A new hard fork to be implemented on August 27th will be actioning a few changes to your status as an Author and as a Curator, as well as a number of technical changes.
The present Author Curator reward split will be changed from the present 75/25 split, to a 50/50 split. Meaning that Authors will receive 25% less, and Curators will receive 25% more of the rewards on your blog.
'Bad news for Minnows, good news for Whales'.
This appears to be good news for Curators, and bad news for Authors. However, my concern would be that it's bad news for both Curators and Authors.
With Steem hovering anywhere between 15 to 25 cents, and not looking like it's going to improve anytime soon, it's already difficult to justify spending too much time authoring quality content for the Steemit platform, and I feel this new % split will further diminish interest in authoring.
Of course, Curators depend on Authors, in the same way as Authors depend on Curators, and Steemit depend on the success of both parties.
Personally I feel this should have been implemented in a more incremental way 'if at all' - to feel it out so to speak, but this is a drastic change in reward percentage - Steemit has not so much rearranged the furniture, as changed the house in which the furniture is arranged.
There are also some rather dubious changes in the flagging, down-voting policy that are to say the least, a little unsavoury.
Personal opinions abound of course, and this is mine.
Authors are going to feel this is a slap in the face, and Curators may well experience the fallout from that. I'm not sure either will benefit in the long term - except perhaps those who choose more dubious means to profit on Steemit.
Of course, I'm not in on the Steemit team think tank, but personally I would have focused more on increasing the viability and value of Steem, rather than how to rearrange the distribution of an ever diminishing 'Dollar' pool value.
You can read more details on this 'Downgrade' - or - hard fork here:
https://steemit.com/hf21/@steemitblog/hardfork-21-survival-guide
Its not quite as it seems!
This shift will do 2 things
People will buy steem as its more worthwhile to curate (we need this more than more authors)
Or to put it another way, what are we more short of, people posting or people powering up their steem! Note that most the people complaining have not bought any steem but just want to get more rewards. So this balance needs addressing..
It will reduce bid bot use, and that cant be a bad thing!
So watch out. Steem price may well surprise u soon! Xx
We'll see Alex. I'm getting to care less to be honest. I know also there is a different perspective to mine, and that indeed is why this decision was made, and I'm not - as I said - in on the think tank, so I'm sure there is more subtlety to it than is immediately obvious.
I hope your right, for the sake of the investors. Which as you say, ultimately will benefit everyone.
However I do believe there should be a more incremental approach to this in order to let the metrics cast some light on such a move. It usually pays to follow a trend rather than hedge a bet. 25% of anything is a big move.
Lets not forget also - Steemit is not Steem, as you intimate in point 1. But that doesn't delegitimise those wanting to author on this platform - that is after all what 'Steemit' is all about - granted though, not Steem.
It is difficult to separate the two if your a Steemit user. Authors add value to Steem via Steemit, as do dealers. Both are legitimate and worthy of consideration. Babies and bathwater come to mind.
As for bid bots, I get a sense, once they have adapted - people may well increase their use to make up some ground. I suppose we should just wait and see. Bid bots to me are more like roulette, so I'm less concerned about that, but they don't operate outside of Steemit TOS, so like them or not, they are a legitimate part of the platform and also add value in their own unique way.
At this point, it's all just conjecture. So lets see how it pans out :)
in this bad bear market this type of action wass very important. And finally steemit inc does it. i support 50/50 Reward. ♥