In the chat rooms I see a lot of people asking why they can’t vote anymore and they receive the message that they don’t have enough bandwidth. I’ve read up about this and I will help you guys out on how to avoid to get that message!
The problem is mostly occurring with people that have little Steem Power. These people ‘break’ the guidelines of Steemit and can get your account temporarily limited. So let’s see how you can avoid getting that message and keep your bandwidth usage as small as possible!
Don’t vote too much
I must admit that I break this rule as well but I’m trying to get my Steem Power back up. You can vote 100 posts and give the other person $0.0001. But if you do that you will use up your bandwidth and thus you can’t do anything for a while anymore. Just vote a little less and get your Steem Power high. When it’s high you can even reward people with a full cent or more and will help you with your curation rewards as well. Win-Win right?!
Don’t claim every reward
After 7 days you get your rewards that you worked for, even your curation rewards. You get a message that says you can redeem your hard earned 0.02 Steem Power that is pending right now. But in claiming your reward you take some bandwidth as well. Each transaction will lower that bandwidth so just try to get it in the morning and evening. It won’t go away!
Don’t follow everyone!
Minnows tend to beg for followers each day and they follow back. You can follow hundreds of people everyday by simply clicking. Well, you can’t interact with everyone and that’s a shame. Why would you want to follow so many people? Keep your follower count small and follow people that really interests you and give value. Having a lot of followers with low Steem Power will use up a big piece of your bandwidth as well.
Don’t edit your posts many times
Well it’s highly likely that you aren’t a native English speaker and writer. I’m not one, I’m a proud Dutch guy! So it’s possible that sometimes you get spelling errors and you want to edit that out. Each edit is a action that requires using your bandwidth. So when you post an article just proof read it twice and you’re good to go. When you do find an error. Check that post as a whole and do a full check again to avoid the editing.
Don’t edit your comments many times
Just as your posts, you shouldn’t edit your comments. Comments tend to be small so not many people have this problem and don’t do this but it’s good to remember!
Don’t comment to comment
You see a lot of spam comments on each posts. Each post has at least 1 spam comment which is a shame. They didn’t read your post and that comment reflects that. If you have nothing to say, then don’t comment. Just bring value to the platform. This is a bandwidth issue but also a tip to keep the quality high. Not just in posts but in comments as well! If it’s a good blog post it has a TL:DR (Too Long : Didn’t Read) which can also be all the headlines.
Don’t Resteem everything
This is the biggest killer of them all. When you resteem a post it uses a lot of bandwidth. While this is the biggest one, it’s also a thing that not all of your followers might like the things you resteem. So keep it to a minimum and the things that might interest you and your followers are the things you should resteem.
So, when I do get that message, how can I get bandwidth again?
There is an option to regain control of your bandwidth again and that’s Powering Up! . If you have a bit of SBD laying around, just power it up into Steem Power. It’s great for the platform, it gives you a boost in curation rewards and you get bandwidth again.