Something is going on. Something is moving. I don't know what happen, neither why and even less how, but I want to share my findings.
I was able to vote 4 weeks ago, 3 weeks ago and 2 weeks ago, but then they made some changes (I don't know exactly when either what kind of changes). However, the thing is, after those changes had taken effect, I wasn't able to vote anymore. I tried yesterday, the day before yesterday and the day before that, and ... - Useless! Every time I wanted to vote the annoying popup would slide out telling me that I don't have enough voting power.
How I run into this situation, I don't know. My assumption is as I joined Steemit approximately 4 weeks ago, a certain amount of Steem Power was added to my account. At that time the estimated value of my account was $2.50. (If I recall well it was the amount every new member would receive at that point upon signing up. Now, if I didn't mess something up or understand wrong - the sign-up bonus is raised on $6.00 or something for new members.)
Never the less, from my sign-up day my account estimated value was steadily dropping down. I guess because STEEM currency was falling on the currency market. At some point, it dropped down for more than a $1.00. From $2.50 after few weeks I was at $1.40-something. At the same time, those few articles that I posted didn't bring me any money neither raised my Steem Power nor the estimated value of my account, but at least I was able to vote. Then it came to that system change.
Past week I thought I would stay stacked like that forever. I thought, maybe something would change if I make a new post. I had two articles in preparation but didn't have time to finish them.
Yesterday I came across an interesting article that I liked and wanted to vote for but again I was unable to do so. I tried for several times in different time intervals. Without success! I was not just disappointed but also quite angry.
Finally decided to disregard all the bad luck I had so far and to test what possibilities are still available to me.
OK - I thought - if they don't let me vote, maybe I can still leave a comment and tell that guy I like his article. So, I did it.
Great, comments are available.
Today, I discovered those two comments I left there yesterday brought me few votes. Wow! I also just found those comments brought me some STEEM, Steem Power, and even some Steem Dollars. Even bigger WoW!
But, that's not all! (I know it sounds like in those commercials, but really it's not all.)
I have also just discovered some guy who I don't even know sent me, literally out of the blue, some Steam Power. That was the biggest WOW!
I was curious to see who it is and why he sent it to me, so I checked his profile. I discovered there, two weeks ago he was giving away for free 60 SP to celebrate passing 200 followers to first 60 members who would post a comment under his article by finishing the sentence that starts with "Steemit is ________________"
I didn't participate in that contest. I didn't see that article before. I wasn't even following that guy, and I still don't know why he did it.
Although I'm very grateful as I believe together with my yesterday made comments mentioned above, he helped me move from my being out of voting stuck-position.
Therefore I want to thank my yesterday voters: @andrew0 @helikopterben and SPECIAL THANKS to Mr. @bitcoiner as my voter and especially for being my early autumn Santa Claus who definitively surprised me, cheers me up and delighted me with his gift bringing me back the faith and hope in Steemit!
Thank you for sharing your story, I had no idea that was even a problem... We should maybe think of an alternative to bitcoin to buy steempower easy.
Upvoted your article and followed you, your kind writing makes me soft at heart :) Welcome to Steemit
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I think a lot of accounts are in this situation. According to Steemd.com there are 5550 dust accounts - that is accounts with steempower less than 0.01mv. They would have been created when the steem price was at it's height and the starting steempower given away very small. I think hardfork 13 changed the voting to require minimum 50 million rshares, and all these accounts then got stranded. I expect most of them have just given up and gone elsewhere.
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Thank you very much @fyrstikken for your support and kind words. :)
It is morning in my part of the world, and I just woke up. I wrote above article yesterday late at evening.
I can't describe you how delightful is this morning to me when I woke up and found all these comments here, and yours first among all the others. Thank you very much! :)
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Hi @fyrstikken How can I send SteemPower to another user? I was looking for it but I have only a Power Down and Deposit alternatives, nothing like Send SP or something like it. Thanks in advance for your help :)
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Click the 'advanced' link on the Power Up dialog and you will get the option to Power Up another user.
