Rewarding short form posts is another experiment. The community will decide whether that adds value to the platform.
Isn't that what the community is doing now? I would think that creating a group to specifically reward short-form content because it's not being rewarded by the community is the opposite of this.
We don't need to solve problems that don't exist. The problem is not that links, images, reblogs, and three-sentence posts aren't being rewarded enough. The problem is that the site is poorly developed for that type of content sharing. I'm curious to know - what exactly is the problem that this new experiment will solve, other than a perceived rewards distribution issue?
I see hundreds of short form posts every single day being ignored, generating no comments, and the authors eventually leaving the platform. Pretty simple problem. I don't know the solution to generating discussion and engagement, but I'm interested in seeing if this new project helps.
Three months ago, the same was true of original content - only a handful were being rewarded. There are several curation efforts today organized around promoting long form content - that problem has been solved.
I see plenty of long form posts every single day being ignored as well. Maybe the problem isn't the length of the posts? Maybe it has more to do with the UI features and the limited distribution of vests on the platform?
I happen to think you're trying to solve a very large problem with the wrong solutions. Instead of focusing on rewards, we need to focus on development. I have been guilty of this too, but it's time that we wake up and realize that this platform isn't attracting and retaining users - and it has little to do with the length of posts or the amount of rewards they get. It has to do with features/functionality and engagement. The latter isn't happening much because the former is terrible...and not enough people want to use this site. That's the problem. Let's get that resolved first, then see what happens.
Sharing my experience as a full time curator, there's a far greater proportion of ignored short form posts. For every long form post I curate, there are at least five short form posts I have to pass on simply because the curation guild I work with focuses on long form posts. It is as simple as that. I have seen authors writing short form content / sharing their thoughts linking to non-original content leave the platform and head back to Reddit etc.
There's no one solution to any problem. I'm sure the Steemit Inc team is hard at work developing the website. Meanwhile, the community will do its little bit to help. There needs to be different, varied efforts from different perspectives - that's how an experiment succeeds.
I completely understand you're not keen on this project, and that's just fine. I'm sure you have your own solutions - we have to work together. We shall see if it is successful like the long form curation projects have proven to be.