Holy crap this was such a beautiful deep dive for me on a personal level but I sort of want 5-10minutes of my life back from reading some of that lol there needs to be audio form for this text so I can 1.5-2x speed to understand faster.
From my little time here both of what you and @acidyo says resonates with me on many unique levels... I personally have this "VIP" membership and as I learned more about it and the process I too became against such things, but I'm not able to sell it or just risk losing all value as the owner or someone can just buy 1 piece leaving the entire empty. Although even then I don't make posts even with trails after me.
I think a huge issue with this I do disagree with though is I don't like the idea of curation "businesses" vs non... I think that is a huge oh us against the government type of thing and that just feels rather ignorant on both parties. For example I for one always stand up for my beliefs against all odds at times if I have to, but I always try to think objectively and subjectively. There are great curation projects/"businesses" and there are bad ones what determines that to me is their core principles and how they choose to execute such processes...
"What does it matter how much time you spend on posts if no one reads them?" I'm rather disturbed and upset at this particular text from you, acidyo... because although quite guilty of sometimes using these metrics to validate myself I too had to ask myself why do I do what I do sometimes and does what I am fighting for matter, but in end of the day YES. We shouldn't write because we feel it should get upvotes or people should read them, but as a way to express ourselves and grow within our own understanding and expression of ourselves. Those that mind don't matter, and those that matter don't mind. Your posts will end up reaching your target audience regardless of trails or not if your efforts are there and I genuinely and truly believe that.
Sure there are a lot of dark and abusive situations out there, but it is about collectively understanding one another's ideals and theories and formulating win-win situations out of it. @nathanpieters ... wow I'm sorry for whoever hurt you... but simplifying waifu and classifying it as simply japanese culture is simply not true it is more of a fandom type thing that started out with mangas and anime sure but just as that concept evolved so should we as a hive COMMUNITY. Being a racist in order to fight racism and oppression isn't a sound solution... I'm also not sure why people have to be so offended and give defense vs an "alpha" or "beta" male... News flash alpha's don't refer to other's as betas nor need to defend themselves to such regards... They just act in ways that are congruent to them and lead through their ACTIONS and WORDS. (I say this last part with great heart as I have reflected on this subject quite a bit and have been guilty of both sides)
I think the duality of human beings and that of this hive ecosystem is truly intriguing... I think both you @felixxx and @acidyo have great minds/personalities and seeing this childish back and forth was a bit disheartening... I wonder if a lot of the curation projects are just vanity projects or truly ones of substance, but I've been here too short of a time to have any opinions on this in either direction...
Any ways the only salty thing here should be !PIZZA hope you all have a wonderful day as this may have been a TLDR by most of you, but I felt compelled to write it and express myself so I did.