WARNING! Critical Information For New Steemit Users - This Is What They Don't Tell You At Sign Up!!!
I hope my title was sufficient to grab your attention! Even if you are not a new user, I think it would behoove you to read further, especially if you are occasionally posting guidelines and tips for new Steemit users. This particularly applies to the guides that encourage new users to post everyday, comment on posts, upvote posts etc. I'm here to tell you that advice is fundamentally flawed! Although most of it is perfectly sound and gratefully received...
For the older, more experienced users, anything above plankton in the cute, popular analogy of the Steemit community, you may or may not be aware of the recent bandwidth issues that were flooding the chat rooms and appearing on other social media - particularly Facebook. Finding Nemo and Spongebob Squarepants aside, we all know the ocean can be a dark and foreboding place.
I signed up for this 'free' Steemit account and after reading through most of the menu items and clicking on a lot of the recommended links - sort of like going to Steemit University - I started interacting with this wonderful new community. I tried to post everyday. I put effort into my blogs. I read lots of posts, and commented politely and with interest and concern. Basically I did everything I was told to do.
It wasn't enough to save me!
A couple of days ago, like many other new users, I got a 'bandwidth exceeded' message. It's like the Steemit Red Screen of Death. At first I was confused, I had plenty of voting power, I hadn't been flagged, was Steemit down?... I also, like other users, thought I'd done something wrong.
So I went on the hunt for answers. First I searched on Steemit for bandwidth related posts, then I went and looked at the white and blue papers (does anyone actually read these, and more importantly understand them? If you answered 'yes' to both questions, hats off to you!) Then I visited the PAL Discord help chat room.
In the end, I found most of my answers.
- I visited the webpage which shows my available bandwidth (steemd.com/@ yourusername )
- I found out how the available bandwidth is calculated.
- I read some helpful posts on how to reduce your bandwidth usage.
- I realised I had made a critical mistake by editing a post SIX TIMES!!
Here are links to a couple of the articles I found helpful:
The Problem in Technical Detail
BUT I what I really wanted to know, was how much bandwidth I had used for each of my transactions. This was the answer I got on Discord:
As you can see, I am always polite and respectful ☺
Obviously I had already done my own estimate, based on my decreasing bandwidth usage during the day and the ageing analysis of my transactions that moved from 7 days ago into the 8 days ago 'doesn't count' category.
So the estimate I had calculated was very basic, logical, but not accurate if taking into account the number of images in the post. But I reckon I was pretty close!
So in conclusion, I impel you to follow all the instructions and advice you come across, AND look for even more material to read, or videos to watch if that's your thing. DON'T start posting or commenting until you are certain you know what you're doing...or if your budget allows it, buy some Steem and power up right from the beginning, your money will be well invested!
At this point I'd like to say that I will have to be very cautious with my previously carefree comments, which is of great sorrow to me, as I was enjoying the interactive side of the community greatly.
So if you happen to comment on this post and I don't reply, well you know why!
All images sourced from PEXELS
free for commercial use, distribution and modification with no attribution required.
Inspiration for the post style, humour, layout and other bells and whistles from the following great users:
All formatting and typing done in MarkdownX
except image editing and a minor correction on Steemit before posting, I will NOT be editing once posted!
thanks a lot for bringing this issue in light. I never new of any such thing, as bandwidth issue in steemit.
What I understood from your post is that one should avoid editing the posts and comments , to avoid this problem.
Also are we supposed to post and comment less often ??? if this is the case then how often is one supposed to post to post and comment. What would be the perfect or ideal number for posting and commenting ???
My apologies in advance, in case, if I miss-understood something.
Hi there, thanks for reading and commenting. I don't think you have anything to worry about. This problem will affect new users with less than 15 SP and you have way more than that. I am still only on 4.7 SP. I try keep my usage below 65kb. After I had posted this, I figured out that each character in a post or comment uses 1 bit of bandwidth, and if you store your images off Steemit then you only use bandwidth for the words. But the allocation of bandwidth is relative to your SP, the higher the SP you have, the more bandwidth you are allocated at any time - peak usage or not. I hope this makes things clearer. PS your comment used about 400 bits, so less than a ķb. Please go out there and post & comment as much as you like 😆
:) thank you so much for clarifying this.
I Wish you all the best.
great post , by the way, upvoted and started following you :)
I fit many descriptions in your post. I regularly create guides and I have read the papers as well. This bandwidth issue has been properly brought to my notice through you so I thank you. I will research more on the topic and share something concrete soon. It is important for me personally because I always have encouraged people to comment. Now that there is an important issue associated with commenting, I have to address it appropriately. Also, I will soon update my commenting and interaction guidelines to include the bigger picture.
Keep going the way you have started. Good luck. I have voted and resteemed your post as a recognition of your effort. It may be small but your post deserves it.
Thank you, I appreciate it ENORMOUSLY! Every little bit helps. It's also great that you'll spread the word / share the lesson, as it will prevent new users from giving up hope if it happens to them. I'm sure I'll learn lots of new things in your guides too as I can see you're very thorough.
Great post. Followed , upvoted and resteemed. Thank you for the info for a beginner
Thank you! I will come and have a look at your posts too. I want to do a motivational post for beginners next, some encouragement to persevere.
