Ok, another small observation is that post rewards haven't changed much. That's actually a great thing. HF21 took 10% out of the rewards pool, and shoved it in the SPS. So, you should at least be seeing 10% less... but it doesn't look that way.

My first impressions are that what we lost in SPS funding has been gained back by community down voting. We'll see if this lasts...

Socialist upvotes

See, when you downvote it returns the rewards to the rewards pool for others to use for their rewards. So, HF21 shrank the pool for everyone by funding the sps, and shrank the pool available to posts that the community thought were leeching. It may be too early too tell in general, and tough to say if this is going to stick around... but it looks like the pool for scammers is shrinking and it's supporting the post values of everyone else.

See, focusing on the one account getting downvoted is so dramatic compared to upvoting all other posts slightly. ;)

Will newsteem ruin steem?

Short answer... no. Long answer- no, and those fudders are going to feel idiotic... Why? because this hard fork helps curators. Who are curators? People that hold steem! What gives steem value? People holding it. So, if we're helping curators who hold steem and more people want to do that to get the benefit what will happen?

That's right kids. the whole platform will shit itself to death Demand for Steem will rise. Authors will continue to post. Content will get discovered. Shit will improve.

It's possible at the start of this you're just going to see less steem as an author. But you're also going to see a lot more steem as a curator and hodler. Hopefully in the not too distant future the loss of steem earnings will be made up for by the gain in steem prices.

We'll see... this is just a first take on what I'm seeing for #newsteem.