Do you know what curation trails are on HIVE?

If not, don't worry, I will give you some valuable information about them.
Curation trails are a way for HIVE users to delegate their voting power to a trusted curator or group of curators to promote quality content on the platform. By following a curation trail, users can support high-quality posts and help to discover new content in their areas of interest. In this post, we will discuss the benefits of joining a curation trail on HIVE and how it can help you to become a more efficient curator and member of our community.

How does it work?

A curation trail on HIVE is essentially a group of users who have agreed to follow each other's votes on specific types of content. By following a trail leader, a user's voting power is used to support the same content as the leader, allowing for more efficient curation and discovery of quality content. Users can delegate their voting power to a trail leader using third-party tools such as SteemAuto or Hive.vote. Once the delegation is set up, the user's voting power will be used to support the same content as the trail leader.

The Benefits

Why should i do this, what are the benefits? Lets see:

Increased visibility for quality content:

By following a curation trail, you can help to promote high-quality content that might otherwise go unnoticed. When a you delegate your voting power to a trail leader, your vote is used to support the same content as the trail leader. This can help to increase the visibility of quality content and ensure that it receives the attention it deserves.

Time-saving:

Curation trails can save you a lot of time by eliminating the need to manually search for quality content. Instead of spending time scouring the platform for good posts, you can rely on the expertise of trusted curators to surface the best content in their areas of interest.

Improved community engagement:

Curation trails can help to foster a sense of community on HIVE. By following a trail of users with similar interests, you can discover new content and connect with others who share their passions. This can lead to increased engagement and interaction within the community.

Increased earnings:

By supporting high-quality content through a curation trail, you can also increase their own earnings. When a post receives a high number of upvotes, the author earns more rewards. As a result, users who follow a curation trail and help to promote quality content can also benefit financially.

Diversification of content:

Curation trails can also help to diversify the content on HIVE by promoting posts in a variety of niches and topics. By following a trail of curators with different areas of expertise, you can discover new and interesting content outside of their usual interests.

What could happen?

While curation trails on HIVE offer a lot of benefits, it's important to be aware of the potential risks that come with them. One of the biggest risks is blindly following a curation trail without first doing your own research, which could result in supporting low-quality content or even spam. Additionally, curation trails can be vulnerable to abuse if the trail leader is not acting in the best interests of the community. That's why it's crucial to carefully consider the trail leaders you choose to follow and exercise your own judgement when deciding which content to support. By doing so, you can help to promote high-quality content and contribute to the growth of the HIVE platform while mitigating potential risks.

How to join?

If you're interested in joining a curation trail on HIVE, the good news is that it's relatively easy to do so. All you need is to use third-party tools such as SteemAuto or Hive.Vote. These tools enable you to select a trail leader and delegate your voting power to support the same content as the leader. Following, I'll walk you through a step-by-step guide on how to join a curation trail and start supporting quality content on HIVE.

Hive.Vote SignUp

For my example i choose Hive.Vote, just follow the link and you will get to this starting page.

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You can now either login or register, if you do so, there will be a Hivesigner popup.

Put in your Hive-username and one of your private keys. If you just want to look around, you should pick your Postingkey to be safe. Now you have to pick a password for Hivesigner.
After you done this step, your next screen will look like the following.

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To activate the usability, you have to give "@steemauto" posting authority.
You can do this by using your Activekey via Hivesigner.

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Now you are ready to find your curation trail,
and even more. With authority given, the menu is available.

Start Trailing

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You have a classic menu on the left hand side, but can also start navigating from the given menu.
If you scroll down, you can do your setup, when to "stop" voting.

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Starting now with searching and finding a trail, just click on "curation trail" and you can look up any user you want. If you found someone you can also see who is already following.
You have other options here too.

1. You can enable to vote on comments
2. You can adjust your vote weight,
   either: You will vote always "fixed" - means x% from your votevalue
   or: You vote "weighted" - means curator votes with 80%, and you have set up 50%, you will vote 40% (Curator Vote x Your weight = Your Vote)
3. You can set up a time to wait before you vote, after the curator voted.

I am following @bdvoter, since they are upvoting (in my eyes) quality splinterlands content. Also @leo.voter for voting financial based content.

These options can be done for "downvote trail" too.

But as already said above, you have to do your own research.

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Be a Fan

Now you know how to join a trail, but you can also be a Fan. ("Fanbase")

What does that mean?

As a fan of someone, you will automatically upvote their post.

You want to be my fan?

Autoclaim

Select "Claim Rewards".
This feature automatically claims your rewards every 15 minutes, saving you time and ensuring you don't miss out on potential rewards.

Even more Options

Besides from the options i told you about, there are some more.

1. You can add users to a list, when they comment on your post, you will automatically upvote it.

2. You can schedule multiple post.

3. And join their Discord, to get notifications.

Support Hive.Vote

When you like this service, take in consideration to use options to support them.
Even a "free" support can be done by either be their fan or follow their trail.

If you enjoyed reading my post, go ahead and share it.

Upvotes are also welcome.

You have suggestions to bring my post on a higher level,
just leave a comment.

I will write post about splinterlands,
and everything else what comes in mind.

So stay tuned and follow me.

Thanks for reading, see you on my next post.