When you curate a post by upvoting it, there is an optimal time to get the most curation rewards. Prior to HardFork 20, that time was 30 minutes after a post was made. After HardFork20 that has changed to 15 minutes after a post was made. The github issue for this change is (#1878](https://github.com/steemit/steem/issues/1878).
Curators/upvoters can potentially get 25% of the total rewards a post earns. The most SP and vote weight you apply on a post, the more potential curation rewards you can get.
The way this worked before was that if you upvoted right after a post was made and you weren't the author, you would get no curation rewards, as all the curation rewards you could have gotten were given to the author. As the 30 minute mark approached after a post was made, you would get more and more of the potential curation rewards from other people voting after you with their SP applied. You got the most curation reward potential at 30 minutes and after, with respect to people voting later on with SP to the post. If everyone voted after 30 minutes, the author would get 75% of the post rewards, and the curators would et the 25% divided among them in proportion to the SP and vote weight applied.
After HF20, this has changed. Instead of 30 minutes, it's now 15 minutes. This is the best time to vote to maximize curation reward potential. When other people vote still factors in. If everyone voted at 14 minutes or earlier, and you were the only one to vote at 15 minutes or later, then you would get less curation rewards than if you voted just before them at 13 minutes. But in general, voting near the 15 minute mark is the best way to try to maximize your curation rewards on a post.
I hope this knowledge of the change can help some people change their voting behavior to get more rewards, if they didn't already know. There is no longer a need to wait to upvote around the 30 minute mark post-HF20. Upvote near the 15 minute mark and it will do the same thing as prior to HF20.
Thank you for your time and attention. Peace.
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