Hi @randolphrope, frankly I've only been here a few days but I can see that currently there are no tools to prevent it. @stellabelle mentioned that there is something being worked on but didn't go into details.

Personally, I think more needs to be make of reputation score. A high good reputation should give payout bonuses. A new reputation should be neutral and a bad one could severely reduce the payout.

However there is still nothing to stop new spam accounts popping up as soon as a reputation is ruined.

I don't know, if the perception is you can print money from nothing then people will abuse the system.

I think a more succesfull system would require someone to part with some value, in order to promote someone else's content and 'invest' in it.

I go into my reasons why in more detail in this post https://steemit.com/steemit/@joannajablonka/steemit-is-in-danger-of-self-destruction-why-reddcoin-could-win . It's my first post, but to my suprise it has been well received by the community! So, I think there is hope yet as long as the core community remains supportive of each other and the platform.