I know many are writing about the upcoming fork and honestly I feel like we are so much better prepared than we were the last time around. There has been lots of communication, discussion, and even that awesome blue banner pinned at the top of Steemit.com to advise everyone that a Hardfork will be happening Tomorrow, August 27th at 11am EDT.
I wanted to take the time to do a #NormieTalk style post for what it will actually look like though, for us everyday users.
If you have no idea what a fork is or what I am talking about, I suggest you read this post first-
It goes into each aspect of the fork, the goal of these changes, and a bit more detail about them.
But what will us normal users have to actually do tomorrow?
Nothing.
There is nothing for an everyday user to have to actually "do" for this fork. The majority of the top 20 witnesses (block producers) are already running the 21.0 code, and at the scheduled time the chain will just officially change tracks to that code. Back up witnesses will begin implementing the new code, if they haven't already, and the new changes will immediately take affect.
So what can we expect?
As an everyday user things will look a bit different here (as far as economics go) and it is important to note that there will be a "balancing" time. When new economics are put in place it takes time for the ecosystem to react to show the true change.
I believe the first few weeks will be a bit crazy and it's important to be patient and wait for the system to balance before going into full rage mode.. I mean.. I am sure some !drama will be rewarded, but I am just saying that what you see on day one (or 7) of the new changes are not necessarily a good example of what the "norm" will be.
We need to be patient, realize we are trying something new, and give it time to work.
But what will it look like?
Post Rewards
This fork includes economic changes that are changing the rewards split to 50/50, implementing a curve, as well as using reallocating 10% of the inflation pool to the Steem DAO (SPS). These changes are explained in detail in this post, as well as the desired affect of these changes. Therefore I will not go into details about what they are exactly here, rather just explain what it will look like (in my opinion.)
It is important to remember that on the chain things are calculated in a 7 day payout window. This means that post payouts going back to Aug 20th will see the change.
Yes, that means the amounts you see currently will be different after the fork. This will be true for ALL posts still in the payout window. This does not mean that someone took your money or anything else.. it simply means the change took effect and therefore all posts within the payout window will reflect said change.
We need to remember that the payout we see on our posts are ever changing, and it's not ours until the system has found consensus (end of payout window), and those funds are deposited into our Steem Wallets. If it's not in your wallet, it's not yours.
Based on the numbers I have seen - this will be a decrease of about 40% of what we currently see. This isn't the norm necessarily, remember the system needs time to balance and we have a lot of factors at play here - but I believe this is what we can expect in the beginning.
So we all should just be prepared to see these "payout" changes on all posts tomorrow... no freak outs people.
Downvotes
This fork includes an implementation of 2.5 "free" downvotes to every user. Again, the post above goes into more detail about this, but currently we are allocated 10 "free" (100%) upvotes that are regenerated every 24hrs. When we use one of those to downvote something, we are giving up the possible curation rewards that would have been earned if we used it to upvote instead. This new change just means we now have 2.5 (100%) downvotes that can be used without giving up those curation rewards. You can choose to use them how you like, but each user is only allocated the 2.5, meaning you could do your full vote weight on a few posts, or split them up using a lower vote weight among many posts.
Downvotes are an essential part of the ecosystem and the best description I can give for their use is that they are the opposite of an upvote. Both utilize a users stake (SP) to show where they want the rewards pool (inflation) allocated. Upvotes show they feel the content is under rewarded, downvotes show they think it’s over rewarded (plagiarism, don’t like it, low quality, abuse or just valued too high in that stake holders opinion). This process helps find community consensus and at the end of the payout period, whatever consensus is found is then allocated to the author.
The rewards pool is not free money, it’s inflation based on those who have invested in Steem Power. The act of upvoting and downvoting helps to establish a consensus of the crowd, deciding where those funds should be allocated.
Yes, some people don’t use them correctly, but they are an important part of the system itself. And after this fork we should be prepared to see more downvotes being used in general.
These may be used to fight bid bot abuse, to balance the rewards of some authors who are maybe taking a bit more of the shared inflation pie, to break up vote trading that many may see as unhealthy for the ecosystem etc. The truth is that if this is going to work as designed, downvotes should just become a normal part of the culture here and used to balance those rewards - ensuring that precious inflation is being allocated to that which adds "value" in one way or another.
Will there be abuse of downvotes? - Yep, there is now so it only makes sense we will continue to see it.
Will there be a rush of these abusive downvotes that ruins Steem and destroys everything?? - Ummm I don't think 2.5 downvotes are really going to make that sort of a change and logically those people would already be doing this damage.. so I don't see much of a change happening here. I think we can relax on that front. :)
I do hope we see more stakeholders actively using their downvotes to fight the current abuse and honestly, this all depends on them doing so.
