![generation.gif](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQma1r8S4UL5yYmibCHoHXd43HfvaXEW2EUdHxonjNf8Rwb/generation.gif)

[Source](https://imgur.com/gallery/roWHnP2)

Curation? What even is that I hear you cry? Well in the lead up to HF21 which quickly jumped to HF22 it caused a considerable split in our Active Steemians because post rewards percentage received reduced while the voter on the post gained a bigger percentage. To be precise

## What changes with HF 21?

> The split of author payout/curation reward changes from 75%/25% to 50%/50%, with the intention of increasing curation.

> When you vote on a high-quality post that receives a high payout, you earn more curation rewards than before. And because you receive a larger portion of the rewards if you vote before everyone else, it's beneficial if you actively look for good content and promote it.

> The time frame in which you receive fewer curation rewards is reduced from 15 minutes to 5 minutes, allowing you to vote almost immediately after reading a post.

[Source](https://www.steeve.app/@minnowbooster/hf-21-p2p-vote-selling-is-better-than-bot-delegation)

Now this post is most likely going to drag on a bit, so if you want an alternative sound track to enjoy while reading check this out

https://youtu.be/8B002QEipNw

It's no secret that being a bit old, I have a penchant for late 80's and early 90's uplifting house music, and this classic mix of Ibiza Classics selected and mixed by Pete Tong has a unique twist - it's backed by the Heritage Orchestra with live vocalists.  If you get through the first 10 minutes I guarantee you will still be smiling after the full 1 hour and 50 Minutes.

## Spoiler it's all about upvoting posts

Breaking down curation to something I can understand...it's pretty simple - when you upvote a post you get a reward...based on the amount and value of votes AFTER you vote. What this means in real terms is you need to find posts that people will love and upvote - but you need to upvote before everyone else to get those sweet sweet curation rewards. You can't just scroll down Trending and upvote all the $50 plus posts that are days old - it might get you a token reward but it will not achieve the true potential of your Steem Power.

## Did you just say Steem Power

Yes, thanks for paying attention. Curation is directly linked to how much Steem Power you have, the more Steem you Power Up (stake) the bigger your curation rewards will be. So to earn from Curation you need to keep powering up your liquid Steem tokens to Steem Power, claiming your rewards as Steem Power and of course never, ever power down.

## That's easy for you to say - but can you actually back it up with FACTS

Actually I can. I might be a bluff old traditionalist with a penchant for roasting coffee, but I have backed up this post with extensive factual research - using actual science I have painstakingly logged how curation rewards differ for accounts with different Steem Power

## SCIENCE

At great personal cost, and utilising my single lonely brain cell I have been able to log using the amazing https://steemworld.org/@c0ff33a (@steemchiller is so hot right now - which is an oxymoron but you get what I'm trying to say...hopefully)  the various curation rewards of literally 4 of my accounts with different Steem Power levels. I can tell how impressed you all are by your long faeces.

## The actual SCIENCE

I was intending to do some amazing spreadsheet type graph thingy, but the single brain cell overheated and all I managed was a bit of flat text. Better then nothing right?

## Curation rewards experiment

First number is earnings, second number if present is the Staked Steem Power of the account

7 days results 15th October to 22nd

### Star lord 38.646 SP from 27,000 Steem Power

### c0ff33a 17.861 SP from 11,744 Steem Power

### The.lazy.panda 0.220 SP from 232 Steem Power

### Blue.panda 0.153 SP from 122 Steem Power

### coffeea.token 0.882 SP from 610 Steem Power

<br/>

22nd to 29th October

Star.lord - 56.352 SP

c0ff33a - 17.741 SP

Blue.panda - 0.139 SP

The.lazy.panda 0.334 SP

coffeea.token 0.882 SP

<br/>


2nd November to 9th

star.lord - 50.331 SP

c0ff33a - 22.772 SP

blue.panda 0.144 SP

coffeea.token 0.760 SP

the.lazy.panda 0.294 SP

<br/>

26th December to 3rd January

### star.lord 52.442 SP from 28,723 Steem Power   0.0018 per Steem Power

### c0ff33a - 26.254 SP from 20,328 Steem Power 0.0012 per Steem Power

### blue.panda - 0.188 SP from 164.69 Steem Power 0.0011 per Steem Power

### the.lazy.panda 0.323 SP from 235.47 Steem Power 0.0013 per Steem Power

### coffeea.token  1.817 Sp from 1651.41 Steem Power 0.0011 per Steem Power

![3l4mkd.jpg](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmPqaBJzoCPStwuSt6A2Fi4WHxYYu6X58nJPtzRLKqsUbB/3l4mkd.jpg)

## All I see is numbers - what does it actually mean?

SCIENCE! Or a lack of rather, because I forgot to log the staked Steem Power in the middle two results. I don't think it matters really - what you are looking at is the curation rewards achieved from 4 accounts each holding different amounts of Steem Power. The first block tells you the Steem Power held by each account, the last block shows any gains in Steem Power from Curation or increased delegation.

In the last block I break it down so you can see how much SP is being earned by each Steem Power the account holds. This is where it get's really interesting - @c0ff33a is my account obviously, and @blue.panda, @the.lazy.panda and @coffeea.token all trail it - so they are set to vote when my account votes. It makes sense therefore the actual SP earned per Steem Power held is the same for all - because they are voting on the same posts at the same time. This is logical.

