It is a shame to find out that this kind of activity is happening on Steemit. I thought that I was becoming involved with a group that was about the manipulation that i have seen on Reddit and others.
I know that there is always going to be a way to work the system, but this is just unfair and buries the new new guys before they can get started.
With that being said , I think the 7 day reward window is to short for individuals that want to build long term relevant materials. What about the fact that the material could be found later and keep finding new audience members. What if the information is seasonal and comes back around to relevance each year?
These encourages short windowed articles that are thin in content.