In the testnet (and likely mainnet also), there are no “set it and forget it” options.
Your pool can become saturated at any time. In general, it’s a good idea to find a pool that is far from being saturated. At some point they will change k (the saturation point) from 100 to something higher, like 200. At 200, any pool with more than 0.5% of the total stake will be saturated. As such, if you’re more of a passive delegator meaning you check your stake once a week or so, then it’s probably a good idea to delegate to smaller pool, less than 5 million ADA or so.
I run a small stakepool (ALOHA), so I am obviously bias toward mine. Of course, since we are small, (1.4 mil ADA currently), I would love for more people to delegate to us, so we can prove that we can run with the big boys. However, if I wasn’t running a stakepool, and was going to delegate to a smaller stakepool, I would head over the Telegram channel and see which stakepool operators in there are the most active and/or most helpful.
The people in there will be the ones on top of any new problems that arise and make appropriate changes relatively quickly. I’ve learned a lot from the people in there and in general the most active people are very nice, helpful, and dedicated to the vision. Additionally, getting in touch with them is probably much easier. For example, you can direct message me and I usually answer unless I’m asleep.
I’m not sure if anyone has seen this, but I’ve posted it a few times in the Cardano Telegram, and someone else posted it to reddit:
Happy New Year everyone.
Crypto Gambler (Aloha Cardano)