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Thanks! This will do the trick :)
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@ana-maria, i will follow hou as well. I dont have the power of my friend @fyrstikken, but i will help support you in the future. I will reblog your post as well.
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@runridefly thank you for your kind words, support and especially for the follow! :)
P.S.
I followed you back! :)
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Is not only your problem , belive me my vote is also 0 ............... :)
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@patelincho - As you are the only one who came here and still fights with the same problem, I just sent you some Steem Power. I don't know if it would help you as I have peanuts of Steem (currency) where from and which (thanks to the @pfunk explanation above) I can only use to do so, but I've sent you all I had.
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Thank you, this is so nice but is not really solve the problem. You can ask some higher than me in reputation and steem power and you will see the vote of them also is crazy small. People with great blogs (not like mine) wit 1000+ posts and over 40 000 power and they can up vote just with ....0.05 cents ? Have you looked at the 100 vote room in steemit chanel ? There are posts with 200 up vote at 1 dollar ? Is this not a bit crazy ? Something is wrong with the system !
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Thank you for the comment and vote @patelincho. Hmmm, I must say it sounds strange. I just checked your account, and in comparison with mine, you are a rich Steemian with a lot of Steem, Steem Power, and Steem Dollars. As well the estimated value of your account is much higher.
But apparently, it doesn't help your Voting Weight!
I really don't know what's the catch, but I recall that I read somewhere, before they made that system changes some kind of announcement where they said the number of available votes per day would be reduced. If I remember well, from 20 votes per day available at that time to 5 per day (where the vote for your own article when you post it won't be count in).
There were also some mentions of the possibility to run into some negative trend, i.e. for the members who just vote too much, left and right without any common sense in other words just to chase some earnings.
To be honest, I don't have the idea how they can make a proper algorithm which would determine when some vote is a correct one or not, except putting the pure restriction to available "positive" number of votes.
So maybe, somewhere there is hiding the solution to your problem.
My humble suggestion, if I may, would be - try to post more comments (relevant and just a bit comprehensive) while at the same time try to reduce the number of votes you are giving away by keeping them for the best articles of your choice.
I'm certainly not an expert here, and the long learning road is still in front of me, but some logic tells me, maybe it might be a solution for you to get out from this trouble. :)
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Congratulations on sticking it out! The price of Steem is up a little so that will also help.
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Thank you, @onetree! :) - I must admit I was thinking of giving up, but then my stubborn part raises its voice not allowing me to do so until I at least test some essential Steemit possibilities. ;)
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Never give up. I was havin same issue. Voted and following.
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Thank you, @iggy! - I just read your story - you are really something! Glad to meet you! :)
P.S.
I tried to leave the comment bellow your article (mentioned above), but I couldn't probably because it's 3 days old already. So, I'm going to tell you here what I think about it...
I read your story in one sip (even it might look like a long one at first glance). I enjoyed that reading all the way through! :)
I like your energy and style - the energized entrepreneurial one with almost unstoppable new ideas and solutions popping up constantly (you kinda remind me of my younger self). ;)
But above all, I like the life values you value the most and above the money. That's something that gains my biggest appreciation! :)
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Thanks for your comment , much appreciated. I have also read yours. Me like :) . As for money.... when you have less of that thing you want more , when you have more then you realize that it is not the things that you have or poses makes you happy and full of joy. It's the people , humans . You can have castle with 1000 rooms . But if you are alone there ...then what. Care ,love , understanding for others is the proper way. At least for me that is . I don't know for others .
Waiting for your posts , really nice to have you here .
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Thanks again! :) - See you around! :)
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I feel very special! Yesterday, I had seen a comment from you on someone else's post where you were explaining how you couldn't vote due to low voting power, so I couldn't resist helping you out! :)
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You should feel very special as you really are very special - rear to find!!!
Thank you very much, once again, dear @bitcoiner!!! - You made my day, in fact, two days (so far ;) as your action created the whole positive avalanche that from yesterday spilled over into today. :)
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Woohoo!
