RE: The Nebulous Mystery of "Adding Value" as a Content Creator
"Quality" content is a bit nebulous because no matter where you turn it's a bit of a sketchy idea.
What is quality content? This is a very difficult question for me. Is a very successful photo taken by a professional photographer quality content? Apparently, so. Will the community appreciate this work? Probably not.
When I joined Steemit I was convinced that The Diary Game style posts were rubbish. "I didn't want to get out of bed, but I got up and brushed my teeth..." - phenomenal writing talent! Later I became a curator and got to read posts like this. It turned out that there are many interesting ones among them. It turned out that there are authors who know how to describe the events of their own lives very well.
Now to the question "Is this particular post of good quality?" it is quite difficult for me to answer. I guess it's always very subjective.
At the same time, I recognize that Steemit currently has little content that is valuable or indispensable to a reader outside of this platform. For example, it is unlikely that we will find any tutorial that would be published only here and nowhere else on the network.
Social content is thus very difficult to evaluate!
After some years, I determined that it is perhaps best to forget about quality and instead focus on value. Does something add value?
In your example of the photographer, I would say it has value because even if someone is not interested, at least most people would be able to to say "yes, that is a good photo."
The Dairy Game posts are a mixed bag, of course. But as you say, some people are good "story tellers," and I remember the earliest days when there was a lot of discussion here about this becoming "the Internet of PEOPLE" rather than the Internet of THINGS.
In the end, perhaps the best we can do is make this place as welcoming as possible, with the tools we have at hand!