Lovely to see the account age chart extended. I've often thought it would be nice to see how that tracked. I started July 2017 and thought that was the busiest year for arrivals, but 2018 picked up even more!
I knew it took a lot longer to unstake, but 2 years!! I felt like I missed a lot coming in a year later, particularly the amount that could be earned back then with such a small group of people for the vote pool. I couldn't believe how many people just powered down and pulled out those earnings then complained and left when they stopped getting hundreds (even over 1000) per post. Self voting was practically encouraged back then too, so if they'd kept the powered up portion they could have self voted themselves to that level. Interesting times, for sure.
The economics have changed a lot over the years. People made massive rewards early on when I was making almost nothing. I think the distribution is better now. Discouraging buying votes was a good move, but people will try various schemes. I think actual community curation is the best way.
What we need now is growth, but where will it come from? We're not picking up many new UK users and a lot have left. I have hundreds in my file.
!BEER
I have heard it was a bit hit and miss as to whether you got those big votes back then. Probably what started people finding ways for better distribution.
When I started there seemed to be an accepted practice that if you were on hard times and needed some extra funds to help you through you could ask the community for help and g get a lot of upvotes that way. It seemed to be used fairly honestly at the time, but probably not for long.