Is there a place on Steemit for micro-content?

Steemit is primarily about rewarding long-form content. Take a look at the trending page at any given time, and you're likely to see posts with around 750-1000 words or so, sometimes more - and if they're not long, they usually have an accompanying YouTube video or something similar.

This isn't the kind of social media site where you just mindlessly like and share memes and image macros all day long. We reward content that has value, whether it's something that makes you think, makes you laugh, or provides you knowledge that you didn't have before. It's what sets us apart from the 4chans and the Facebooks of the world.

But in this environment, can't we make a case for micro-content? If someone posts a meme that's piss-your-pants funny, or an infographic that points out something you didn't know but it enriches your life in some way, would you feel comfortable clicking the upvote button?

There's a danger here, of ourse. The goal is to reward good content in an effort to encourage more of the same. If shitposts start ending up on the front page with huge payouts, people are going to follow that trend and begin churning out similar garbage in an attempt to whalebait. There's enough spammers on here right now posting crass and annoying garbage content as it is - do we want to welcome more of that? And then do we want the 1847th post from some brand-new member with 10 Steem Power to their name acting all salty because they didn't get a $30,000 payout from their shitposting?

With the new limitation of seeing your rewards diminish if you make more than four posts every 24 hours, this might not be as big a problem as it would be otherwise. However, there's enough minnows here on Steemit (more than 80 percent of total accounts, according to the steemd distribution page) that even if just a tenth of them posted one stupid meme a day, it's going to be a flood of trash that will make it even harder to find quality content.

It's a slippery slope, and one we may not want to traverse. Micro-content might be just fine for Twitter, 4chan, and Facebook, but for Steemit we might want to avoid it at all costs - or at least be very stingy in rewarding it.

What are your thoughts?

image courtesy of Meme Generator