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I am glad you can vote again! I am upvoting your post and giving you a follow! I look forward to seeing more of you here on Steemit!
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Thank you @poeticsnake! Well, I didn't think this article would gain that much exposure as it does. I have a feeling if I planned to make a great post and made all sorts of fine tuning it wouldn't turn out so well. So, I'm little afraid to post anything, as I'm not sure will I be able to beat this. - I know it's crazy, but that's how I feel at the moment. :))
P.S.
I followed you back! ;)
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Thank you for following me back! ;) The first few weeks can be very hard around here, I have noticed that myself as well. I also, just like you put a lot of time in my posts and when they gain no votes or are hardly seen it can turn on some fear inside you to post. So, don't be afraid to post what you want to post. Post things that make you happy and smile. I think that is what most of us do here. Steemit is still really young and we all need to adapt and find a good rhythem for ourselves.
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Oh, it feels much better when someone understands you. :) So, thanks for understanding and support. :)
I'll put all my courage on one pile and try to mix out something. - lol - ;)
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Yes! Breathe in and out, make a nice mix, throw it in the posting oven and just sit down and wait... With a smile of course and maybe a nice cool drink and a snack or two.. Okay maybe three.
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If anyone else has this issue and also can't post, uncheck the box to automatically upvote yourself. Then you can post and hopefully earn enough SP to vote.
If you can't vote, make a comment though. Hopefully things can get sorted.
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Passed this post on to people who can further investigate why this has happened..
Glad you can vote now!
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Thank you very much @klye! - It might help others who are in the same situation!!! - Thank you so much!!!
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I did not know u can not vote if u have little Steem Power. Im following u also and will send u a small present :) Keep it on!
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Thank you for the comment and follow @juanmiguelsalas. :) Returning the favor with the follow-back. :)
Regarding voting power or as they call it Voting Weight, I don't know what exactly affects its strength, how you can gain it or even less how eventually lose it, but the things I described in my article were the only one I noticed that have made some change in my case.
And I just wanted to share that experience hoping it might help some other users who find themselves in the same situation, to eventually get out of it.
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Share experiences is one of the things why we are all here :) Thanks for following me back.
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You received a few nice surprises let's hope theres more on the way :)
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Good article which should be of real interest to all members
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Thank you very much @ianstrat ! :))
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THose system changes were never done, they were cancelled!
Also,if you couldn´t vote, it´s because you have voted too often.
Go to steemstats.com to check your voting power. If you vote more than 20 times a day you will eventually be down to zero,and it has nothing at all to do with your amount of Steem power.
In order to get some curation rewards, keep your voting pover up, vote only 20 times, and let it recharge fully.
Your voting power right now is at 96.720 percent.
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Thank you for the comment @kooshikoo!
After I had posted this post, I discovered those changes have never been made.
On the other hand, I still don't know what's the algorithm behind the Voting Waight (power). But, I can assure you it wasn't because I was voting too often. I knew, about the 20 votes rule even before I made my first post here, and I kept that in mind. Meaning, I never reached 10 votes per day even less 20.
At the time when I thought (as it was announced), the changes took effect what would reduce the number of votes per day even to only 5 - I thought I would be very "stingy" and picky in voting. But the thing is that I wasn't able to place a single vote.
Therefore, I believe there must be something else that made some impact on my Voting Waight.
I also know for steemstats.com as well as for steemd.com - so, from the very beginning, I was checking my voting power on both sites. Funny and at the same time the strange thing is that I was always in the high percentage level (above 90%) - and that's exactly why I was even more confused with that inability to vote at all.
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I am sorry, it seems that I was wrong then,about the reason why you couldn´t vote,and maybe the comment made by alyssa is the key.
Anyway, now it´s fixed so all is well and good I hope.
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It's OK @kooshikoo - you couldn't know, and I believe there are many users who don't know about 20 votes per day rule, and probably that's something majority of them stumble first.
And yes - everything is fine now thanks to good steemians I mentioned in the post! :))
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