RE: i just upvoted someone and their balance went DOWN 1 cent !!! ???
No, you would not be withdrawing it at the moment, but investing it back into Steemit. It's still available for a future "power down" if you need.
I've written an article on it, though I will improve it later in the month when I celebrate the end of my second month here on Steemit.
I hope the article helps.
https://steemit.com/steemit/@viking-ventures/steemit-for-newbs-part-2-bandwidth
Plus one with more details on voting power and how your steem power affects it.
https://steemit.com/steemit/@viking-ventures/steemit-for-newbs-part-3-voting-power
I'm now at about 27 SP - still quite low, actually, but I'm not having so much trouble with bandwidth now and my vote is more often worth something (at least my penny...) My understanding, from more-experienced bloggers, that I should be aiming at 50 to 100 SP minimum. After that, it's really up to me and how much voting power I want. (Worth investing back as long as the cryptocurrencies are down so much.)
I really hope this helps. (Yes, the whole thing is really confusing - I've even seen "whales" explain the bandwidth thing in a way that doesn't fit my observations.)
Best wishes!
You've made an interesting point @viking-ventures
When we join an account, we get about 15 steempower, but 14.5 is delegated. Leaving us with just 0.5 SteemPower!
I am reading Posts from people that joined with Steemit about 6+ months ago to 2 years ago saying how they got a few hundred steempower upon joining.
Looks like they changed their SP allocation to new users at some point.
When I started, about 6 weeks ago, I'm guessing I was delegated about 30SP. (Maybe a small amount was gifted, but I really dont' remember now.) I started noticing the bandwidth issues when I went down to 27SP. It bottoms out at about 15 which will remain delegated for awhile.
Now, as you start powering up, you won't get the full benefit for awhile, because Steemit's delgated SP will decrease - still leaving you with 15 until your powering up gets you above 15... then, you start making real progress.
BTW, although some people say that bandwidth is purely an allocation and waiting game, it isn't... For me, the worst time of the day is first thing in the morning!!! (When, in the evening before I went to bed, I was at full bandwidth!) Rather, the bandwidth thing seems to be a priority status. I.e. when you're still low on the totem pole, you only get bandwidth when there's enough to share. (Other users aren't using all of it right now.) The worst I've had to wait was 10 hours one day when it was 5pm before there was enough bandwidth for me to get my turn! But the more SP you have the higher priority you have for bandwidth. That is why you need to power up (more than any other reason!)
I hope that helps.
i was hunting around and found 2 good resources.
i can literally make a post and physically see my bandwidth decrease, and then I can watch it recharging again ;)
i took the liberty of putting your username into it so that you can see your own bandwidth:
https://steemd.com/@viking-ventures
and
https://steemdb.com/@viking-ventures
the first link is more simple and easy to understand.
the 2nd link has a lot more info.
aybe you already know these 2 resources,, but it has helped me work out what I should and shouldnt be doing.
I saw a good article about how editing posts and even making comments such as our conversation right now can also hit on your bandwidth.
if you want to pass the above two sites onto anyone else,, just replace your username with theirs.
I hope it helps ;)
Yes, I refer to the first of those sites in my article. It helps a lot. Just remember that when it says so-many-hours, it's wrong... :p Because it's not a simple time equation - only that's how long you'd have to wait if the current usage by other users remained constant (which it won't.)
I'm glad you've found those sites now - it's useful to know. :)