I know this is quite a controversial issue... but I'm interested in your opinion about those red fish that were once minnows or dolphins. Because lately I have met more and more of them, users with high reputation, but with empty wallet.
If someone powered down all his stake to sell at a good price, and now has become a red fish, is it worth supporting it? Perhaps this person is not interested in our community in other way than just money-making or we should give him/her another try?
There will always be a point in time when someone wants to effectively', 'retrieve their STEEM, power down and take it out'. Maybe these people feel that their time is over but they hang around because its hard to completely disconnect with the community.
I know I will power it down someday, but will I completely leave, who knows?
Indeed, it's hard to find another such a great community as we have here on Steemit. I tried:)
I might be one of those in the group you're mentioning here... after almost 2 years, I had to substantially power down because we were at risk of losing our home to property tax foreclosure and had to grab money from any and all sources we could find.
In my case, doesn't mean I don't still believe in Steem and intend to keep promoting it, going forward. In fact, I have probably been more active over the past three weeks than in a long time. And I certainly support efforts to help "build" both minnow and dolphins.
Perhaps you are right, everything is not as simple as it seems at first glance. People may have different reasons for doing it.
Who knows, maybe tomorrow I will also have to turn on the Power Down to pay utility bills... and I will find myself among the red fish in search of someone's support.
It's a personal choice to cash out. Some may need the money, but if they are still doing good stuff on Steem then they may be worth supporting. If they are just taking then probably not