@timcliff, I appreciate the kind words.

I do have my punch list of things I look for, or more specifically, what I avoid or what I refuse to upvote under most circumstances.

For instance, in almost every case, I will not go near self-help posts. After sifting through so many of them, my impression is most self help posts have no unique viewpoint or unique insight which has not been covered in a previous article.

I have a host of other things in my punch list which comes from both my moderate success here as a writer and as a curator, but I think there is a "flow" to something that's written well. It generally doesn't matter what the topic is about. I was talking to @luzcypher about that a couple of weeks ago. He mentioned the same thing holds true in songwriting as well.

The good news is there are many more curators with a whole lot more STEEM power than I have who curate differently and it makes for a great ecosystem when it works properly.