The mistake here is "perfect" fairness. That's not the real expectation, and I think Dan should know it. "Reasonable" fairness. "understandable" fairness. Those are VERY achievable. Right now very good posts get crap, and some crap posts make a fortune. Plus we are seeing the SAME stuff rehashed over and over and getting whale votes and raking it in.

Perfect isn't necessary, never was. But with the upvote system the only way to make money here (no ads, and AFAIK no sales, no email capture) people who want to make money on content are TOTALLY dependent on the whales.

1000 minnows aren't worth one whale upvote here. But other places - 1000 people who like and respect your content is worth way more. THIS is a problem for steemit.com long term. If content of/for the masses isn't rewarded then it actually makes this a WORSE content platform.

It doesn't have to be that way though. It can be fixed.