When I first found Steem 'Proof of brain' was what most attracted me and helped me attract others to this place. In my year and a half here I have tried to be true to the vision of how I thought the system should work as advertised, creating what i think is good content and upvoting others who I think also produce work that is of value.

I have never used a bid bot or set autovotes to other people. I want my success or failure to be based on merit, being a real human and manually curating. All of this is recorded on the blockchain for all to see. There are many users here doing the same and they are the ones I try and support.

I agree with what you say, that the system is broken the way it is and the automation of voting is, for me the biggest culprit. It has taken the 'social' out of the 'social media'. Making the place pay to play and scaring off many amazing creators.

Even though it has been pretty hard going I am in for the long hall. The lack of readers on my posts doesn't make me want to leave but it does make me check out other platforms like Whaleshares , a platform that seems to care about content and it is there that I will be sending other content creators to in the future. Sorry Steem

I do see @therealwolf 's side of the argument but in the long term it is creating a centralised power on how the rewards are getting distributed that will slowly but surely reduce to nothing for all involved.