Hey Sam - Ya the environment on Steemit is different because I think it attracts a certain type of person.. but its not yet at the point where it attracts the average person. Its easy to forget about the power of social media to engage the masses.

I don't like to get too political but Steemit has always been a paid platform - in its current version you essentially have to pay bots to get your post noticed - you do get most of your money back doing this but unless you are hitting trending everyday you are never going to get the extra votes to make up for any drift in the payout..

This version of Steemit is fun when it works - but it looks like the future is in outside applications built on the Steem chain.. perhaps there will be a "writing community coin"..

I look at the reward pool as a game of social mining.. some people use it for what it was meant for some don't.. I don't care who makes the money but the best content should be at the top of the trending section not the guy who paid the most for bots (I've done it myself). Unfortunately dollar value is the current way content is ranked - hopefully future hard forks address it!