OP, did you read this? https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Comparison_of_mining_pools
It is a comparison of different pools and what reward mechanisms they use and what fees they charge etc. It is best to check out a few and do your own research before settling on one that you are comfortable with. There are different options, so you can choose the one that suits your mining pattern. For me, I found that PPS works best when I am mining intermittently (DGM/PPLNS proponents, please ignore, this is my personal preference only).
Hopping does work. Hoppers earn 20 to 30 % extra (maybe less now that there aren't that many reliable proportionate pools) as compared with non-hoppers. This extra has to come from somewhere and the general consensus is that it comes out of the pocket of 'honest' miners. Whether or not you have a problem with this is for you to decide.
If you lost your 8 hours mining at slush (as someone pointed out), then it's just bad luck and a lack of understanding their reward system. They mention on their home page that they follow a "Score based reward system", and provide a link to a detailed explanation. Even the short description provided in the mining pool comparison link given above says "Score based system: a proportional reward, but weighed by time submitted. Each submitted share is worth more in the function of time t since start of current round. For each share score is updated by: score += exp(t/C). This makes later shares worth much more than earlier shares, thus the miner's score quickly diminishes when they stop mining on the pool. Rewards are calculated proportionally to scores (and not to shares)."
So the best thing to do now is to choose the pool that suits you best (there are other PPS pools with less fee than 50BTC, so you can try them also) and move on
It is a comparison of different pools and what reward mechanisms they use and what fees they charge etc. It is best to check out a few and do your own research before settling on one that you are comfortable with. There are different options, so you can choose the one that suits your mining pattern. For me, I found that PPS works best when I am mining intermittently (DGM/PPLNS proponents, please ignore, this is my personal preference only).
Hopping does work. Hoppers earn 20 to 30 % extra (maybe less now that there aren't that many reliable proportionate pools) as compared with non-hoppers. This extra has to come from somewhere and the general consensus is that it comes out of the pocket of 'honest' miners. Whether or not you have a problem with this is for you to decide.
If you lost your 8 hours mining at slush (as someone pointed out), then it's just bad luck and a lack of understanding their reward system. They mention on their home page that they follow a "Score based reward system", and provide a link to a detailed explanation. Even the short description provided in the mining pool comparison link given above says "Score based system: a proportional reward, but weighed by time submitted. Each submitted share is worth more in the function of time t since start of current round. For each share score is updated by: score += exp(t/C). This makes later shares worth much more than earlier shares, thus the miner's score quickly diminishes when they stop mining on the pool. Rewards are calculated proportionally to scores (and not to shares)."
So the best thing to do now is to choose the pool that suits you best (there are other PPS pools with less fee than 50BTC, so you can try them also) and move on