{Admittedly, this post is just for a contest hosted by @thundercurator so they can boost their popularity after the general screw-up that was HF20. Nonetheless, I shall be doing three of the three of the following: who they are, how they operate and why I recommended them.}

- On Thundercurator -

@thundercurator is a curation group that's based on Steemit. Not only that, but they're a very trusted source that works to curate and upvote posts from SteemSTEM (or so I heard) to the writers' contest here on Steemit. And they are trusted as-such for they keep consistent with their updates, attempt warnings ahead of time for any update and listens to community feedback. Moreover, @thundercurator values sustainability and working around with accounts that are reputable (id est: good-standing instead of a number attached to our account names) and sources their content.

Now of course, due to the market-nature of Steemit: they have to either be sustainable or make as much profit as possible - that's just the dictum of the market. But because they choose sustainability displays to some level that they do value reputation to a great degree and rather people utilize their content. Now of course, could @thundercurator improve? Surely in some minor spots, but the HF20 kind of screwed them over and so a recovery phase is needed to get back to normal operational levels. Which, in any case, they can at least be held to that standard that they seek and work towards refinement whenever possible.

They, as of this post currently, now operate under a tier system instead of a "send x SBD/STEEM to receive Y in upvote-value" system. To explain their old system a bit, it went in the lines of making a memo where you send some steem or sbd over to them and they upvoted your posts (of course within three-four days time, still the upvote arrived). Now this contrasts to the new system as now it eliminates the requirement for a payment to get an upvote, the catch: the amount you delegate after becoming a member (2 Steem fee) dictates the upvote value. The post explains it all, but there's some requirements to get the upvote as well: you need to, through means of SteemAuto or somewhere else, set up an autovote worth towards them worth either $0.02 or have the voting power towards them be at 100% - which ever is most convenient to the user. And that's it!

No other catches, just tag yer post, that you authentically created or is properly sourced, with #thundercurator, be a member, follow the requirements and thou shall receive thy, tiered, vote in a matter of three-four days! Really, a curation group this simple couldn't get any simpler. At the very least, it helps small accounts get essentially a super-vote and bigger accounts a nice increase to their post payouts.

I had long been a subscriber to their service since the days when sending a "0.12 SBD" to receive an upvote worth twice was the norm. So it is out of old habits that I just trust them after the good nature, through the market world of course, that they have provided towards me. But realistically, in the times of HF20, this is a god send to accounts that needs SBDs and SP growths where other curation groups are now just recovering. To say the least, I would've eventually made a post about curation groups that I use and their effect it had on me - yet their contest had rather been a nice incentive. With all these in mind, other than the CI group that I am in cooperation with, this is probably another curation group that's not restrictive on what it promotes, curates and upvotes. And in the days where Steemit needs growth after a deadly shock, well let's say that @thundercurator is one of the many putting a first foot forward.

Of course, the best of wishes towards @thundercurator and the communities that use them. May Steemit nowadays be not a hassle and let it become a place that at least is somewhat useful like it was pre-HF20.