I think some of it is the lovely/too hot (depending which day and where you are) weather: activity cooled off last summer, too, and around the Easter holidays.

There is some uncertainty about HF21, although commentary seems to be moving more towards how to prepare/cope, and I guess the Steem price puts some people off, although I'm not sure why - it's a great chance to build your account. It took me some thinking about, partly because of how it was framed, but also because the people I'm working with to bring to Steem have been more interested in Steem distribution than Steem accumulation, but I feel okay about it now, especially since the advent of PAL net which demonstrates how a layer can be built on top of Steem/SDB distribution. I'm interested to see whether the proposed HF21 changes will have the desired affect :)

I've noticed my Voting Power creeping up sometimes, but I'm spending more time reading and commenting on PALnet and with my usual #needleworkmonday curation, I've managed to get it down to 77% (very unusual) today.

Following @curie, @ocd and @c-squared as well as @tenkminnows curation trails is a great idea. At least three of them are manually curated and votes will be going to good posts.

Steem Monsters aren't my thing, but I've enjoyed reading posts about them (especially yours) and Next Colony, and it's great that they're taking off. Long may it continue!

Maybe delegation is another thing to consider? @actifit, @dlike and @steemhunt all reward lots of accounts everyday, so are a great way to spread your voting power.