So I was wondering how curation works and I wanted to write an article on roughly how this works.  My most enjoyable endeavors in writing aims at explaining the complex in a simplified manner.

So curation is the part of the payout that goes towards the voters.  Currently as part of the latest steem blockchain the code instructs  payouts to be split between Author and Curator.  

So the Author gets 75% and Curators get 25%

So lets make an assumption on 1 thing the payout = 100 dollars to make this example super simple.

So if the payout is 100 dollars then :

75 goes to the Author
25 goes to the Curator


This leads me to my next question when is a GOOD TIME TO VOTE?

Voting , say in the first few seconds will result in the Author getting all of your curation and voting too late will result in a low curation earnings.  So in the first few minutes this is how it works:

1. 5 mins after publication  - eligible for 15%  of the curation.
2. 15mins after publication - eligible for 50% of the curation.
3. 30 mins after publication eligible for 100 % of curation.

so lets say there are only 2 votes u and the Author and the total payout is 100 dollars.

1. 5 mins after publication - you get 3 dollars
2. 15 mins after publication - you get 12.5 dollars.
3. 30 mins after publication - you get 25 dollars.

Ok so lets say we have more voters in the mix... then the pie or 25 curation dollars gets broken up.  So if 200 curators voted at the 30 min mark at the same time then you would each get : 25 cents.

So you can see where this is going.   So if  more people vote on the payout it can decrease or increase ur curation earnings ability.    However there are a lot more variables.

The OPTIMAL STRATEGY is to vote at the 30 min mark and also do not vote more then 10 TO 11 TIMES A DAY. Voting each time with the new HARD FOR 19  will reduce voting ability by 2 percent and it takes 1 day to get back 20 percent.  So if you vote 10 to 11 times a day then over night you voting will be back up to 100 percent.

Well I hope this article helps and I am happy to post further detail on how any of the above works just let me know.