Awesome post. I've been writing about some of the toxicity cropping up on Steemit lately, and I think these divisions are a big reason/contributing factor to it. Certain members of various groups become rather militant about regulating those from the other groups.

Currently, there appear to be pro- and anti-bot factions, as well as pro- and anti-"old whales" factions. There also seems to be continued disagreement about both voting and flagging.

It puts ones in a difficult position if you are straddling a few different groups. I know I am.

I particularly enjoyed this part:

"Or worse still, being made to feel like they somehow don't belong because they want to make a buck or two.

Apparently it is all about the community and you are not allowed to try and earn or be happy that you're earning Steem Dollars."

It's very taboo in some places on Steemit to appear profit motivated. Setting aside all morals and ethics, it's a bit silly to operate on anything other than the assumption that most users are here because of the rewards. They aren't here for the ubiquity, or the interface, or anything else (on a macro-group level). Every decision we make has to assume some things as a result of this, such as the system will be maximally gamed and abused by things like spammers/plagiarizers.

I appreciate you pointing this out in an evenhanded way.