The worst is the first time you get denied posting after spending a very intense brain buster and.... Shit.
Check these out if you don't already know:
https://steemd.com/@emeraldearth
https://steemnow.com/@emeraldearth
Open those and then save them to your home screen on your phone. I downloaded the MarkdownX app and am going to take it for a spin soon.
I know what you mean! Thanks for the links, I knew about Steemd and I always have it open at the same time as Steemit. This bandwidth thing has become a bit of an obsession for me 😆 so I'm constantly checking it, it's actually also handy for seeing if you have comments / replies and rewards etc, basically a log of all the activity on your account, because I don't get any notifications on the Steemit site. I'll check the other link, haven't seen that one yet.
After I'd posted this blog I carried on with my investigation and I discovered something: I recorded my usage before and after, and the difference was 3,259 bytes. Then I pasted the post into Word and it showed me the number of characters (without spaces) was 3,259!!! So each character in your post uses 1 bit of bandwidth.
Sorry to ramble on. Have fun with MarkdownX, I did a very basic guide on my page if you need help but it's pretty straight forward. I also use it for my comments / replies, SO much better than typing directly in Steemit!
PS. If you're wondering about the image space in the bandwidth, I stored my images on Postimage.
Have a Super Duper Steemit day!
Setup GINAbot notifications.
You should do another one on our approval rating #.
For me though even with the bandwidth issue I hated a week or so ago, I found out it fluctuates depending on the number of people using it. Right? I read some articles on the bandwidth thing and that's what I found out. They advise you to be wise in commenting/posting and such but it makes me feel sad not to comment on something I think is worth commenting on. This is a social network site after all.
Anyone can correct me if I'm wrong but as far as I know if too many people are on here we can just post when it's off peak so we have enough bandwidth. Or if I want to post during peak hours, I keep checking from time to time on Steemd until my bandwidth is back up again to post or comment. Our bandwidth is not in the negative all the time, it fluctuates as well depending on the activity on the site so you can sneak in some posts as long as you catch that short posting window.
That doesn't factor in the "how to best earn on Steemit part" though. Lol. It's just a tip to be able to post anything even with the bandwidth problem.
Hello and thanks for commenting. You are absolutely correct - this problem only occurs during peak usage and your usage will decrease as posts/comments get older than 7 days. If you look at some of my other replies you'll see that I worked out how much bandwidth a post or comment uses:
I know what you mean about being sad to not comment and interact with people, and therein lies the answer to your remark how to best earn on Steemit, because it is exactly the action of commenting and interacting that will enable you to earn, and make some great friends and supporters too! Just have patience and enjoy yourself, and try post good quality material, that's my approach.
I wish you all the best and hope to chat again!
Alright. Thanks!
Though bandwidth issue is a problem, it is the same concept which enables lightning fast transactions in the STEEM.
Oh gosh, sorry I must have missed your comment! Thanks for your perspective, I didn't think about that, also saw a witness post recently where they are considering increasing the block size, which I was led to understand was an expensive option. I think some speed could be sacrificed if the comparison to bitcoin and other blockchains is to be believed, 10,000 transactions a second vs a few, mind boggling! Anyway, the apportionment is what I thought wasn't fair, maybe allocate less to those with higher SP in order to allocate more to those with less SP?
Fascinating post. Sorry I didn't see it earlier.
Thanks for the appreciation, you saw it eventually so it's all good and I'm glad you found value :)
Haha, one of the pitfalls of the blockchain. I've managed to dodge this one, but I did have an incident on my 2nd post where I used main tag NSFW (psychedelics related). The result is my profile looking forever unclean with that stupid NSFW post, lol. And there's nothing I can do to fix it...
By the way; I came across your profile in the comment section of @rableriet's blog (rl friend of mine). He's a real wizard with words! Glad to see others have noticed him as well!
Wow, another thing nobody has warned about in their recommendations for getting started, THANKS for the heads up, I'll definitely bear that in mind! Yes I enjoy his poetry a lot, I like the off beat rhythm and style. Pity it's so scarce lately but I can relate to life getting in the way of Steemit hahaha! Ps glad you found the post amusing, it was supposed to be a comedy blog with an info twist ;)
You should hear him live! ;-)
I very much like the "tone" you write in, by the way. Great balance of humor and information. Looking forward to see more from you!
Go on then, enough teasing, get out there with your phone and record him for Steemit! Damnit! :)
Thank you, I wanted to do some serious prose for the next post to keep things mixed, and unpredictable, but never fear...you won't shed a tear, and the funny chick will soon bend your ear!
I'll see what I can do ;)
Great post! Bandwidth limitation were hitting me, as well, until it was explained to take my steem dollars to the marketplace and change them to steem and then power up the steem. Maybe a few readers are pathetically noob as myself at the time. 😎
The only other trick to add to your post is to link to pics off site like in a home directory if you have one. Then you can link to pics like this
Thanks, since this post I learnt a WHOLE lot more - including storing the images off site, I'm using postimage at the moment. I'm also powering up everything I get, still only got 4.8 SP but I'll get there eventually! Need to do another post. Thanks for commenting and sharing the pain :)