my only worry is that very few people actually read those long posts!

Ah, now this could be the topic of a whole blog post in and of itself. Personally, I like reading meaty articles I can really sink my teeth into. But I recognize that many social media users have short attention spans. Which is a good argument for introducing post types to Steemit: article, short post, video, link, etc. That way everyone can focus on what they like instead of having to wade through all the flotsam in the stream, looking for the good tidbits like now.