Wait! Don't Upvote That Post!

On Steemit, an odd thing happens to many newer users. They check their recent post, and suddenly its potential payout value has shot up to more than $100. The next thing they know, even though their previous posts have done well to get five views, they’re on the trending page and the community finally notices they exist.

Chances are, if they click the upvotes dropdown menu on that post, they’ll see “Curie” near the top. Curie is a curation team on the Steemit platform that is devoted to finding and curating good content. The rewards for being “Curied” include a very hefty upvote and generous exposure. Curie has kickstarted more than one blogging career on Steemit, and made a lot of underappreciated users sense their own value for the first time. Other possibilities are a nice Acidyo upvote from the OCD team, some Muxxybot love, or other curation teams active on Steemit right now.

Everyone who deserves a curation upvote based on quality doesn’t always get it, though. This is often a combination of many factors that involve very strict guidelines that curators must abide by. The guidelines exist for a reason. For example, Curie’s mission is clear: to discover and promote underappreciated authors. There are limits on subject matter that Curie will consider, as well as some things that are beyond the author’s control, like payout value.

How It Works

If a post goes over $3, it is considered to be out of Curie range. Autovotes and bid bots can easily deter Curie interest. So can controversial subject matter and lack of recent account activity. Curie’s goal is to promote community involvement, which is why they take a hard look at recent comments and interaction by the author. Other curation teams have similar guidelines, and almost all of them factor reward value within the first few hours of posting.

I’ve heard from many curators that finding material to submit for approval can be difficult. Not because of poor quality, but because posts get voted out of range so quickly. This is a good thing, right? Well…not always. A wonderful post by a deserving author might max out at six dollars or less, but with a Curie upvote it could have easily earned hundreds of dollars in rewards. Because people were so eager to support that author with an early upvote, eager curators leave empty-handed, and the author gets a fraction of the payout they could have had.

So, What To Do?

Whether or not you are Curie fodder yourself, please be mindful of those who might be. Your well-intentioned upvote could cost them literally hundreds of dollars with the price of Steem and SBD what it is today. Please keep in mind that good candidates for curation would be anyone with a lower rep (it varies by team) who is active in the community and produces good content. For Curie, this person would typically have produced no posts worth more than $25 in the last week or so, despite persistent effort with their blog.

If you have added authors to your autovote system who fit these criteria, consider adjusting your settings to allow three hours to pass before you upvote. If you upvote manually, please allow at least three hours before clicking upvote or resteeming. This will give curators time to work, time to find that post and submit it to their review board. Once curation teams have voted, please revisit that post and give the author as much support as you can.