100% agree! There needs to be big change here for it to make it. Abuse and bots I believe are the big problems.
First I think bots need to go and be replaced with real people that curate quality content. There are people here that I know you could delegate your SP to that do well at curating and up voting good quality content. Delegate to a curator and watch how he does if he slacks off or up votes content you don't like undelegate your SP and find someone that does a good job. Whales should be looking for quality content and up voting the good people and not making bots and letting shit post be bought. We could maybe have only one bot and a content creator could be put on a list that gets auto voted on as long as they are producing good content. They get removed from the bot if they start abusing with shit post/content. Once a creator has grown to a certain limit that they can help grow their own communities they are removed from the list. Steemvoter is a good program I believe but there has to be a limit of like 3-5 votes per day. I use steemvoter myself but only on people I know i will watch and are quality. If i cant be on steem its nice to know that the people i really want to support are still supported if i take vacation or can't make it on. People will have to choose their favorites since it would be very limited. Spam\plagiarism bots are a good thing. I like cheetah for instance.
One other problem I see also is there is bickering between some curators and creators. I have seen many people complaining about curators and that they need to go away. Many of these same people that say this don't bother to up vote on any of the comments on their own post. Voting on the comments and the people that are regular voters of your content will help you grow. When you up vote those people that follow you they gain a little power that they use on you the next week to grow your content. Its like a big circle it should start at top and trickle down. At this point it seems that content creators think they are everything. Creators don't believe that the people that sit and read for hours looking for quality content to up vote are contributing anything. The people that watch, read, comment, and vote are also important. I don't think creators have 3 or 4 hours a day to sit and dig through the crap and find quality to reward. Everyone has a job here on steem. The shitty content creator does not need upvotes. The curator that just logs on and upvotes a few random posts and says great video on a few random videos don't need upvoted.
I am not sure on how to fix the abuse though I have not put enough thought about that subject. I had thought about a payment limit per day possibly but there are a few issues with that one being gofundme type posts. I am not putting a bunch of money into this system until things are fixed. I have been on steemit for a bit over a month now and when i joined I super excited until I dug a little and seen the problems and was turned off right away from putting my money into it. Its a great platform has great potential but as a outsider coming into it its scary. I believe most people that come and see the abuse and bots are instantly turned away. Like you said its a bunch shit most times on trending and such. Does anyone think that a good first impression of steemit is coming to the site the first time and see bots and shitty content on the top?
I need to get going its lunch time! Sorry if its abrupt end! Probably alot of errors and such hope this is readable. Have a great day!