Curation: 15 minute rule and self-upvote rule.

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Graphic created by @shortsegments.

Hi Steemit Users!

Now that we will have curation rewards increased to 50% it becomes more important the ever to know the rules governing curation rewards. I would like to review the 15 minute rule and the Self voting rules.

I think there is some confusion about the curation rules because here at Steemit when a lot of changes occur we call it a HardFork. We are currently operating under changes from HardFork number 20. Unfortunately when you do a google search and look up articles about curation you don’t always know if the article your reading was written before or after the last HardFork and therefore you don’t know if the material is still current or based on the latest software code.

Fortunately there is a blog by the developers which contains the latest information, so I encourage you to read that blog @steemitblog or make sure the article your reading references that blog or the most recent HardFork, which is number 20.

Now let’s review those rules.

15 Minute Rule
We use to have a 30 minute rule for upvoting posts, which meant you got zero curation rewards if you voted when the post came out and maximal curation rewards if you voted at 30 minutes after the post came out. HardFork 20 changed this to 15 minutes. So if you upvote a post right after it comes out you get zero curation rewards. You now get maximal curation rewards at 15 minutes.
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Self-Voting Rewards

The 15 minute rule has a special impact on authors. if authors vote for themselves in the first 15 minutes all the curation rewards they would have received go back into the rewards pool and the author gets nothing. After 15 minutes the author can self-upvote without penalty.
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I hope this helps you earn more Steem.
Remember knowledge is power and power is money. 🎩

Steem On! 🚂