So yes you may see some "flag wars".. but just remember those funds are just being returned to the pool and then allocated to everyone else. Two whales flagging each other is actually not too shabby for the rest of us, just relax and carry on.
Downvotes will be a cultural change for us, and I do believe it will take time to get used to. I believe we have to just come to terms with the fact that it's not always personal (and shouldn't be) and it is just part of the community trying to find consensus - otherwise known as "Proof of brain."
So if you get a downvote, don't panic.. just do your thing and carry on. If you are receiving large downvotes for unjust reasons, feel free to reach out and I will do my best to help you walk through what should be done next. Generally even if someone throws a "personal" downvote your way, ignoring and carrying on is the best option.
I do think there should be an active effort to counter unjust downvotes as well, and believe with organization we can change our culture around downvotes for the better.. that's my hope anyways, but it may be a bumpy ride at first and we all should be prepared for that.
Steem Proposal System (SPS)
The Steem Proposal System (or Steem DAO) is an automated system that will be coded into the chain. You can read more about it on the link at the beginning of this post or by checking out 
There are many safe guards in effect as well as "daily budgets" etc that help to ensure the funds will not be abused. Please check out their posts for more information on that.
For the normal user we won't "see" much here as far as a change. There are multiple front ends being worked on to be the way we "view" this system.
Here are the current ones:
Individuals submitting a proposal will be making a post to outline their proposal with details on work, requested payments etc. Then they will be submitting this to the SPS itself. We then can view these and cast our vote on which we feel should receive funding.
To ensure that there is no bad characters trying to take advantage of the system on day one (or thereafter) 
You can read more about this here:
This one I think we all need to just be prepared to keep watch over what proposals are being made and vote accordingly. We can rally to help certain ones get attention if needed or rally against those who seem to be trying to abuse it. This is essentially giving the community a way to help fund development as well as other advancements that could benefit STEEM as a whole. We should actively be involved in this!
First step will be to vote the "return proposal" tomorrow when it goes active to ensure we have that safe guard placeholder at the top. Then we can see what other proposals trickle in.
Other Changes
There are also some small changes that were more "convenience" add ins to this fork as well. I figured it may be helpful to go over a few of them here too. (They can all be found on the Steem github if you are curious).
Reduce Curation Reverse Auction Window
The current "curation window" is set at 15 minutes, and will be reduced to 5 minutes in tomorrows fork. This means that we can all vote earlier on posts we like and not have to wait for that 15 minute time.
For more information on how to optimize curation windows for Curation Reward purposes or to get more information on how this window works exactly, please see this post:
If you are someone who votes based on the "best" time, the you will need to adjust your current technique and the above post will help with that.
If you are someone who just votes what you like, when you like... no change is needed, just do your thing!
New Account Update Operation
This one may not mean much to many, but if you had a hard time changing your "settings" to your profile after the wallet split a few months ago.. you will see why this one is beneficial.
Currently to make a change to these settings (Profile photo, etc) it requires your active key. Everything that requires the active key was moved to the separate wallet, which means you have to go to your wallet to change these settings.
This change is lowering the authorization needed to make these changes to your posting key. The Steemit inc. team will be making the UI changes needed to move these settings to your profile sometime after the fork, but this is the change needed to be able to do that.
This should make the user experience a bit better, which I am always excited about.
Zero Mana Voting
This one is pretty straight forward - in the current system if your mana is at "0" you cannot cast a vote, this change will just allow that to happen. These votes will not earn curation rewards and will not impact the rewards of what they are voting, but they will be allowed to still take place with this change.
Comment Edit Lockout
Again another simple one but may be worth noting as some users experience could be different - The current system has no limit on how many times a comment can be edited within a block. This does have an impact of over all performance so a change is being made to allow one edit to a comment each 3 second block.
So if you are someone who makes a comment and then quickly edits within a three second time period, you may get an "error" message. Wait a moment and try again. Pretty straight forward.
13 Week Powerdown
In the current system when calculating the Steem Power down rates it is rounded down which results in a small "dust" amount that is actually withdrawn on the 14th week. This simple fix just takes that dust amount and redistributes it across the 13 week period. This will just eliminate that dust amount the 14th week is all.
Final Thoughts
This Hardfork has some pretty big changes for us - changes that will hopefully improve our ecosystem for everyone here. It is important to remember that we don't know what the results will be, and another change may be needed if the results begin to look detrimental. These changes may not be a fix all, but they are an attempt to improve the ecosystem, and I hope we all give it a chance to at least attempt to do so.
Let's be patient and keep the big picture in mind - the success of STEEM. Let's give the system the time it needs to balance as well as work together to improve our culture here, as we are all in this together.
I'll see you on the other side!
Much Love and Steem On,
Justine