Thank you for your comment @retrocommodore!

I agree with the thumbnail suggestion. We currently use what is shown as the offline image of the user's channel (can be set under user settings) as a thumbnail for steem posts. We'll add a post thumbnail field to the dashboard to give the user more control over how their post looks on other front ends.

When it comes to onboarding, new users can already use all the features of VIMM, except for steem based features (voting, getting rewards, etc.) and can link a steem account to their existing VIMM channel later. I'm also happy to say we have plans to bring an easier way to create steem accounts for everyone, we just need to get the verification process hammered out before we move forward with this one.