Which 'class' of user receives your votes?

@abh12345 yesterday wrote a post. In it, you could ask and be granted, a personal chart to find out the class of users you have supported since 2018 started.

Here is mine. It relates to my votes going out. And so basically it shows which users I support the most to the least.

As you can see, the bulk, 68% of my support is to Red fish (planktons) and smaller ones followed by 21% to minnows. Conspicuously my support to Dolphins is only 9%, to Orca’s it is 2% and completely none for Whales. I will say that again. None for whales!

It is in all honesty, a skewed support ledger. And it is expected. From since I started the Xposed Curator’s rebound, my Planton/Red fish curation endeavors have ensured that the bulk of my time is spent combing the tags, reading and supporting Red fish users.

These statistics today got me thinking a lot, for I would have preferred a balance of support to all classes. This is all the more necessary seeing that because of it, the growth of my account has actually suffered.

It is true. I remember, as I am sure many of my friends do, my account grew at a staggering rate, during the early days before my curation for @asapers and shortly after, for Xposed Curators Rebound, intensified.

These days the reality of my steemit life is that all I do is just about combing the tags looking for quality content by undervalued Planktons. I do it for my first family, the @asapers, and I do it for my brainchild, Xposed.

Between the two, I have to divide my time, despite them somewhat complimenting each other. And that is no easy task. My time, simply put, is all taken up. Gladly at @asapers, I have my fellow curators, the likes of @insideoutlet, @lynncoyle1, @vikingventures, @shai-hulud, they fill in whenever I am off.

What i miss

Still, looking back to the time before and from since I took on more of curation, I can’t help but admit that a lot has changed, and much of it not in a manner I would have probably anticipated, and certainly not in a manner I can wholly say is good for my account. @abh12345’s chart there is evidence.

In what I believe resonates just as well with other active curators out there, the truth is, I like that I am building around me a community of Red fish, but it is also true that I miss engaging with whales/dolphins.

I also miss curation rewards for making comments on their posts. Whale/Dolphin posts are certain to perform well, and I remember I used to target upvoting them. Now I hardly do.

Previously where I used to target posts by 65+ Reputation posts/whales, making sure to leave a comment here and there, a good one of course that was certain to be rewarded, I now only comment on posts by planktons who cannot reward.

The truth is, the equivalent of what I used to earn from comments, was more than what I would earn from my posts then, and even now. I used to average between 0.5 and 1$ per comment I made on a whale post. They are very generous with upvotes on valuable comments made on their blogs. I am sure if one were to compare my earnings then and now, then was better, higher.

Overall, as @abh12345 there shows in the charts, I am not engaging with Whales/Dolphins, and that technically makes it difficult for me to make an impression, to make their acquaintance, and who knows, maybe get enlisted into their auto voting list!!!

And so I question myself: is it worth it? Notice I also need to earn. Scouting hardly fits that bill!

I also need to grow my Reputation. Planktons votes, even a million, cannot do that, never mind they are just about the only ones I engage with now. So technically, I have lost the chance to grow my reputation fast.

Have i any regrets?

I am not sure what to make of everything I lose, but the truth is I miss a lot! Have I regrets, again I am not sure, but I believe in my curation works, I believe I am making a large community of friends, who despite not giving me monetary gain now, offer something more valuable, something that truly strikes a nerve in my heart – gratitude

And who knows, most of Today’s Planktons, especially those who are creating good content will in the near future become WHALES, one or two, or three, will look back to how it all started for them, and somewhere in their history, they will remember I touched their life!

My followers have increased. More often than not, those whom I feature by default follow me. Again, they are only Planktons I know, who in-between their own struggle to keep sailing, hardly find time to upvote my posts as would be expected of followers, and who even if they did, would hardly impact on my rewards, the majority of them only $0.00 dust voters!

But like I said, when these shall become whales, and shall remember how I touched their childhood, I bet they will be leaving me some fat votes! And it will all be worth it. As of now, I have featured and supported well over 100 Planktons, and that is not including the @asapers count…..surely out of these large pool, will come whales, especially because it is a cream pool of quality content creators.

So well, I guess my rendezvous with Red fish is not about to end. And i have no regrets. Except I’m going to be trying to peep on whale posts every once in a while.