I've been using Steem a lot in my free time when I can - mostly reading with the occasional post myself. Whilst we all understand that this is a great platform which is still in a beta state, I think there are a few simple ways in which things might be improved.  Obviously these are based on my opinions and let me apologise in advance if there is anything that I've missed or if there is already a method for doing some of these things:

1) Do something with the "follow" command

If I find writers/creators whose work I like then I can "follow" them but there doesn't seem to be any way to see a feed of those I am following.  These would be a real "killer" feature for me.

2) User ratings based on curator a score.

Obviously this already exists to a certain extent based on how people up-vote posts, but I'm thinking everyone should be given a public score (maybe out of 100) that is visible to everyone.  Bitcointalk has a feature where users get a higher rank (e.g. Senior, Hero, Legendary) based on posting history and length of time.  Steemit could do the same based on their numerical curator rating.

3) Monthly prizes for best curators and bloggers

This would offer an incentive for those who contribute most to the community.  There could be an "unsung heros" section where great content creators who have been missed or haven't had much attention could be highlighted or spotlighted.

4) Bug bounties

We have seen a number of bugs/exploits that have emerged on the platform already.  Utilise the community to help find bugs and exploits before they can be used if possible.  This is good for the whole community.  Give an extra high bonus for those who reveal an exploit before it has been used (if it is possible for that to be determined).  Make it so that it is worth more to an exploiter to help fix problems than exploit them himself/herself.

5) Content flagging specifically for copyright issues

There seems to be a massive amount of content which is using people's work without permission as a means to churn out content and to get credit for what other people have done.  Since people can actually profit from stealing other people's work on Steemit - it is even more of a concern for this platform.  At the moment there is no simple or direct way to flag a copyrighted work if you are a content creator and someone has stolen it.  Perhaps along with the downvoting flag there should also be a copyright flag to go with it.  I have already discussed this more in one of my previous posts here.

6) Removal of steem dollars/steem power for spam voting

Instead of just rewarding people for upvoting, consider removing SD for up-votes on spam content.  This would reduce the incentive for people to just vote up everything and make people consider their votes more.  It would also provide a disincentive for bots.

7) Higher rewards for downvoting spam.

In unison with the previous points give extra weight/SD to downvotes on spam posts.  This is in some respects even more important than up-voting for effective curation.  The faster fake articles and general spam can be removed the better it is for everyone.  Perhaps give an extra bonus to the first downvote to make it even more attractive.  Obviously to make sure that people don't use this maliciously it would help to have some kind of appeal process for this with sanctions against those who misuse it.

8) Account suspension for repeated rule breaking and use of bots

This is fairly self explanatory and should help act as a deterrent for those who don't play fair.  This would include those stealing other's work.  Inappropriately flagging content would also be included in this.

09) Draft Posting and Section for Edits/Additions/Addenda

Fairly obvious this - a number of people have lost work due to the inability to save work in progress and lack of a draft function.  This post here by @cryptoiskey covers this topic well. It would also be useful to have a section for listing updates or edits to blog posts.

10) Built in Image Hosting/Uploading

This would be another very useful feature.  Some people have had major problems with certain image hosting sites and images disappearing.  Being able to simply upload images like other social media sites would get around this and also be more user friendly.  (See this post from @sgnsteems here.)

11) Human oversight to make sure it all works

Whilst computers and code are great at doing things and saving us time it goes without saying that they are not perfect.  Just look at what happened with the DAO.  Whether it is to make sure that curation is working correctly and ensuring everything is fair there really needs to be some human beings involved as part of the Steemit team to keep an eye on things and help out people if they run in to problems.  One of the biggest complaints about many technology companies is the lack of real human staff to help in the event of a problem.

12) Now it's over to you

Do you have anything to say about the above?  Are there already workarounds or methods of doing the above that I have missed? Do you have any ideas for improving the platform?  Please post your answers in the comments.

(Image courtesy of @stellabelle from this post)

Apologies for any errors I may have missed. Forgot to add if anyone wants me to add any other points to this article please let me know in the comments section and I will add when I get a chance.  Also please feel free to link to or refer to this post and also if you have posts which discuss these specific topics which you would like me to link to.