The crazy dollar signs are definitely a problem; so is the excess focus on Steemit ONLY as "a money making place." Marketing 101: "You get EXACTLY what you ask for!"

What do people "ask" for, when they recommend Steemit to friends?

"Come to Steemit and make money!"

What do we GET? Exactly what we asked for: People's whose primary reason for being here is "make money."

"Steemit is a new kind of social peer curated content site for ALL kinds of content creators, free of invasive advertising, data mining and censorship! Content of value is rewarded through the peer curation process."

Sounds like two completely different web sites, no?

"But far more people will respond to the first one!"

Yes, but WHICH people? Are they the people who will help Steemit grow and thrive in the long run? Not likely... "money grabbers" have a notoriously short attention span and almost no loyalty.

"Yes, but Steem/Steemit needs INVESTORS!"

Misnomer. Of course we need investors. Investors, not speculators who are only looking for immediate income. We need investors who go to an exchange and buy 500,000 Steem with the objective (mostly) of holding it till their investment doubles. Or quadruples. And maybe decide they are going to develop some really cool app on the Steem blockchain, as part of their investment.

Again, marketing to the "wrong" crowd; the wrong kind of investor who's not an investor at all. If you look at most start-ups, the "speculators" bail for more volatile shores the moment actual investors come in and focus on actually building a concept.

Sorry, got a bit carried away there!

=^..^=