ah dude i know exactly what you mean. I like to use the phrase "wading through the shitposts" as that was 90% of my steemit browsing time! The last month or so though i've found a fair few creative tags that actually have decent content coming from them. I'm not sure of your interests but heres a few worth checking out @steemmakers @slothicorn @howtoweekly. and also a couple people off the top of my head that regularly post good content @armadilloman @docsmith. If you arent into arty/creative things they may not be for you. I really hope steemit sorts out the voting bot madness as well as the fucking spam it makes it a crappy site and like you said i'm always too embaressed to suggest it to friends in its current form