and $1.00? That's an improvement in our book.

Is that where we're heading? We'll be watching the next windows with interest.

(Please note that we have no affiliation with @randowhale - the last @randowhale post still asks for $1 transfers and you deviate from this at your own risk)

At the end of the day, the key things to focus on are the quality of your posts and your engagement with the community. In the long run, these will determine your rewards on Steemit.

The main purpose of upvote bots is to give your work visibility. Getting your beautifully crafted post launched onto the hot list or the trending list can help to get it seen by more people who may share your interests. The "value-for-money" is far from the main story.

Please remember that the returns from upvote-bots are not guaranteed. Your post may receive less of an upvote than the SBD you have bid.

You can check out all our back issues by checking the #upvotebotreport tag.

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This report relies on the data in sql.steemsql.com, a fantastic tool run by @arcange. As always, many thanks for making this available!