Using this analogy I am trying to explain this as simple as possible. Here is my explanation of why your post payout is going down. As always this is not the easiest concept so I will try my best to make it easy by using an analogy. I have done this for previous posts so let see how it goes. Lets take a look!

Today we are baking! So from here on out we will be bakers/pastry chefs in this wonderful Steemit Bakery.

Ingredients

Steemit bakery will be give us all a set of ingredients to make some delicious pastries to give to all our friends.. The ingredients vary in quantity and we will not always get the same amount. Sometimes more, sometimes less. Remember there are loads of bakers here on Steemit and everyone wants to bake some pastries for their friends. The more they back and give away the more ingredients they will be using. Let's say baking all these pastries take exactly 7 days.

The "ingredients" are the Steem allocated to us to Upvote posts and comments. There is a certain amount in the reward pool that are given to us by Steemit. The more users and content we have the more the pool gets split up to accommodate all the users. As new users join and more content is created the pool needs to accommodate for this change. The more content and upvotes , the lower the payout will get. Less content and votes the payouts will rise. The calculations for payouts run constantly until you get your payout after 7 days.

Size matters

What we do with these ingredients and how we distribute our pastries will determine how our friends will feel about our pastries. Some bakers are really experienced and can bake exceptionally large cakes very few ingredients. The newer bakers still make many mistakes and waste a lot of their ingredients. They make much smaller cakes than those who have more experience and never waste any ingredients.

Our Steem Power decides how strong our upvote is. Some users with large amounts of Steem Power can cast a vote that is worth a few dollars while other users with very low Steem Power will only be able to add a few cents to a post.

Quality vs Quantity

Some bakers like to bake a few high quality cakes for their friends and their friends love them for it, sometimes paying them handsomely for the amazing cakes. Others decide to bake loads of really small pastries and pass them out to everyone. Baking a truck load of small pastries with your limited ingredients is not really the best thing to do. No one likes getting just one small bland cookie. The users who receive these are not always keen on paying for them and they will give only a small token of appreciation.

With our Voting Power at 100% we can give at least 11 really good Upvotes a day. These larger votes have the potential to reward us handsomely for our curation efforts. Using up all your Voting Power and then voting still has the potential to reward us for our curation efforts, just in much smaller amounts.

Taste

Last we get the quality of the ingredients. Yes, Steemit Bakery gives us all the ingredients we need, but sometimes the quality is lower or higher than expected. This does have a slight effect on the overall quality of our cakes and cookies, We bake with what we are given.

Steem price fluctuates and this is one of the main and most common known factors that will influence your payout. Simply put: Steem price goes up, our payout goes up. Steem price goes down, our payout goes down

Attention to Detail

In the worst case scenario some bakers add salt instead of sugar to their cakes or cookies. This can have a really negative effect on your baking experience and the people you share your pastries with.

Plagiarism, Tag abuse or using Bots in a bad way might get you flagged by a user. This is basically the opposite of an upvote and will decrease your post payout.

To sum it all up. We all get a share of the prize pool to distribute to posts and comments via out Upvotes. The more we use of the pool, the smaller our share becomes. Steem price fluctuates and so will our post payout. Users can upvote your posts ad nyou will make more money. The stronger the user the more you will earn. Same goes for getting flagged, this will make your payout less., the stronger the user the more your payout will decrease. I hope this help some users to understand some of the things that have been going on here regarding post payouts going down. I like making things clear in my head by using analogies. Let me know what you think! Until next time, Steem on!

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