RE: Why Steemit Probably Won't Replace Facebook
Yes automating too much will just give us youtubes shit they have now, we have a nice mix of humans here they just need the tech.
On a simpler level interfaces can change how people thing so a like button would vastly increase the value of the vote button, likes for crap and votes for real things, if likes out weigh votes by 50% then votes get reduced by 50% currently that would be flagging it down to the right worth.
on a tech level maybe even a good metadata reader to start with or some kind of binary signature that files get tagged with so if the file is 90% match they are duplicates in a sense , so that even if you voted on them the system will diminish the vote amount.
Comments though must either not be monetized or be but at far less than a post.
I like the storing posts that are similar as edits, like codepen.
I've said that the interface needs a like button as well, for new users especially. We often want to like something, but not necessarily increase the earnings for it.
I'm not certain about it diminishing the rewards though. Perhaps to a lesser degree than you suggested.
There are a lot of different ways that sites could go. I look forward to the future. It might be that we have dozens of smaller Steem based communities that each have their own sites. Some of them may be running on forks, while others are on the Steem blockchain, and even some of those may be on the blockchain, but separated.
I upvote comments to encourage them. Possibly occasionally more than I should. I have a different scale for good comments than good posts though. I think contributing to a post through comments is very important. I'm not certain the rewards should be reduced, even though some people abuse the system. I instead prefer reducing rewards for people that vote for the same people.