I agree. So many of us had to work our way up, it was incredibly difficult, but satisfying as you progress, much like a video game. It seems like some of the new members have the game on easy setting, while for many us it only got harder. I'm not one to give up, or give in though. I'll take the challenge, but I know how frustrating it can be. You're not the only one feeling the way you do. It's actually quite common and that is a tragedy in the making.
We can change a few things though. Lately I've been encouraging more and more people to vote at 25%, and often. That will negate many of the ill side effects we're experiencing here and help many pick up where they left off. My 25% vote is still worth more than what my 100% used to be, and that's the same for everyone. More votes at that rate would add up and we'd see the increases in payouts so many were looking forward to.
Yeah, I've been messing around a bit with the voting percentage myself. There are days where I go for 20% votes, but also days where I go for ~10%, when I drained my VP too much. There are ofcourse some posts I feel deserve a bit more, so I'm always switching. I thought most people would be doing that, though ofcourse newbies won't have the SP to even get the percentage slider. The changes are a bit crippling to them in that regard.
It is nice to have that extra power to work with. I'll give full votes for a spectacular performance or sometimes I just feel like being extra nice. Sometimes I feel the member could use a little more change in the hat to help get the ball rolling. I try to be considerate, but still spread out as much as I can. I burn up a lot trying to give everyone a balanced share for commenting as well. Since they're voting lower, I like to help make up for the loss in curation reward.
Sounds so complex! I do try to be as fair as possible aswell, but to be completely honest, some people I follow are out of the picture quite a lot. I guess they post once I'm logged off for the night and I just don't scroll back 10-20 hours on my Home feed. I still want to clear up the amount of people I follow, so I can be fairer to the ones I feel deserve it most, but it's really hard to unfollow people.