Thanks for the reply @elamental but I have done everything "by the book," my approach isn't the problem at all. When I publish a post, I promote it in Discord and Steem Chat. What I find in Discord particularly, is that people chat with others they know. I tried over and over NOT to just dump my links and leave, yet found my attempts at polite interaction ignored on Discord.

I'd stop in and say "hello, how's everybody doing?" Then, nothing. I'd jump in again and again (at the right times, careful not to intrude) to complete silence. Hours later I returned to see if anyone had responded, nope.

I'd see the same 20 people come in and chat with their friends. Many of them started in 2016, I felt like I was crashing a class reunion at times. When there was an opening where I might know a fact, I'd offer it to complete silence as they spoke to each other as if I wasn't there. I still remember the day I spent HOURS on a SteemMonsters brainstorming server putting out great ideas and trying again and again to get the attention of the moderator. My images were ignored, links and shoutouts to the host as well, while he only seemed to see the messages from his well-known friends. I even wondered if I was muted somehow and asked if anyone was seeing my messages. @isaria was the only one who noticed my attempts, but by then I was so disgusted I left the server. I had tried to chat in at least six different chats that day (no post promoting) with no response at all. These guys all know each other and it's like trying to join an exclusive club.

Steemit Chat is no better.

Staying the course

As far as giving up, I'm still here. Aside from using post promotion links, I also just generally comment on interesting posts. I don't leave "nice blog" type comments (take a look, they're real) I did a lot of homework before I joined Steemit last year and knew what not to do.

The 20 cents on my last post didn't bother me. The single comment on an important issue like domestic violence did. I was frankly shocked by the lack of engagement.

I know part of this is due to the low price of STEEM, but this was happening long before that. When I used an upvote service, it attracted Plankton who left comments but also angered some Whales. When I stopped, the Whales were happy, but it cost me in comments and upvotes.

I have noticed some traction lately on the MSP Discord server and plan to continue stopping by as they have some great hosts and guests on their audio chats.

So I guess the solution is these "curators" might want to look beyond their small circle of friends and find content creators that care about Steemit for the platform to grow. I have no plans to leave. When stuff like this happens, I just take a break and slow down my posting output. If they want people to "stop dropping your links in postpromotion and leaving" they might want to look beyond their circle of friends and open up their private clubs on Discord.