This is a courtesy post to announce a few minor changes with how the bot will operate.

Max delegator position count

Our first little change is the amount of delegator positions available, originally we were always going to run 5 delegator positions but we are going to cap it at 4 positions. This means there are now no positions left.
One position is taken up by the major delegator to @steeming-hot, which is held by @thevillan.
The other three positions are held by @alphaccino.art, @joshman and @bengy. You three need not worry as you will always hold those delegator positions so long as your delegating to the bot.

Picking an extra top upvoter

When the bot runs it will look at our latest winners showcase post, and now pick three top upvoters of that post. Just to clarify top upvoters are the three people who give the strongest up vote, which excluded delegators and any up vote bots/services.
These top up voters must also qualify to be picked by meeting the minimum post requirements which we will run through below.

Picking one less follower

Originally the bot used to pick 4 followers from our list, but now the bot will only pick 3 followers who meet the minimum post requirements.

Modification of bot operation

Standard bot operation will default to picking:

Four delegators.
Three top upvoters.
Three followers.
10 people total each day.

The operation of the bot will be modified, with the aim to always pick 10 people each day who will receive an up vote and also a resteem on their post.
The work flow of the bot will be as follows:

Delegator flow

Try and find a valid post from our four delegators.
If one delegator can't be picked then pick an extra top upvoter.
If two delegators can't be picked then pick one extra top upvoter and one extra follower.
If three delegators can't be picked then pick two extra top upvoters and one extra follower.
If four delegators can't be picked then pick two extra top upvoters and two extra followers.

The rest of the bot flow

The next stage of the bot is pretty simple and continues on from the delegator workflow.
If top upvoters can't be found then extra followers will be picked to take their place, until we have our daily limit of 10 people.

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I'm curious, why did you change the bot

We have been thinking about the bot operation and notice we have spare up vote power each day, which we use to up vote ourself but would rather be giving that back to the community.
This way we don't have to waste up vote power on comments of ours that were low value, as @steeming-hot has been about rewarding good blog writers from the start.

When will the changes happen

Over the next few weeks the code will be redeveloped when @thevillan our bot developer has the time to take out of his busy schedule.

How @steeming-hot bot works

When will it run?

The bot will run each day, sometime around 5:30 pm ACST. The time may vary a little as at the moment I start the bot up manually.
Eventually I hope to have a server, but for now anything we make from posting and curation goes straight back into powering up the bot. So by running the bot manually I can focus more on building the bot.

How are winners picked?

The winners are picked based on some selection criteria. @steeming-hot is about rewarding and promoting good content as best it can, so if your posts don't pass some basic checks you won't be picked.
The criteria selection process:
💩 You must be a follower of @steeming-hot.
💩 Your reputation must be above 25.
💩 Your post must have 1000 characters or more, and the bot won't count HTML, images or links. They get stripped out from the character count.
💩 Your post must be less than 4 days old.
💩 Your post can't have already been resteemed by @steeming-hot, makes sense.
💩 Your post must not have been identified by @cheetah as possible plagiarism.
💩 Your post must not be blacklisted through the global steem blacklist API.

Everyone must go through this process, so that means delegators, top up voters and followers.
For more detailed information on how the bot works click here