I agree. I have been discouraged as of late, because it seems like everyone in my "community of friends" is up and leaving, and I feel left a bit high and dry over it, but I so want this place to work. I agree with the other comments as well about other countries who use this website to live. So many people are making money now that never had that opportunity before. It would be such a shame to pull the rug out from underneath all of those people. Cruel even. I will keep up my #fight4steem as long as I can. Though, I do hope some things change.

>...he would not accept money for this post..

What a point! This is so correct.

Nevertheless, @schattenjaeger  expressed quite some valid points but I don't support entirely abandoning here. 

I call for more policing of this platform by people of high wherewithal. 

Thanks for Always being the bastion of support for minnows. 

@eurogee

The tone is a bit dramatic that is for sure, but i think this recurring discussion about what and how to make Steemit better is important. I am not impressed with what I see in the trending section either - and like many in this comment section I just ignore it. But I do think it is a problem both for creators and investors.

I agree with you that money is and should be part of this. I am here to earn money from my art. But that doesn't mean that quality selection is not important. It would add another value to the network besides the working technology, and added value is a stronger Steem.

Maybe self-voting should never have been part of the algorithm? I have reinvested most of what I have earned here in SP, and I can give myself 2,5$ or so for every post, but even so I am willing to give that up if the actual quality of the site would be improved. (Just an example... probably not the fix that would end all problems :)

@surfyogi I'll burn the rewards. Burning is much better for the platform as a whole than just declining them.

Also, posts with declined rewards never get any attention from my experience. Unless you're a big user like @steemitblog, etc. they just get dismissed.