RE: One Of The Most Powerful Things About Steemit
That's a good perspective. When you start focusing on the payout rather than what you're putting in, your view gets distorted. Rather, focus on what you're putting into the community. Is it engaging, unique, original, heartfelt, genuine? If it is, you're not only going to get followers, but followers who actually want to read your material and who will reward you for it. That's much different than 10,000 bots or unengaged people following. That really doesn't do much good.
I think one of the things that makes Steemit different is the ability to flag. Downvoting someone's content means that any time you have an interaction on the blockchain, you can be judged for it. If you're a jerk, people can judge you and it will affect your standing in the community (reputation) and your compensation (payout). In the long-term it can even lower your follower count. Those factors can help make people more conscious of what they say because there's that accountability mechanism in place.
And the thing is that people can tell when you are genuine or not. I think the flag can be a good think as long as it is not abused. But we know some will abuse it. I have only flagged someone once out of all teh time I've been here. If someone is not being respectful to others then I just ignore them. This way you don't reward that kind of mentality.