I think that the comparison to Digg fails upon the fact that unlike a server-regulated moderation power, anyone (with the money) can operate a whale sized account, and probably a very large number of users who have done adequately to moderately well as authors here have been stacking up their accumulated steem power.
I'm pretty sure that there is far more dolphins and orcas on Steem now than there was 6 months ago. There should be more - and will be. I ploughed a bunch of cash into my account and I have nearly doubled my influence. I don't know where this 'Steemit doesn't listen to us' prattle comes from. I hate to say it but it seems really infantile to me, and I see good and relevant posts come from @dantheman and others like @sneak and if you are in the right place in the chat you see stuff as well.
About the only thing I'd say is, since they built rocketchat, they should use it and ditch Slack. It's not elitism, simply people just don't see the big wigs often in chat. Even there my experience differs from whoever these whiney people are, when @ned pops in and hangs around, I was solicited for a skype chat with him way back, and at steemfest, Ned, Sneak and others were hobnobbing around like social butterflies, as they should being the guys who build this thing.
I just have to say again, that I see no comparison between Steem and any old school central server with a moderator hierachy and super-natural powers to rewrite history. I have watched several other discussion forums arise and eventually improde for one reason or another. In many cases it is caused by management. Steemit.com might have the veneer of management but they can't write whatever they want to the blockchain (aside from text) and have it be validated and certified. It's a whole world apart from this.
In my opinion some people just aren't happy unless they are stirring up shit.
Meanwhile, I return to a rare bout of casual curation as my favoured curator-wiz seems to be having a hiatus and my votes are going spare.
I should learn my lesson about getting involved in this kind of discussion, it's nearly more of a waste of time than talking to trolls - and the mythomaniacs and FUDsters that want to make it seem like there's a secret agenda that you are not in on and that it aims to take all your toys away from you. yawn
It's not a waste of time I promise you. We need more volume to voices like yours or the trolls end up sounding like consensus. I genuinely appreciate this comment a LOT!
In my opinion the people who talk up this kind of nonsense have a personality disorder called 'mythomania'. You know, the irony is that quite a few of them were slinging mud at TDV for his global-scale 'doom porn' yet in the next post they are talking up the doom of Steem because made up reasons.
Like you I have met personally most of the steemit.com developers, and such suspicion did not arise in me when I talked to them and watched the way they were socialising.
We are not living in the age of centralisation anymore. Steem to me marks the watershed of decentralised governance and these stupid people can do nothing but try to smear Steem with the completely irrelevant behaviour of closed camerillas of developers of a centralised website.
They may control @steemit and its very big steem power, but they are using it, I presume as judiciously as possible, to fund development. The bonanza that was the Ethereum pre-mine makes @steemit seem like a piss, and look how well Ethereum's little baby DAO went...
Nothing like this is happening here.
Anyway, this is why we have a voting system and flags, becauses of trolls, spammers, and the gaggle of all the other types of sociopathic morons hanging around looking for some way to get their kicks upsetting people. It's not a schoolyard and we all are in here voluntarily. I don't take into account these people whatsoever in my calculations of where I think Steem is going which is why I am and will always be powering up as much as I can. I believe in Steem or at least I believe Steem is going in the right direction.