If you self vote immediately, you claim the curation pool for yourself. So nobody on your interactions gets any share.

I kind of feel that is against the ethos of this place, so I only ever come in after 30 minutes. That is the cut off point. Between immediate and 30 minutes, a sliding scale of rewards are then applied.

Same if you're voting on the post as a user. Get in too early, you don't get much. After 30 minutes you can get more BUT if most people get in at, say, 25 minutes, you need to be in before they do.

It's all very math-y.