Downvotes are part of curation, unfortunately some people misuse them. I believe if content discovery tools were better than perhaps more of the community could take part in that curation and there fore it would find a balance/consensus.
But yes you’re right, posts about the site are good imo, I just would like to see more incentive for people to want to bring outside eyes in.
Part of the problem is, I think some people write and think : "If I post it, they will come." Without considering the twin importance of getting the word out about what you just published.
All of my posts get exposure on my Twitter account, where I also share posts from our tribe.
Case in point. Six months ago, concerned about the glut of low-effort posts, I put in a week of research and wrote this article about fire safety:
Life is Precious #6 - The Station Nightclub Fire
I wanted to spark a discussion about the issue, but nothing happened. I look over on trending, some guy posted a picture of a sandwich, with tons of comments.
If you watch, you can see different regions come online at certain times of the day. In the mornings, I can see Brazil posting, other times, India etc. So maybe I didn't publish at an optimal moment.
So I decided to go out and find like-minded people talking about crap posts by using the search box on Steemit and looking through the uploads on my feed.
Yes, it took some work, but soon some comments started coming in, and that's all I wanted. If you're going to put the effort in on these epic posts, you want them to be seen.
I wanted people to know, that the type of foam bedding and furniture commonly sold in stores, can actually cause you to quickly pass out at the start of a fire, which is why so many people are overcome before they can escape.