I was wondering if it was a new thing they were doing too.
But I did test it on two other accounts.
It happens the moment you power up or down.. If you never touch the power up or down button it won't remove the SP...
My wife's account still has all hers... she didn't touch the button, but the moment I powered up, both xt and cyber lost theirs, and the moment i powered down on nanocheeze I lost mine... I had 111 sp and 15 delegated until I did that. So, tehcnically, I threw away 45 delegated SP being dumb and doing tiny puny power ups...
But it is possible this is something they just started doing. But I am 92% sure it is directly linked to using the powerup/down.. I think the @Steem bot uses that as the triggered for recalculating the delegation amount. As long as u only collect SP rewards and don't power anything, you will keep it. At least that is how it appears to be working.. It would be cool to get confirmation on that from the steem bot :P lol
And yes I have tried the steemchat, didn't like it... maybe I'll try again later. :P
and I hear you on the selling thing, but as long as you preplan the power downs, it will be worth what steem is worth at the time. So it would only limit you by your weekly withdrawl, you just can't pump and dump all your steem... That's all it is meant for and that's why they dropped the power down rate to 13 weeks. 13 Weeks is nothing! Steem isn't going to die in the span of 13 weeks.. lol So I see no danger in doing a full power up. And actually, steem will dry up eventually.... And you won't be able to trade SBD for Steem.. Or it will cost many sbd to buy 1 steem. So be prepared for that too...