Over the past couple of months, many people have experiences bandwidth problems and couldn't do anything on steemit anymore. When I first got the error message a couple of days ago it took me by surprise to find out that there wasn't a place on the web that had all information in one place, I had to read dozens of posts to get even a slidest idea what was going on. I decided to put this post on to help all the others who will experience bandwidth problems. I say WILL because this problem is not going away, even if it does, It will come back again with the next massive intake of new users.
SO, WHAT IS BANDWIDTH ANYWAY?
Bandwidth is the capacity to carry information, and to carry information means to post, comment, reestem, upvote, pretty much everything around here. Not everyone has the same capacity, it depends on your steem power, reputation as well as many other things that you can't really influence. The easiest way to grasp this is to think of bandwidth as PAPERS. Imagine you were given a stack of 20 sheets of paper, you can use those papers to write something and either put it in your folder (your blog on steemit) or give to others (commenting other peoples blogs). When you ran out of paper you won't be able to write anything. Luckily, with each new day, you will receive more papers. Bandwidth will recharge to put it in simple terms. As you become "a bigger" user on steemit (with more steem power and reputation) you will receive more and more papers, and someday you won't have 20 papers on a daily basis but 100 or more.
HOW IS THIS FAIR?
Well, it is actually really fair. I know it's sometimes frustrating for new users (it has been for me too) but when you think about it, new users would eat up the whole steemit if it weren't for this. "Big users" have stronger vote power and have earned the right to post. They mean more to steemit community because they contribute more. Their post, comments, and upvotes will make a difference, they will produce more money in one way or the other, new users won't, simple as that, and the growth from small to a big user depends on the big ones and their votes. You could post and post and post but the upvotes are what matters. Imagine if bigger users couldn't post, who would upvote new users? Other new users? Their upvote is so small it wouldn't make any difference. This is very elegant on steemit. New small users have a smaller bandwidth and older and bigger users have a bigger bandwidth. As you grow as a user so does your bandwidth.
WHERE CAN I FOUND OUT HOW MUCH BANDWIDTH I HAVE?
Whenever you are doing something on steemit, open a new tab in your browser and in it pass this link: https://steemd.com/@username Where it says username, type your own username. In the left upper corner, you can see how much voting power and bandwidth you have left. Feel free to look at the other information on that page also, it will come in handy to you later. Check that page often and keep track of your bandwidth, if it's low, wait a bit before posting something, and if it's high, go right ahead.
BANDWIDTH ERROR MESSAGE
If you ran out of your bandwidth you won't be able to do anything, as I have already said, and you will receive the following message of error if you try to do something. This is what it looks like:
It does say that you can power up, but can you really? In most cases, no, you won't be able to do even that because if you try you will receive the same message. Someone can send steem power to you, yes, this you can do, but in most cases, all you can do is wait for your bandwidth to recharge.
TIPS AND TRICKS ON SAVING BANDWIDTH
There are ways to use less bandwidth. Here are some rules...
*Rule 1. DO NOT EDIT YOUR POSTS
Check your texts a lot before posting them to avoid editing them later. Editing a post and then publishing it again is the worst thing you could do. Each edit will take as much of your bandwidth as your first post did before you've edited it. Same goes for your comments. Try not to edit them either.
*Rule 2. USE IMAGES WISELY
The bigger the image and higher its quality, the more bandwidth it will use. Resize your images before putting them in your post.
*Rule 3. DONT REESTEM EVERYTHING
Reesteming someone post is a good thing to do, but reesteming all the time is not, especially if you are a new or small user.
*Rule 4. DON'T LEAVE STUPID COMMENTS
This is a tricky one. As a new user, you have to comment on other peoples posts to get noticed, I'm not saying you shouldn't do that, of course you should, you must, but... The trick is in smart comments. Don't comment if you don't have anything clever to say. Comments like "thanks" or "good job" are useless. You are here to write so write something! A person who wrote a post would much more appreciate your impressions and thoughts on their post than just a thumbs up. As a new or small user limit your comments to 10 a day.
*Rule 5. POST EVERY DAY, BUT ONCE A DAY
You need to write. The more you write the more upvotes and reputation you will earn, but post only once a day. Manage your bandwidth between posting and commenting. If you post a lot you won't have enough bandwidth to comment, and if you don't comment no one will know about you and no one will come and read the things you've written.
*Rule 6. DON'T USE A GIANT SIGNATURE ON EVERYTHING
Yes, some people have great signatures in forms of pictures or even videos. Don't be jealous. When you grow as a user you can make one yourself, as a small user, you don't need that. Your quality posts will speak for themselves.
*Rule 7. DON'T UPVOTE TOO MUCH
Track your voting power on the same page as the bandwidth, and upvote when your voting power is between 80% and 100%. When it goes down, stop and wait. When it goes back up, you can upvote again. You can keep track of time needed for it to recharge on https://steemworld.org/@username. Just replace the word username with your own username.
YOU WERE DOING EVERYTHING RIGHT AND STILL LOST BANDWIDTH?
Yes, this can also happen. Sometimes when the blockchain becomes busy (due to heavy use), everyone's individual bandwidth will go down until the network becomes less busy. This means that your bandwidth is not the same all the time. Look at it a couple of times during the day on https://steemd.com/@username, you will see that it varies, goes up and down, that's normal. When the network is busy (everyone is posting at the same time), bandwidth will decrease and new and small users will be more affected than the big ones. The only thing you can do is wait and be patient, it will go up again, trust me :)
NOW WHAT?
If you think this post was good and educational feel free to upvote, comment and reestem so others could get the chance to read it too. If you have anything to add or correct me, please do. I will break rule number 1 happily and edit this post :)
---> Special thanks to all the lovely web pages that had pictures that I've used in this post (http://www.bloncampus.com, https://steemit.com/steemit/@guiltyparties, http://www.bbc.com,https://www.parliament.nz)
STAY HAPPY, POSITIVE AND LOVE YOUR BANDWIDTH PEOPLE!
