So after weeks of waiting for your account, it is finally here and you write your #introduceyourself post and depending on your luck could amount to a couple of pennies or a few dollars if I whale or dolphin is feeling generous and decides to grace that tag. So after the euphoria of earning something on your first posts, your next few posts don't do so hot. Mostly a few cents and just a few engagements but it's ok at least you got 1 cent out of it and to make a dollar you need the cents. Well, let me give you a blunt force trauma moment here. If your post did not reach the threshold of 0.02 cents or worst because of lower price of steem your payout is 0.019 then that turns to dust. Poof! It gets rounded back to zero. Congratulations your work is now dust! ![image.png](https://gateway.ipfs.io/ipfs/QmUv1EcaGGVvmfD5rikNGjaYxLhMobwybJLFPgFy89BFaG) [From Unsplash - Nathan Dumlao](https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1514481422339-db621c1fca86?ixlib=rb-0.3.5&ixid=eyJhcHBfaWQiOjEyMDd9&s=e66099fb62c2f6ae151d21302c12ac6b&auto=format&fit=crop&w=334&q=80) I would say that I am a pretty informed guy but this today I learned something new which drastically impacts the way that I vote. It all began when discussion in The Empire was brought to a standstill by the tax man @eonwarped as he dropped this information on us. Any posts/comments that do not reach 0.02 cent will be rounded to zero in the coding called *The Dust Threshold** ![image.png](https://gateway.ipfs.io/ipfs/QmNfDfvTFYBmz4i5FAFap3y5EPhHggdzDB8ACtNjzMVkPZ) [Source](http://i0.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/mobile/000/009/993/tumblr_m0wb2xz9Yh1r08e3p.jpg) DAFUQ was my first reaction and he showed us an even more controversial piece on one of the witnesses suggesting that the threshold raised even higher. >If we increased this threshold up to 0.10 SBD, or even 0.25 or 1.00 SBD - then posts/comments that did not receive sufficient votes to pass this threshold would receive zero payout. This would likely decrease the incentive for users to create spam. This can be further read on this post [Proposal to make spam less profitable](https://steemit.com/steem/@timcliff/proposal-to-make-spam-less-profitable) The Dust Threshold is not in the FAQ and could only be seen in the Github repository. ![image.png](https://gateway.ipfs.io/ipfs/QmdGPiEBQKmgDxSmsYskaETfFipWAsikKdpk1MidJrrRJB) Your average user would not have thought of checking there. Hell, I wouldn't check there! The purpose is good that we are to lessen the incentive of spammers to exist but is a double-edged sword that will also hurt red fishes like me who are starting out. To put into perspective say the suggestion goes to the max of one dollar to deter spammers. The spammer will just need to create enough accounts to reach beyond the threshold and since SP is compounding their spam accounts will just grow stronger by time and curation. He'll eventually have enough money to power up and self-vote, and have his numerous accounts trail that vote and he can do this to his comments for faster results. It will never be in the trending because it is small enough to avoid detection. They could use tags that rarely used to avoid other people from seeing it. They can also do small bidbots to make sure that it goes above the threshold. Multiple posts a day and no one is the wiser. In the meantime, your new redfish is struggling. Even if he gets some of his peers to vote for his post it hardly gets to the threshold. A lot of people don't even take into account voting power and that vote goes weaker and weaker as the community tries to vote up eveyone. Take example this post. of mine as an example. ![image.png](https://gateway.ipfs.io/ipfs/QmSBSm2BGq2n4CiVYArnXpgu7W58n5H7cBv86kwmCwipcq) Thirteen upvotes including mine and some level of engagement but since it barely made 0.06 cents this thousand word post will have its payout turn to dust. NIce way to motivate people. Work hard and do your due diligence for a few months and get some whale or dolphin votes in. You practically asking a person to work for free. If one does not even get even the tiniest reward what is to stop the person from just going back to Facebook or whatever social media app they are using. Saying that eventually you will get there is just sugar coating the matter and providing a false hope. Even I who have been on the platform for 6 months have some difficulties in reaching more than a dollar. More than the post value I was not happy about learning that this also affects comments. So if a comment also does not reach the 0.02 dust threshold it is also dust. WTF and here I was thinking that I was spreading my vote and rewarding people who comment with 0.01 as a way of me appreciating them for engaging. me. Then I learned that all I did was to waste my VP. @eonwarped has a great explanation on the dust threshold in this post [Life on the Knife's Edge](https://steemit.com/steemiteducation/@eonwarped/life-on-the-knife-s-edge) >Take the recent claims, which is 438,982,750,788,960,641, which is the weight of all recent votes. >Take the reward balance, which is 749,780.858 STEEM, this is the per block reward that changes according to a fixed schedule of inflation, so it slowly changes. >Take the feed price, which is 2.669 SBD. >Now compute >(rshares/claims) x rewardbalance x price And that's what the current value of your post or comment is. In the case of this post, it is >4,607,112,884/438,982,750,788,960,641749,780.8582.669 = 0.021 So instead of feeling satisfaction that I am doing something good then I am shortchanging the engagement that is happening. So I am changing the way that I reward people that I engage with. In my posts I will make sure that it reaches 0.03 cents and this would mean I would upvote less in comments outside of my posts. It will lower the number of votes that I will be able to give out as I will maintain my Voting power to the same limit I have. Now for those Steemians that have their upvote value is 0.01 only instead of upvoting a good comment you can reply to that and I suggest you check the person out and if you find a post still within pay out that you life upvote that and comment and maybe that person becomes an engager and a fan. Win-win! ![image.png](https://gateway.ipfs.io/ipfs/QmTrMLWQFR36RC9fTAR4k3Tz2vxudzfXPDEmzZ75JJbEh5) [Source](https://www.quotemaster.org/images/d2/d252c6f535a2cd2b727c68c25cfd211b.jpg_ Thank goodness that the suggestion of raising the threshold was put to rest for now because it was just anti-minnow and would make it harder for people to stay motivated. The truth of the matter not a lot of whales is upvoting. Yes, we still have some but the majority of it is locked away in delegation to bidbots, vote-selling, and collusion with circle jerking. You only have a couple of curation guilds and most communities have small votes. To do this is to close off a whole spectrum of users and tell them to go fuck themselves. It irked me to find some of the comments saying that if they did not reach the proposed threshold then the post and comment is of no importance. It is such elitist thinking that makes one wonder if people still really care or if they have been up high so long that they don't know the struggles of those joining now. Get off your high horse and try doing it without your network, without the huge SP behind you and no money. Lets see how long before you give up. The attrition in this platform is huge and if don't take care of them now all we will be left are the few whales and high SP dolphins and those they support. And of course the bidbots. Posts will be just graveyards of bot messages of upvotes. This is our community, care for the little ones. ![SFL logo.png](https://res.cloudinary.com/hpiynhbhq/image/upload/v1516743762/afojyfdar8qsjzmz08et.png) I support @steemfreelancers ![Centurion Mave.png](https://res.cloudinary.com/hpiynhbhq/image/upload/v1518480678/xel9urcw9jxb1dh5ofk6.png) https://steemitimages.com/DQmTDLNSwrxM4R85rA2qsR18pugncTy5FDhVf5gJBoW5vLm/signature.gif [Click here for your Mannabase Income]( https://www.mannabase.com/?ref=c99215504c) [Click here for your Kryptonia access for Superior Coins](https://kryptonia.io/?ref=BW2R94R6P7)