The price run from spring/summer '17 is what I was referring to and the point of the experiment *was* to simulate a linear reward curve **in order to entice people to vest/power up**, which is why it was a success and what makes me think that steem blowing up from 6 cents was due to that *simulation*. 

Of course! I just hate i caught it 6 days later
 My bad.

Thanks for your thoughtful response @remlaps.

We are being herded like cattle to use Steemit as a blogging platform exclusively. 
This is the least interesting use for the blockchain imho.
The reason they want this is obvious, if it is just a blogging platform and is the only way value is created they can sell the false notion of ''over valuation''

The most interesting use for Steem imho is real world community projects where we can reward people for actions taken in the real world. For that to occur we need to change some things.

Change the way the top twenty witnesses are selected. Stake based witness selection is clearly not working. I could go into a long rant with that one.
and remove flags altogether just for starters.  

This place is way more powerful than just a place to blog. 

and as far as flags being primarily about posts being over rewarded, why is every comment I make flagged ? it is clearly not about the large rewards I recieve!

In fact I have been told by several people that i am on ''THE LIST'' not to receive any rewards. The fact that their is actually a list that people obediently follow should tip people off that there is a Chain of Command operating here which has it own agenda

# Slippery Slope: 
That grey area concerns me. 

# Intellectual Theft? 
Also, the desire to require people to pay for what might be intellectual theft is dangerous. 

# Disney Theft 
For example, allegedly, according to a book, it is said that Walt Disney stole art from his business partner around the 1920's or so. Walt went on to copyright, to patent, his work. 

# Dangerous 
So, I say that to say that some of these things can be dangerous. 

# Weird Al Robbery 
Now, Weird Al would make parodies of famous songs. He has said that he doesn't even have to ask people for permission. Now, he says he does out of courtesy. But he is right that he doesn't have to.

# Google Wars
But, currently, YouTube (Google) and others have been attacking people who have made parodies themselves (and other things as well).

# Fair Use Act 
Parodies and other things may in fact be completely or partly protected under the Fair Use Act in American law for example (depending on the piece, video, details, etc). 

# I Lost Thousands of Videos 
Google terminated three of my YouTube channels which means I lost thousands of videos which goes back to 1996. 

# Copyright 
Copyright can be tough to enforce. 

# Selective Enforcement 
What is worse is when copyright is selectively enforced. Sometimes, in life, one person will come up with what he or she may think is an original idea. Plagiarism is a tricky debate. It is more than a subject and more a subjective war between what might be recycled, reused, stolen, echoed, parodied, and Epstein didn't kill himself. 

# Nothing New Under Dee Sun? 
King Solomon said that there is nothing new under sun around three thousand years ago. For example, if I ask you, "HOW ARE YOU?" Then what? How dare you says Greta, just kidding.

# How Are You?
Is the adaptation or the reusing of idioms, common phrases, etc, then theft, etc? Can I ask you how you are? Am I not stealing that phrase? Should I give credit to whoever first said "How are you?" Because other people asked that question. Maybe that is an exception to the rule. But we can debate these types of things all day. 

# Speeches
Like speeches for example. Like songs that talk about love. And then you have another song that talks about love as well. 

# Star Wars & Star Trek Spam? 
Then you have JJ Abrams who might be recycling some of his own ideas or that of other people as he did Star Trek and as he is doing Star Wars right now. 

# Piracy? 
Pirated videos may or may not be a crime. The actual process of getting it in the first place for example might be a crime, some might say. However, watching pirated videos shouldn't be a crime or isn't, technically. Also, the 4th amendment (privacy) is being violated.

# Connecting Dots
But I digress. I see connections and similarities between many different things. I'm connecting dots. I'm going down original oatmeal rabbit trails. So, I say that to say that people may steal things from other people. Sometimes, it is accidental. 

# Purposely, Maliciously? 
Now, it can be tough to prove when intellectual property is stolen on purpose, perhaps maliciously even.

# Being Sued 
A person, later on, may still get sued or attacked for allegedly stealing the ideas from other people. Some of this can be way too subjective. 

# Invisible Lines
The subjective line between what might be new and what might be not new is so vague like you said. 

# Compensate 
It is nice when people can pay people for helping. 

# Generosity 
So, if you helped me, then I should send you some money. True. Perhaps. I should not be required. But that would be generous of me. 

# Money
However, money is not the only kind of money, by the way. Time is money. Good publicity has value as well. Cryptocurrencies has value as well. Gold has value. Salt was used as money centuries ago. So many things can be used as currency. Marketing is valuable. The list goes on and on.

# Make Government Smaller
People should try to link to their sources and pay them some money as well, perhaps. That would be nice. However, these things should not be required by federal or international laws. Local laws (for example), maybe in some cases to some extent. But for the most part, federally and globally, I prefer smaller government. So, copyrights, patents, trademarks, etc, can be better enforced/etc as government grows bigger and bigger in a pursuit to keep people allegedly safe through the means of stealing freedom from humans. 

# Conclusion
So, I agree with you that people should try their best to credit people as much as possible, verbally and financially. So, both is good. In some cases, financial compensation may be earned, collected, gathered, etc, directly and indirectly via verbal citation as marketing has value for example.