Pls see my comment below

The original and current ethos of steem, as proclaimed by ned is to put steem in the hands of everyone! That includes you, but the bear market has made it hard.. temporarily.

Which is ironic given that "decentralization" was supposedly the watchword, nay, the entire founding principle of the site.

> Also , curating is a full time job and much harder and more challenging than just posting,

Depends on what kind of posts you are producing ...
I am also doing both.

So steemit, in general, is only for wealthy people with real world cash to burn? Money taken
From their refrigerators and gas tanks to buy steem?
I for one, am a poor person, I came here because I had been posting on FB and Weebly for years
And getting not one red ¢ for my words, then I hear of this platform where I'd be
Paid for my efforts, and I was for a while and finally DID cash out a few months ago
(after 2 yrs of watching my account value drop drop drop) and I got $434 USD.
Finally.
Now, I can look forward to NEVER seeing my account value increasing.
Instead of being rewarded with Steem, I'm getting "tokens", and each new...I don't know 
What to call them, *Platformlets?* give me different tokens. 
Creativecoin gives me CCC, Palnet gives me PAL, Dtube gives me I don't know what,
And I don't see anyway to make them all mesh into anything coherent. Any unified
Value that I can see, understand and look forward to being able to USE for anything.
I've been plugging along making less that $2 per week (on average) for a very 
Long time, these changes are very likely going to make me LESS apt to continue
Posting my ORIGINAL CONTENT WORKS here.
Pity, as I see so many getting much larger rewards for things taken off the web, rephrased
By them so they can claim originality.

I'm hearing a lot of "these changes were necessary," with very little explanation of how they will help. Interspersed throughout, there was also a rather frank and casual admission that it was designed for the benefit of those who have thrown copious amounts of money at the platform, rather than those who, you know, actually generate the actual content of the site.
I can't help but be reminded of Soviet Officers insisting cutting rations was necessary for the "Greater Good" and would lead to "a bright future for the Union." You sling all the right buzzwords and offer nothing to back them up.

>if things stayed the same steem price would further decrease until there are no rewards.

So, the solution that those at the top came up with was for the top to rake in more money, which probably won't lead them investing into the platform with real-world dollars because they are raking it in, than those on the bottom, who might put in money to get steem but if your homeless like me and/or just flat out poor won't be putting money in. - Fine, That's all good but how about supporting us at the bottom with all of your riches? I like this idea.

> but now more with curation rewards means more people want to buy steem

Our voting power down here at the bottom is cut in half. This bonus curation you speak of only is going to matter if I can make 22 upvotes at 100% within the twenty-four period but it is set to only 11 upvotes at 100% in a twenty-four hour period. We at the bottom are going to make less for upvoting the small people we normally upvote. The only way now for us to make some decent coin through curation is to vote for those at the top!?! - I rarely upvote whales or read their stuff. I don't see them hanging around in these bottom pools either. How about more of them at the top support the quality groups that have formed so we don't all feel like we're getting fucked? (just a thought)

> i just bought 6,000 due to HF21

Awesome. Congrats. I'd like to take the time to point out again that I'm homeless. Could you help a brother out with some serious coin? I'd love to be able to eat high-quality food and get a place to live. I'd even like to go to the group I write with here and say, "Hey, guys, we can all eat and pay rent this month. Parties on me!" - If only I was ranking it in like the top...

> curating is a full time job and much harder and more challenging than just posting, I've been doing both for 2 and a half years and can testify to that!

True that! I've done a very little. Curating is very difficult. I'm amazed when I get a good curation from a person or read them on occasion on other peoples posts. However, I don't know about you, but I haven't seen too many people getting serious upvotes for their curation work, let alone if they get upvoted at all. From what I've seen and from my own habits, most people vote on the post itself, not the comments (curations) left down at the bottom. So, yeah, hurray for curating. 

> u simply have to keep posting and be patient

We, here at the bottom, were already making megger sums and now it will take about 3 times as long to grow while those at the top grow rather quickly no matter what they put out because they'll be able to get their $20 upvote and more. Right... - yeah, how about using some of that coin to support the established groups on this platform to ensure that you have writers that are willing to write for and on this platform. We really could use something to eat. It will help to keep our boney fingers moving. 

Pls see my comment below

Its true, but bear in mind that curators like myself put thousands and thousands of dollars (all my savings almost) into steem.. we have, temporarily, lost 10x on our investments and l have literally put my money where my mouth is.. and i am not complaining... im here for the long haul and believe in this great experiment! Patience is a virtue  my friend..