I think you may be judging me based on some of my previous posts. I see you mentioned elsewhere that you didn't read the entire thing. Let me give you the TLDR:

I want to help people become better content creators/marketers so there will be better content on Steemit and attract more users to this platform.

That's all. I never said I would turn people into little @yallapapi clones. I want to help them find their own style.

Not taking anything away from anyone who has put effort into building themselves up here, but the fact is that relying on the generosity of high value accounts to sift through mountains of trash and upvote content that they feel is good is inefficient.

Why? Because not only are users not going to make any significant amount of money, but it doesn't encourage people to actually improve their content. When you are rewarded for "just being yourself" and not putting in the extra hours to make your content shine, then you have no incentive to improve.

I'm not standing on the corner with a megaphone and screaming, "GUYS JUST UPVOTE YOUR POSTS FUCK IT LOL," although I see how some people who just skimmed the post would think that.

I'm telling people that the majority of content here needs to improve in order for this platform to be seen as anything other than quick money.

The Trending page is the most visible page on this site. Again, not trying to take away anything from people who have "worked hard to get traction here," but when you have a culture of false encouragement, a lack of tough love, and literally ZERO emphasis on making something that would potentially be interesting to users on other platforms, then the platform stagnates.

Why do you think I call this place a circle-jerk? Because people expect to be rewarded for very little effort as long as they hug each other and say "good job!" no matter how bad the piece is. This behavior is further encouraged by virtually 100% positive comments from users who control high value accounts. "Wow man great post! That was so inspiring! I hope to see more of this in the future!" Yawn.

There is no controversy. There is no actual discussion taking place, except on posts like these that take an unpopular stance on a hot-button issue. Everyone wants to get rich with as little work as possible. Nobody is listening to what anyone else is saying, they all just wait their turn to speak so they can cash in on their upvotes.

I'm not making a moral/ethical judgement. That's just human nature.

The point I'm trying to make is that all of these things hinder Steemit. The monetary reward is too tempting for people to resist.

And besides, everyone is already trying to "game the system." They game it by leaving 25 comments a day on different posts. They game it by being irrationally positive in all of their interactions on the platform. They game it by tagging high value users with @ in hopes that they'll get their attention. They game it by upvoting their comments to the top for improved visibility on Trending posts. It's all designed to get them more exposure, more upvotes and more money.

So where do you draw the line? Paying for upvotes is virtually guaranteed to get you exposure. On top of that, it removes any need to be a fake person by sucking up to high value accounts and begging them to upvote your posts.

Furthermore, when you actually post something entertaining that people enjoy reading, you gather more organic upvotes because there will be people who enjoyed your work and want to see more. Some of those are high value accounts as well.

But to fully rely on whales, dolphins or whatever you want to call it to spend 12 hours a day on here reading low-effort trash posts with spelling and grammar mistakes, poor formatting and uninteresting content JUST to find the 2-3 good posts out of 100 that are worth an $8 upvote is inefficient and completely unrealistic.

For one thing, there is very little incentive for them to do so. What do they gain? Maybe some good feelings from knowing that they helped someone "get exposure" for their content. Maybe five cents in curator rewards. Great. Meanwhile, these people have jobs, families and hobbies that are more rewarding on a visceral level, which will ultimately limit the amount of time they can spend curating content.

I can tell by your comment that you're a good writer. I actually read a few of your posts the other day and I'd say they're some of the better ones on here.

But I've never seen you on the Trending page. Why not? If we were to gather up all the whales and somehow force them to read every post on this site and pick 20 posts to put on the Trending page, they'd probably pick one of yours. So why do you only have ~$20 rewards per post?

Because they have better things to do. Like I said, they have jobs, families, and hobbies. Not to mention the fact that there are 100s of other high quality content aggregation sites and blogging platforms where the stuff is just that much better. Why would anyone skim low quality trash on here when they could be watching professionally edited videos on YouTube, reading articles on Medium by professional writers, or watching cat videos on Reddit?

The only answer is money. That's why people spend time here. They want money. They want the crypto. There are better platforms out there, but none of them reward you financially for participation.

I'm sure you and everyone else already knows all this, so why am I explaining it? Because the point of this entire post - that you should probably go back and read - is that by teaching people how to make more entertaining content AND using modern internet marketing techniques, they can make this platform more popular and put some money in their pocket in the process.

The system will never work the way you want it to. As long as there is money at stake, you will get min/maxers like me - much worse than me, actually - who come here and try to game the system. You think people don't game the system on Reddit? Facebook? Instagram? Medium? They all do. I know because I'm one of them. And I'm part of communities where I know literally 1000s of other people who wake up every day and think about how to do it.

Maybe you think that's bad. But go on Instagram and look at the Explore page. What do you see? Pure garbage. Trash for people with .03 second attention spans who have never read anything longer than a Facebook status.

Click on any account. Do you think you'll see a normal human being? No. You'll see either a celebrity or an internet marketer who is min/maxing the fuck out of their posts for maximum engagement.

It's easy to get mad at that. I do every day yet I still manage around 70 accounts on IG. I hate the Explore page.

But that's how it is. That's life, my friend. As long as people are rewarded for their work, there will be inequality. I can go cut a deal with a company right now and make $20k in less than a month. I know people who are cutting deals for $8m for some ridiculous shit that amounts to little more than a few phone calls and a round of golf. Does that make them better than us?

No. They just chose the right strategy that maximizes the reward they receive in relation to how much time they spend on something. That's all I'm saying.

I'm sorry, but the circle-jerk strategy is inefficient, stagnates progress, and is obviously not working. Not because you're bad people, but because it has never worked in the history of the human race except in matters of life and death.

But in a real world economy, you can't expect people to do anything other than what will directly benefit them in the immediate future. I wish it was different and we could all make money just by posting whatever we wanted. I wouldn't have to spend hours writing thousands of words. I could just take selfies and make money.

But that's not how it is. And it will never change. So you can either learn to play the game and win, or you can choose not to play and lose. Because like it or not, we're all playing.

I can teach people how to win. People look at me and they're like, "Who the fuck is this guy? He's been here a week and already thinks he's hot shit?" I know that. Would be lying if I didn't say it's kind of what I'm going for. Would also be lying if I said that it hadn't gotten me fired from many jobs in the past.

I probably should have just kept writing posts and been quiet about the "secret strategies." But why? Who does that help? I can easily change my strategy and create daily posts that are less offensive and make even more money. I'll just keep quiet about the vote bots and join the chorus of circle-jerkers. "I love all Steemians! This platform is amazing! Come on guys we can make Steemit great! BITCONNECTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT!"

Honestly though I just don't feel like doing that. Despite what you or anyone else thinks about me from my previous posts, I actually believe that I can take this platform mainstream. And I believe the key to doing that is NOT by eliminating the free market system that is the inspiration of all blockchain platforms, but by teaching people how to create entertaining content and encouraging them to do it. Not because of money, but because of their pride in creating something that will literally be saved forever.

If you don't like that... I don't know what to tell you. Best of luck.