Accounts that don't get the voting slide bar are stuck having to be very stingy with their votes if they don't want to run out of voting power. This means that the current setup of Steemit  after hardfork 19 significantly restricts minnow engagement and activity.

Before the change to the way voting power gets spent by accounts, everybody had roughly 40 votes per 24 hours to spread around, curating content and interacting with the community. 40 votes per day are enough to vote on a number of posts by other people while also voting for some useful comments and people that have taken the time to answer your questions and so on. Now after HF19, each of our votes spends 4 times more voting power by default, which reduces the votes we can sustainably spend per day to just 10. For accounts that have more than a little under 500 Steem Power, that is not a big problem, because they can use the voting slide bar and if they slide it down to 25%, they get the things back to the way they were before the change. So for them, this change only increases freedom as they are now allowed to make votes that are 4 times more powerful, but can also use the platform as they did before.

But people who have less Steem Power than that don't get access to that feature here on Steemit. This means they are stuck giving out just 10 100% per day. This is by no means enough for normal daily engagement with the community and I see only one good solution.

<center>![VSB.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/DQme3F9UPkHHLVos8Uar7xEjj1FnWD34eWRH88azJuMfUk9/VSB.jpg)</center>

I really think more accounts, if not everybody should now get access to this feature so we can go back to using the platform in the way we were before HF19. If we decide that some restrictions should still apply in order for votes not to get too diluted and therefore worthless, the slider for smaller accounts can be limited to the 25%-100% range or similar. In this way the change introduced with the latest hardfork would not limit smaller accounts while only affording additional freedom to the larger ones.

# The current setup has detrimental implications

Keep in mind that this problem only affects smaller accounts which tend to be the new ones. This means that this is disproportionately limiting  the exact type of user that should be stimulated and onboarded. New users should be encouraged to spend more time and to be more active here on Steemit, so the platform becomes a habit for them. In this way the whole ecosystem can keep growing. If we are discouraging them from using the platform actively, we are making it less likely for them to stick around. If we want the platform to grow, there should not be unneeded restrictions imposed on the exact type of accounts that growth should come from.

<center>![restr.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/DQmXJKEAENhiX5Bdw8AteDgbE6PZC2GLcXfgnTmqzauRevZ/restr.jpg)</center>

On a more personal note, I'm currently experiencing that exact phenomenon myself. I want to interact with other steemians and I do a lot of commenting and when somebody provides me with a thoughtful reply, I want to be able to give them an upvote. But when I'm left with just 10 upvotes to give, I end up being less active, reading fewer posts and participating in fewer discussions because I don't want to be in a situation where I see something that I think deserves my vote, but I feel I have to be stingy, so my voting power remains at efficient levels. Last week, I basically left steemit for a few days because my voting power had fallen to less than 30%. If I had more votes to give around, even if they were of lower value, I wouldn't be facing this unpleasant predicament. Also keep in mind that even with my measly 100SP, my vote would still be worth something and would actually be worth more compared to when my voting power had deteriorated to extremely low levels.

One solution I see right now, is to use other interfaces like eSteem for voting where that restriction does not apply, but I would still prefer to be able to use Steemit like I did before HR19 and from any device I feel like using. I tend to write long comments and I wouldn't want to have to do that from an Android app or something. Anytime people are forced to deal with a workaround, they start doing the thing less and it really takes away from the experience.

I think this is something that should be changed and it should be changed sooner rather than later as it's surely hurting the growth of the platform. It's confusing enough for newcomers as it is for us to be placing so such tight and in my opinion restrictions on their behavior on the platform. 

**Illustrations based on public domain or CC0 images*

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<center>**_So tell me, what do you think? Are the current restrictions warranted? Could expanding this feature to smaller accounts lead to some negative consequences?_**</center>

<center>**_Thank you for reading! :)_**</center>