Tough times for Dustsweeper

With the constant lower STEEM price it makes it harder and harder to sweep up dust. The voting power needed to push a comment above the threshold is holding us back immensely. A few weeks back we managed to reach a whopping 26K in SP, but at the same time, it was frustrating to see that we couldn't handle any more dust.

Hopefully we will see a higher STEEM price moving forward.

@dustsweeper has recently got a "Dusty" friend, known by the name @dustbunny, created by @fraenk. With the current market conditions and the abundance of dust, there is plenty of room for both. @dustsweeper and @dustbunny use different models and complement each other pretty well, so as a user I wouldn't hesitate to sign up for both.

Cost calculation mistake

Dustsweeper's cost model is built to provide no profit from the vote itself. The money paid in is returned via the upvote, and the profit comes purely from the saved dust.

In a recent update, an error was introduced in the cost calculation, causing around a 50% discount to the vote cost. As a user, don't worry! You basically got an early dust Christmas present. :)
We basically depend on the subscription money to be able to pay for delegation, but we hope this won't have a too big of an impact on our operation.

The lower STEEM price is making the payout percentage higher than before. When we started @dustsweeper, a $1 post value paid out around $0.5. Now it is closer to $0.8. So whatever post reward value you see, more of it will end up in your pocket. I had accidentally moved an old calculation model, with a fixed cost ratio, from my test server over to the live server, causing this error.

A Big Thanks to all Supporters

In these tough times, we are especially thankful for all the support we've got. If you are reading this, please be sure to thank this cool bunch of Steem users:

• @gamer00 - 3000 SP
• @abh12345 - 200 SP
• @dynamicrypto - 100 SP
• @preparedwombat - 100 SP
• @johndoer123 - 5 SP

In addition, @davemccoy and I have a total of 5200 SP delegated to @dustsweeper.

Discord updates

We have added some requested features to @dustsweeper's Discord bot.

The $help command now includes information how to top-up your account and how to send a gift to another user. It currently looks like this:

We have also extended the $stats command to include the current status of the account and the last time it was checked for dust.

When the $stats command was updated a few days back, the last line initially included the "last vote time" instead. That was a mistake and was only true for accounts in an inactive state. The time is correctly referring to the last time Dustsweeper tried to sweep the account for dust, even if no dust was found.

We have modified the data collection and will include "last vote time" as well in 1-2 weeks.

If you still haven't done so, please come and join us on Discord!

Dustsweeper's Discord Link

Steemit's API node update

The @steemitdev account released an update 2 days ago about upcoming changes to their API node (api.steemit.com). Changes can have an impact on any Steem app depending on the API calls used. @dustsweeper should not be impacted by this change. We are currently using users' account history to keep track of posts/comments and that is nothing that will change. Please have a read for the list of changes: Steemit's API node update

Dustsweeper Stats

Here the latest Dustsweeper statistics.

• We have 1200 Users registered, out of which 950 have an active account.
• A total of $800 saved from turning into dust.

With the current demand and the low STEEM price, we are averaging around 1 dust vote per user, per day.

We are always happy to keep an eye on your Dust. 😀

Thank you for reading!

ps. If you wonder about the cool @dustsweeper graphics above, they were all designed by @charisma777. Please check out her post: https://steemit.com/dust/@charisma777/a-gift-for-dustsweeper

Dustsweeper is an initiative supported by Witness @danielsaori. @danielsaori is also one of the co-founders, together with @davemccoy. Their shared vision is to help newcomers grow and prosper in the STEEM universe.

Seeing a 2 cents profit turn into dust doesn't sound like much, but for someone new, it can make all the difference. @dustsweeper is trying to prevent that potential disappointment by helping protect those tiny profits.