Reward Pool Concepts:

For those of you still coming up to speed, let's get a general understanding of how the Reward Pool works.

• The blockchain creates new Steem, these are new Steem that did not exist before.
• The new Steem is the reward pool.
• Each of us has the ability to distribute those rewards with our votes.  
• The amount we control is limited by our SteemPower and Voting Power  (if we over vote, our voting power goes down)
• Every user can use their own stake how they see fit  (Upvotes, Downvotes, Delegation, No Action - are a few ways to use it)
• When we vote we are allocating our share of the newly created Steem to those we vote for.

If you do not use your votes, your shares will be allocated across the posts that received votes.

The whole thing is kind of beautiful:

If I own it I can do what I want with it.   You can react by upvoting, flagging, ignoring, make a post about me, call me names, but you can't change my ability to manage my SteemPower.  If you own more SteemPower than I do,  you can effectively cancel me out, but only if you are willing to spend your stake taking those actions.

We are currently watching that play out in various ways around the platform.

If you look past the emotions and watch it happen it is fascinating to watch.

Steem is a stake based system your influence on the reward pool is your stake.  If you have strong opinions about how the rewards are delegated you may choose to build your stake.

Don't be sad though, if you do not own a lot of stake you still have some tools.  "Your Voice" is your best tool when you do not own stake.  Use the blog and the comment section to try to convince others to agree with you.  (Build Consensus) If what you have to say garners attention and makes sense to other users you may find that your stake grows as well as your social influence.

Participating in the experiment that is Steem

@whatsup