So much for minnow growth

A couple of weeks back I posted to say we had gained some minnows, but that growth did not last long and the number has dropped again.

Chart
Chart from @arcange

On the plus side we have gained more dolphins and an orca. If anything it seems most of the lost minnows are through upgrades, but we need more to take their place. There are over a million dormant Steem accounts out there. Many of these are fake accounts that were mass created by a few people, but a lot of real people have given up for various reasons. For some the low Steem price is discouraging as they see their rewards are just a few cents that do not seem worth the effort, but you have to that the long view of what they could be worth if you believe in the Steem platform.

I also see posts and comments saying people are being driven away by the downvoting efforts going on to limit reward pool abuse/misuse. Most of those writing about this have been hit themselves by this, generally for buying votes. You have to think about how this will be seen. If you do it on a low value post, like this person who takes their photos from the web and buys votes, then it is definitely justified.

If you have content you want to promote to get seen by more people then you need to be careful. You can decline rewards. If you want those who vote on your post to get some curation rewards then you can set the beneficiary to @null which 'burns' the rewards. You could still take a percentage, but you need to make it clear in the post that you are doing this. Steemit lets you set this up in the post Advanced settings. Steempeak, Busy and other services also make it possible.

Rewards

What most of us want to see is rewards going to the good content based on what the community thinks. That is happening more now with the manual curation projects who can still earn well even if people do not buy votes from them. There are still a few vote sellers who do not seem to care what they support, but a lot of their users are not making much these days.

This account does not buy votes and all rewards are powered up. You can delegate or follow the voting trail to support some small accounts.

#NewSteem is different and can be better.

Congratulations. Always good to hear about another new minnow

Well, @tenkminnows has helped grow my account. I just became a minnow in one of my most recent posts, woo-hoo! This journey was made faster and easier thanks to @tenkminnows and @joshman for the recommendation.

Posted using Partiko iOS

That is great news. Congratulations! We need more people like you.

I just got bumped up to minnow status. :D

Cool. Hope to see the numbers going up now.

There are so many curators or looking for good content, now, that you shouldn't need to buy votes if what you're posting is good. I submit posts for @curangel and on several occasions I've had some refused because they bought a vote at some point that week. In the long run you're going to be better off not buying that vote which will either cost you or break even.

Posted using Partiko Android

Congratulations @tenkminnows!
You raised your level and are now a Minnow!

Do not miss the last post from @steemitboard:

SteemFest⁴ - Meet the Steemians Contest

Vote for @Steemitboard as a witness to get one more award and increased upvotes!

Congratulations @tenkminnows! You have completed the following achievement on the Steem blockchain and have been rewarded with new badge(s) :

You received more than 100 as payout for your posts. Your next target is to reach a total payout of 250

_{You can view your badges on your Steem Board and compare to others on the Steem Ranking}
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