Are you getting less upvotes after HF 19? Or even worse, are you getting a lot of votes but negligible rewards? It's a frustrating period post HF 19 to be honest. Although the value of upvotes has increased but the voting power system has made a way for selfishness and scarcity.

As you may have read from me already, I strongly believe that the essence of Steemit is generosity; which is quite the opposite of scarcity. It's sad to see that very basic value of this community is diminishing.

The Minnow Hopes That Used To Be

The generous and caring nature of Steemit community led to many supportive projects which aimed to support minnows and newbies. Two of the such services which I have used are explained below with their current condition.

The Minnow Support Project

This was (and still is) an amazing initiative by Hive account@aggroed , who is a big big minnow supporter. I use Hive account@minnowsupport for getting upvotes because there's seems to be no other hope. Let me briefly explain how it used to work and how it works now.

People used to register with #minnowsupportproject and authorize to upvote on their behalf. The voting percentages used to be at least 20 % and mostly beyond 50 or even 75 %. However, due to negligible vote value of minnows ($0.00-0.02 for a 100 % vote) before the Hard Fork 19, the monetary gains were also not much considerable.

After the HF 19, scarcity has plagued this amazing platform and instead of voting at 20, 50 or even 80 %, they are now voting on less than 1 % or even at a flat zero percent. I seem to be the only one who still votes at 20 % despite the concerns of voting power depletion.

The result is that despite an increased vote value, people are (forced to, may be) voting at less than 1 %. The monetary benefits of joining are no different from the pre HF 19 era. Here's a look at the disappointing state of affairs right now.

These upvotes were received 34 minutes ago on my last post as you can see. What difference can these make? I guess very very little. The update is that Hive account@aggroed is concerned as well and he's changing the criteria to SP delegation. Let's hope for the best.

Randowhale

You might have heard about it or even used it once or more times. I have used it exactly 3 times and I was unlucky enough to do it all after the HF 19. If you don't know, Randowhale used to give random percentage votes to those who sent 2 SBD or Steem to it with post link.

I have seen posts which received 97 % votes from Hive account@randowhale in the unselfish times. That meant a double figure or even triple figure reward from a single vote. Then the voting range was reset to an upper limit of 50 %, which was also not bad considering that 1 % vote from #randowhale still means $1.5-2.5 depending upon its remaining voting power.

Let me concisely share with you the total experience that I had with Randowhale. Remember that now the Randowhale votes only in the range of 0.5-2.5 % range now.

Transferred 2 SBD and got 1 % vote (worth $1.81 at that time)
Transferred 2 SBD and got 1.9 % vote (worth $3.4 at that time)
Transferred 2 SBD and got 0.5 % vote (worth $1.6 today)

Here's the summary for your understanding.

Total Amount Transferred = 6 SBD
Total Worth of Received Upvotes = 6.81 SBD
25 % Curation Reward for Others = 1.7 SBD
Total Value Recieved by Me = 5.11 SBD

In short, I paid 6 SBD and got 5.11 SBD at a loss of 0.89 SBD. And that is why I say that...

I am Done with Randowhale!

I will stop using Hive account@randowhale until my request of raising voting range from 0.5-2.5 to the new and better 2-5 %. I am done till that point despite knowing that post HF 19 voting power crisis is the real culprit!

Conclusion

Hard Fork 19 is to be blamed for creating a situation of scarcity and selfishness which now largely prevails in the community. People are self voting or voting at close to zero voting weight. The minnow support initiatives have taken a hit as well and are forced to save their voting power.

The great work by Hive account@ned, Hive account@dan, Hive account@dantheman, Hive account@steemit, Hive account@steemitblog, Hive account@curie, Hive account@aggroed and many others is endangered and only a few are realizing! Let's raise our voices before we become frustrated enough to stop trying.