Replying to your comment below
The system is more than the code. It's more than the blockchain.
It's the people in it.
That's all well and good, but people don't agree. I enjoyed @msgivings' content, don't care about the identity or business dealings of the writer, and didn't find it to be 'abusing the system' at all.
IMO, the bloggers who were jealous of her success, and probably a few malicious trolls who saw an opportunity to join a cyberlynching, engaged in a witch hunt and in doing so drove away content that I not only personally enjoyed but sincerely believe added value to the platform (as evidenced by the obviously high readership of her posts and extensive comment streams, exclusive even of comments accusing her of impropriety).
I consider that to be the real abuse. I, and I suspect others, will be taking a harder line against this sort of hostility and harassment, as evidenced by my downvote of @stellabelle's post (I was the first to do so). As you say, the system includes the people but the standards of desirable and acceptable behavior defined by the people are not fixed, they evolve and are evolving.
Yeah we're on the same page here and just seeing different words.
Is it fair to a farmer when a grocery store opens up in town?
Is it fair to the owner of the local grocery store when Walmart moves in?
Frankly I thought that most of msgiving's posts sucked, but I dealt with that by abstaining from upvoting her stuff and just staying quiet in general. I may have been in the minority there, but it doesn't matter. However she did have a couple of really good posts too.
She also had a bunch I missed, but in retrospect I would have at least commented on. Part of the problem here may well be that content has a 24hr fresh period and 30 day curing period. Beyond this point there is no way to monetize your content.
So for instance, if an aspiring author wants to come to the platform and post their stuff and gradually build a solid following, all of their efforts on their old content is wasted.
They can't be rewarded beyond that 30 day period. This means that the system is encouraging shock or trendy content. As opposed to high quality content with real lasting value.
This is systemic though and not anyone's fault.
I think what msgivings did was a stroke of genius, she got what she earned.
Some people got their feelings hurt in the process though.