Now that the dust has settled, I wanted to post some thoughts on the last HF. I have seen a lot of posts with misunderstandings and misinformation. I want to try and clear some of that up. I do want to make clear that I don't have all the answers, and some of what I write here is my own personal opinion. You are welcome to disagree if you want :)
Rewards Pool Recalibration
There was an initial spike in rewards after the HF. This was due to a lot of factors, including a change in how the rewards pool is averaged out over a period of days. Based on the new formula, there was a surplus of funds in the rewards pool right after the HF. Combined with the increase in voting due to the 4x voting power change and whales now being allowed to vote - it paid out a lot of extra.
It was fun while it lasted, but it was not sustainable given the current price of STEEM. As I wrote about in this post, the payments were expected to fluctuate for the weeks after the HF and would eventually reach a new equilibrium.
At equilibrium, the amount of rewards being paid out per day should average out to the amount that is being added per day based on in inflation rules. The rewards pool still seems to be doing some minor re-balancing, but at this point it seems to be getting pretty close to equilibrium.
For the math nerds, here are two links that show the historic tracking of how much is in the rewards pool and how much is being paid out. (Thanks @jesta!)
https://steemdb.com/api/funds
https://steemdb.com/api/rewards
Change to Linear Rewards
Since the day I joined Steemit, there has always been talk about how the platform was 'unfair', and there was no point in participating because it was 100% controlled by the whales. After I had been on the site for 6+ months, and had earned over 10,000 SP - it was somewhat disheartening to have my upvotes only be worth a few pennies. For users with even less than me, their votes were not even worth $0.01.
I have always argued against people who believed the whales shouldn't have as much power (they earned their power based on the rules of the blockchain), but I did agree with the fact that things needed to change if we wanted to build a platform that would scale to 'the masses'. People don't like to play games that they don't feel are possible to win.
The changes in HF 19 changed all of that. Even now after the payouts are down from the post-hf spike, dolphins and minnows have a lot more power. I can add more than $10 to a post if I give it a 100% upvote! Even new users with a small amount of SP can increase posts by a few cents or even a dollar. If you want more influence, just buy more SP. This is a HUGE change compared to pre-hardfork. Changing this was the main goal of the HF - and it succeeded.
In my mind, changing this imbalance will go down as one of the most important changes that have been made to the platform. Having more SP now actually makes a difference with your voting. This has added a lot of value to holding SP (influence), and has not done it in a way that was unfair to our platform's largest stakeholders. It has also made the platform seem a lot more fair.
4x Voting Power
There are mixed feelings on this feature. Some users will see it as a reason to be lazier with curation, and only hunt for 1/4 as many good posts. If people really want to do that, it is their choice, but to me - it misses the point of the platform. Rewarding good content is one of the main reasons we are all here. We can all still take the time to hunt for really good content, but now we have a way to "super reward" the really good ones we find.
It has changed my voting behavior. I find myself voting with mostly 5-25% votes now, and saving my 50/75/100 for really good posts. I do think it is fun to have a little bit more granular control. I haven't found myself voting on less posts, just with less strength. Giving a 100% upvote to an epic post is actually kind of fun :)
Self Voting
There is a very healthy discussion going on about self-voting, and I think it is important for this to continue.
Even if the community comes to a consensus on this though, remember there are no official rules regarding this, and everyone is allowed to use their stake how they see fit. At the end of the day, self-voting is "allowed".
If there are users that are truly abusing self-voting, then hopefully the community will detect it and can react with appropriate downvotes.
My view is that there is a healthy balance. The rule that I suggest (my personal opinion) is the 90/10 rule - Try to spend 90% of your voting stake towards others, and 10% to yourself and friends. This ratio (even if there are some people who don't follow it) will make sure the platform keeps rewarding the good content, while still allowing some indulgence in the basic human nature of wanting to reward yourself and your friends.
The way I see it, we are all stakeholders, everyone gets to chose out to use their stake. It is up to us to use our stake in such a way that we try to grow the pie for everyone, rather than trying to maximize the size of our own individual slices.
There are always going to be people who do things for selfish reasons. It is best not to get too hung up on what those people do. If the majority of us focus on using our stake for the betterment of the platform, then I think we'll be fine.
Trending Authors
This isn't really related to the HF, but I wanted to throw in a few thoughts on it. A lot of the rewards do keep going to the same authors. At this point, I am happy and honored to be one of them :) It was certainly not that way when I started out out though - it took me 6+ months and a lot of hard work to get there.
There is a lot to be said about the people that spend the time and effort to build up a following, and are able to consistently produce good content that their followers like. At the same time, it is important that we successfully onboard our new members too.
People need to feel the ladder is worth climbing in order to stick around. New users shouldn't come to the platform expecting to earn instant rewards just by making one or two posts, but there does need to be recognition and rewards along the way for the ones that are putting in the effort to get there.
Just keep that in mind and try to find the right balance when you chose how to allocate your share of the rewards :)
Bottom Line
My conclusion is that the HF was a big success. It will still take some time for the community to reach it's own equilibrium on proper voting and rewards allocation, but I do think we will get there. The HF has corrected the imbalance at the blockchain level, and has given every user influence directly proportional to their stake. Now it is up to all of us how we use that power.
Reminder to vote for witnesses!
The Steem witnesses are the elected leaders of the community that power the blockchain. Everybody should learn about the Steem witnesses and vote on who they think is best. If you don't know much about witnesses or aren't sure who to vote for, you can check out this Witness Voting Guide. If you think @timcliff is doing a great job, please consider voting for him as witness! You can vote for witnesses here: https://steemit.com/~witnesses
Post Rewards
I did not 'decline payout' on this post so that I could donate the liquid portion of rewards to the SteemFest Travel Reimbursement Fund @t-r-f.