This is the first ever Massively Multi-player Online Steemit Game (MMOSG). This is a game where everyone can truly win.
The Gamification of Steemit
After yesterday's hard work, I had a good sleep, took my daughter to school and, on the drive home, thought about what to write. I just don't feel like another lengthy technical article, so this is a bit of serious fun!
Firstly, we need some proper information on the Steemit dashboard so that we can play the Steem Game without crashing into barriers we didn't know were there. This is like driving a car with no fuel gauge and no speedometer. We went too fast without knowing it and hit some motorway traffic - time to slow down a little and let the bottleneck clear.
I think the Gamification of Steemit will be a positive development. But we all need to view important game parameters in one place: our dashboard.
The Bandwidth Game
During the last two days, we hit some serious traffic issues. As explained in the previous article, the current_reserve_ratio (CRR) has plummeted from its stable value of 20,000 down to as low as 250. The congestion is real and many people have had to wait as the "blockchain traffic lights" turn from red back to green - only to turn back to red again.
Why is the CRR important? Because it is used to calculate the allocated bandwidth assigned by the system to each and every one of us. The calculation is performed over a 7-day period; subtract your used bandwidth from your allocated bandwidth and you get a value for how much bandwidth you have left. However, if the CRR drops below 20,000 then your allocated bandwidth drops in proportion to the CRR value and, even if you're not doing anything, you may suddenly run out of usable bandwidth.
So, the aim of the Bandwidth Game is to get the CRR back to 20,000. This is going to take the collective will of everyone to push in the same direction. The CRR is a global parameter that affects all of us - and we can all help in bringing it back up!
The witnesses have increased the block size and this is already making a difference, with the CRR moving from about 400 to 1200 in about 8 hours. I'm not absolutely sure if this is enough to push it back up to 20,000.
Firstly, go to the steemdb.com homepage, scroll down to the bottom and in the right-hand column you will see a parameter named current_reserve_ratio. As I write this, the value has increased to about 1200; much better than yesterday but still far from 20,000. This ratio will move slowly as it replenishes itself - so long as the overall traffic does not cause another jam.
Secondly, look at your own data; you can find this at steemdb.com/@yourusername. Click on the Activity dropdown menu and take a look at your posts, comments and votes. It even has a nice graph so you can quickly see if your recent activity has been very high.
Thirdly, and here comes the actual Game, lower your overall activity for 24 hours. If you are participating in voting bots, consider pausing them for just a day - you can always turn them on again. Any other activity that appears significantly higher than the rest try, just for the Game, to decrease it.
Not All Bots Are Equal
Now, I myself have participated in some voting bots to help minnows and to help curators find good content. But my voting activity soared from about 30 votes per day to over 400! I know the people behind all these initiatives have spent hundreds of hours helping individuals and the whole Steemit ecosystem; I really do not wish to harm these initiatives (far from it!) but I feel that the experiment is worth doing.
To be fair, I hope all the other bot owners would also consider turning off their bots, if they can! This does not have to be for the full 7 days; if we all do this for 24 hours we can see the change in the CRR value. If the bots are then all turned on again, we can then see if the CRR continues to climb or whether it starts to drift down again. If the bots are not the cause of the traffic increase, then we can look elsewhere.
I think the Game is worth playing.
There is another issue: why this bandwidth limiter kicks in way below the network maximum? That is for another time.
Thanks
=== LATEST UPDATE ===
This issue is now being resolved at the developer level. Changes will be made to how the system's bandwidth reacts to surges. I do not have a timeframe for this, but the new algorithm is being tested as I write. I will let you know as soon as I can (but I also have to sleep) and the developer team will undoubtedly issue a statement with more details.
Thank you for your continued patience, and there is now a nice bar chart showing your voting power and available bandwidth in real time at steemd.com/@yourusername - thanks to @roadscape. This should help you judge how much activity you can safely do at the moment.