Q-Filter is a content filter designed to provide an alternate way to find quality posts on Steemit. Located at https://qfilter.herokuapp.com/ it provides a unique way to sort content.
The sorting method that it uses is called the participant-based method. This method ranks posts by the voters' Q-Filter weight multiplied by their vote weight. This lets you see what active users of Q-Filter enjoy; and lets minnows have just as much influence as whales.
There are two other sorting methods that you can view on Q-Filter but they aren't as relevant to this article. If you want to read about them you can read this article
Think of Q-Filter Weight as Steem Power. Posting using the #q-filter tag or upvoting posts with the Q-Filter tag increases your Q-Filter Weight. The more Q-Filter Weight you have, the more you influence others' scores and the more likely you are to win the vote lottery (more on that later). Unlike SP though, you have to stay active to keep your Q-Filter Weight at its current level. If you become inactive your weight will start decreasing. Q-Filter Weight makes sure that whales cannot influence the system any more then a minnow can.
You can view your current Q-Filter Weight at http://qfilter.herokuapp.com/participants/@username. Just replace "username" with your username.
Q-Filter can be used two different ways.
The first way is to include the #q-filter tag in your post tags. When you do this Q-Filter starts watching your post and assigns it a score on https://qfilter.herokuapp.com/. Your post is also visible on there until its payout. Two days after you publish your post, Q-Filter looks at your participant-based score and upvotes or flags your post depending on that score.
The second way to use Q-Filter is to upvote others' posts. Just upvoting them 100% is not enough though. Only if you really like it should you upvote it 100%. If it is so-so give it a smaller upvote, and if it is spam or really poor quality you should flag it. The formula that I mentioned earlier (Q-Filter weight * vote weight) means that you can grade a post by adjusting the percentage of your upvote.
Seven days after the #q-filter tag is added, Q-Filter chooses one voter and sends them a small amount of SBD as a reward. It chooses the winner randomly, but the higher your Q-Filter weight and the more your vote agreed with others, the better your chance of being selected is. This is why you should give your honest opinion when you vote.
Next time you write a post, use the #q-filter tag. If you have any posts younger then 4 days, edit it in. Check out https://qfilter.herokuapp.com/ and rate some of the content on it. Follow 
Now get out there and start writing!
