I really think Steemit needs to evolve the way the community participates with one another. Having multiple rankings for accounts will be the next step.
- Ratings based on contributions to areas of interest as a forum leader/regular will ensure the quality of content improves.
- Regular participation with your audience or with authors will build a stronger community.
- Restrict user-to-user votes/rewards so that people with multiple accounts and/or bots can't create a circle-jerk of undeserved, biased upvoting/rewards.
Just my opinion on this issue you've pointed out. Your frustrations are definitely valid.
Interesting thoughts @digitaldruid! Have you put these ideas into a post? It would be great to see what other people think of these kinds of restrictions. It's hard to know what solutions would be most effective, but we know things can't carry on as they are and end up in a good place! Thank you for this :-)