![weirdscience.gif](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmRjQX76jqJAqBjBrCCMKXtURxC6CSDy8yaLvunro6zR5j/weirdscience.gif)

[source](https://giphy.com/gifs/weird-science-uEc82paHVlEZi)

What you would like to do is what @star.lord does - Guardian of the Galaxy! Now clearly this curation account of mine is leagues ahead of even my own account in curation earnings - but how does that work?

## CURATION - Did you miss the memo?

I have always voted with my @c0ff33a account with my heart, the posts I love and enjoy and I vote them when I find them - sometimes many days after posting. With the @star.lord curation account I deliberately took a different path, with the quote I started this post with - it is clear the vote period for HF22 moved to around 5 minutes - in fact playing around I think you are good to vote anywhere between 3 minutes from post creation and 5 minutes to get the best rewards. But to really understand what Curation Voting means we need to break it down into simple terms - something my one brain cell can compute.

## Curation - how it works (to my brain cell)

Now this is not financial advice, and I have no real proof it is how voting on the Steem Blockchain works. This is quite simply how I understand the way Curation Voting works. Ideally you vote on a post that you see is good quality and will get appreciated and upvoted to high value - but you must vote before the big value upvotes to get the best curation rewards. With HF22 the Curation Window moved to around 5 minutes - if you vote too early then most curation is burned - but from my testing voting between 3 and 5 minutes still gives a good curation reward. Now here is the kicker - when I mentioned to @enginewitty voting in 3 to 5 minutes would give better curation he said it was not long enough to read a long post and decide on how much vote to give! Which is a good point - but then the actual mechanic of voting goes beyond randomly voting hoping a post you upvote will get good rewards - getting a vote in early works well IF YOU KNOW THE POST WILL GET BIG UPVOTES - if you have a crystal ball, know the Gypsy Steem post gazer Bernard or have the Almanac from Back to the Future then you are going to do fine. If you don't, there is a more sensible way - you keep looking though New Posts trying to spot that Golden Nugget of a post that will do well and get big upvotes - then you vote and wait for all the following Whale votes to give you those Golden curation rewards.

## It's more complicated then that

In reality Curation rewards go far beyond just trying to vote on a post within 5 minutes of it's creation hoping (or assuming) it will get big votes after you vote.

Countless times I have found a post a day or two old that is really excellent but just a few cents in rewards - because I like the content I upvote it and resteem it to raise awareness. Next thing I know - someone has realised it's great quality and it's getting big upvotes - and my curation rewards go through the roof. 

Just like creating your own posts - you can't just make a post and sit hoping someone finds it - you have to create the post and sell it - share it everywhere you can, drop it in every discord and comment on your friends posts (don't drop post links in comments because nobody likes that - just leave a comment most people will check the blog of someone who comment s on their posts) to promote. With curation it is almost the exact same - find the post you think people will like - upvote it and then sell that post for the creator - because it does you maybe as much or more in rewards then it will them.

## TL;DR

Your Staked Steem Power can earn you rewards without making a single post, upvote at the right time and you can earn curation rewards that increase based on your Stake Steem Power.

The time you vote is critical - since HF22 voting between 3 and 5 minutes after a post was created will get you the best rewards IF the post get's big upvotes after you vote.

You can find missed posts a day or two old, vote them when they have little rewards and then share the hell out of them so they get more upvotes after you and increase your curation rewards that way.


## Curation - it's a game

I started this post saying that, and it is also how I will end it. Curation can be whatever you make it, as a challenge you can totally max out your rewards by voting at the right percentage at the right time on a post that get's big rewards after you vote it. How you vote, what you vote, when you vote - everything makes a difference. 

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If you enjoyed my post don’t forget to leave an Upvote, feel free to comment on what you liked or where I can do better even. Follow @c0ff33a for regular and varied posts, photography, my weekly VLOG, posts on coffee roasting and brewing - just follow and see.
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The greatest challenge we face on Steem blockchain is getting our posts seen, I have always believed the simplest and best value way of doing this is by commenting on the blog posts of others, the more you engage people and interact with them the greater the chance they will visit your own blog and return the favour. Other then spending all my free time commenting on Steem blockchain posts, I also distribute [coffee roasting machines](https://topercoffeeroasters.co.uk/) and also [espresso coffee machines](https://www.pennineteaandcoffee.co.uk/pages/espresso-machines) and [roast my own Speciality Coffee Range.](https://www.pennineteaandcoffee.co.uk/collections/speciality-roasted-coffee) being one of the premium [coffee suppliers Yorkshire](https://www.pennineteaandcoffee.co.uk) including a wide range of [filter coffee sachets](https://www.pennineteaandcoffee.co.uk/products/knightsbridge-filter-coffee-sachets-50-x-3pint?variant=31757582282). Finally I have a dedicated website to my [Artisan small batch roasted coffee](https://whiterosecoffeeroasters.co.uk/) featuring roast and post packs and super easy coffee subscriptions

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<b>2017 blogging, 2018 Witness, 2019 [COFFEEA TOKEN](https://steemit.com/token/@coffeea.token/introducing-coffeea-token)</b>