This is by far the best post I've ever read explaining Steem/Steemit. It really should be required reading for all new users (and probably old users as well). One comment: you mention above that whales and other big investors have an interest in having a high quality trending page, yet I learned quickly to ignore the Trending, Hot, and Promoted pages, because they authors are just paying to get their content listed there, leading to content that is often quite low in quality. Any ideas on how to amend this? I suspect that the user authority proposal by @scipio might help here. Second, any comments on the economic impact of the 7 day limit on payouts? This means that Steem is not a good place for evergreen content. In turn, that discourages users from posting content with lasting value, which I think is arguably higher quality than content with short term value.

Proud member of #steemitbloggers @steemitbloggers