Great post, im very much a minnow, only been on for a week or so. But agree 100% of the logic of it. Its good to be pushed to make the best content you can. Learn what works and what does not.

Thanks for being part of the good fight. Cheers!

Check out my new postings on a short film by the creators of Stranger Things
and another UFO short film:

https://steemit.com/stranger/@jchiogna/3hxanf-eaters-a-short-film-by-the-duffer-brothers-creators-of-stranger-things

https://steemit.com/ufo/@jchiogna/abducted-alien-abduction-ufo-short-film-by-rec-and-cut

Minnows make what they put in, it's as simple as that. I'm a minnow myself. I signed up a few days ago, and I've gone from 25 to 51 in reputation, gained about 30 Steem Power besides a small amount I bought, and just had a $200+ post. Three whales upvoted my post, which is why it went that high so soon. If I hadn't created content others found interesting or amusing, I would still be stuck where I started!!

Great points, I've thought this and for some reason haven't voiced my opinions...but thanks for sharing yours.

Yes I agree, everybody  has to grow. It's a challenge that all of us minnows has to face.

Excellent post! UPVOTED! Your analogy of Steemit as a company makes a lot of sense. As a minnow I am willing to work hard at improving my comments, posts and therefore my voting power! Actually it's fun!

So, if 1,000 minnows of 3SP each could outvote a 3,000SP voter, what incentive did that 3,000SP voter have to not simply create 1,000 accounts of 3SP?

How much time do you think you spend curating content each week?

Steamit is virtually a microcosm of the larger creative economy as a whole. If you want to make money, you have to put time, effort, and thought into everything you do. You also need to have a sense of humor to accept the mistakes you make and to laugh at the times when you get lucky.

First, no voting and commenting is not the best way to earn SP. Mining is far superior as far as I can tell. I've earned 4-5SP  through mining in the last few days, and maybe 1SP in the last week or two.

Second, the problem isn't that minnow votes are low powered... it's that they are value-less. I've seen posts upvoted into the double digits with no reward whatsoever, and posts with around 4 votes worth $20. Meanwhile a dolphin can vote on their own comment and earn money.

The other thing I'm noticing with comments is that people don't vote on them. I comment far, far more than I write and have gotten a few upvotes... but I've gotten more people actually replying and saying "good comment" or similar who did not upvote.  I realize the algorithm was changed to put more emphasis on comments but that doesn't seem to be working when people don't vote on comments...

And still the major problem is that this creates a strong motivation to vote for what you think whales will like, rather than what you like. There's a strong anarchist population here, for instance, so voting anarchy stuff is a better bet than voting for anything "statist" or even things about current politics. That may sound fine to you, but if we actually want the platform to go mainstream we're not going to draw people in as a 24/7 anarchy platform. People with other political beliefs need to be able to meaningfully upvote quality posts supporting their viewpoint as well, especially for Steemit to go mainstream.

This probably should be more coherent but I should have been asleep an hour ago. :(

You make some good points.  This is a complex issue though and there is no way you will ever be able to make everyone happy.  That's why things need to keep gradually being tweaked to arrive at the best system we can have through slow iteration.