I have a post coming about this topic - not outing anyone, but I have been told at least 20 times that people are afraid to post at all since they have not idea why flags are flying.

Yes we did lose hundreds, @nomadsoul. I enter contests on at least 60% of my posts. I am winning most of them now since no one else is entering. I'm winning contests I have never won before in a year+ of entering them.

I cannot even tell you how many minnows/redfish have thanked me for my minnow tips as they give up and leave out the door. The glee of the bigs (still all voting each other) is hard to take when your 50 cent reward dropped to 20 cents or less and your hard fought 1 cent vote dropped back to zero again.

A really good person told me today her rewards dropped again this week after already dropping last week, and she has no idea what to do.

I am a @freewritehouse "encourager." This means I go to the Sunday posts, read them and give the people the Monday prompt. I used to have 20-25 people to encourage each week. Last week I had 10. This week I had eight. Freewriters are dedicated bloggers with great work and who care. Now they are gone.

• I do bounties - I am getting great payouts since no one else is answering.
• I do dPolls - they are less than half of what they were.
  On and on the carnage goes...

This has been the hardest two weeks of my steeming life even though my personal rewards are up slightly.

I won 50 STEEM in a contest with my not-very-great posters since almost no one else entered. For a contest with that high of a payout - WTH?