A friend told me the difference between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. While extrinsic (money & fame) motivators are attractive and will lead you to do things you don't normally do, it's not sustainable. Intrinsic (passion) motivators will allow for consistency - an important thing to have when you're in it for the long term.
Assuming that Steemit will last for a considerable amount of time and that the passionate creators remember that their worth isn't tied to the number of upvotes they get, they will stay.
But then again, the chances of these assumptions happening at the same time is low. But like you, I'll hold on to that little glimmer of hope.
It's still early days. Content creators should absolutely stay and build their audience on Steem.
I'm glad I was able to join steemit when the value of both steem and steem dollars were below $1 USD. That way, I was able to observe how steemians behave in both situations.
I always motivate my fellow steemians to always make quality contents regardless of the payout. But I sometimes feel down when I see those drama in the trending page. I'm somewhat disgusted to see that those who are supposed to set examples due to their reputations and SPs are those who abused their power.
Like @thegaillery and @legendarryll, I still have that glimmer of hope that those who make quality contents will stay in the platform. In @bycoleman's words, as long as quality contents are sorted, curated, and well-compensated, Steemit will grow and thrive. I still have hope that others will follow the example set by Curie.
Let's just hope for the best and cross fingers that the Tragedy of the Commons will not totally engulf Steemit as it did in the real world.
Ahh! The Tragedy of the Commons. I really hope not!
Building your audience seems like a good goal to tie your Steem efforts to.
Adding to this, research shows that giving people money as a reward for volunteer work is dangerous because they tend to forget their intrinsic motivation. And the extrinsic motivation will usually be too small to motivate them, unless it's worth a full salary.
This is interesting, @edb. I'd like to observe how this affects people around me, too.