Trail : follow (a person or animal), typically by using marks, signs, or scent left behind. | Synonyms : follow, pursue, track, shadow, stalk
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On Curation Trail
The idea of Curation Trail is pretty simple, whenever a user upvotes a post, others accounts will vote on that post shortly after. You are following the posts that he/she voted, that's why it's called "trail". Also, the reason why it also termed as Curation Trail is that votes are curation. When you upvote a post, you can call yourself as "curator". The only difference is that the influence of our votes. Curating accounts like @curie, @ocd, and other users out there curating contents create a big impact on posts, thus increasing its value. Anyone can set up a trail. You can set it up via SteemAuto or via Streemian (though I'm not sure about the latter, they're currently changing management), into which I am using steemauto.
Also in a Curation Trail (via Steemauto), you can choose which among curation trails to follow. There you can see the top curation trails ever existing (@cryptoctopus, @curie, etc). I'm glad @steemhp.cebu curation trail is sitting at no. 7 now, where we are aiming to support and reward Steemit Authors from our community Cebu City, Philippines.
Also in a curation trail, you are given two options : either you'll follow the Curator Weight (the user you wanted to trail), or set an fixed percentage. It's all up to you. In our case with @steemph.cebu, we encouraged everyone to follow the Curator Weight (@steemph.cebu) and let the account decide what percentage of vote (5-7 % adjustable).
Pro's About Curation Trail
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Curation Trails are good for Following Great Curators
There are a lot of users out there who are maximizing their votes to reward authors. Authors who kept posting quality contents but less rewarded, introduceyourself posts, community-driven projects, quality blogs, or to support sub-communities. The thing is you just need to find those trails who are purpose-driven.
It Maximizes your Curation Rewards
The thing that @cryptoctopus is pushing. On his curation trail description, "Working on maximizing curation rewards", he is mainly focused on maximizing your curation rewards! The biggest timing for you to maximize your curation rewards is to vote on the 30th minute.
Good for not "Wasting" your Voting Power
There are instances that you cannot really use your voting power due to some important reasons. Though you can set up via autovote, relying the value of your votes to trusted curators is I think a great choice. So instead of just letting your voting power sleep, why not use it to reward posts plus you can earn curation rewards too!
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