There's a lot of good content that doesn't get upvoted. Reasons for that include that the poster is relatively unknown (and perhaps, not yet 'trusted' by the community). Or it may be in a category (tag) that few people check regularly or are interested in. Sadly, there are some deserving posts that just fall through the cracks, since the platform has added users so quickly.
Whales still allocate much of the money on votes, but in the time that I've been on Steemit, things have really broadened. A lot of people have enough SP now to make a difference in a post's voting rewards. But until that process continues for a while longer until there is more equity in distribution, yes, you are going to see a small group of whales continue to try hard to reach all the deserving posts, while not getting all of them. And there is no conspiracy here; they are free to allocate their votes as they wish. Some days, this may mean that a lot of good newbie posts are getting their upvotes, while on other days it is the most popular posters who seem to get most of the rewards again, partly since the whales know that these posters have committed to the platform, are consistently producing high quality content that will add to Steemit's value, and deserve an income for their part in that. Other whales are simply trying to spot the most popular posts, like many others do, because they want to make more money.
So I appreciate the contribution you have made to this discussion with your post, and I would have upvoted it gladly, but I find the title to be misleading in that a number of other whales (besides the Bernie Sanders account) are trying hard to reach deserving posters and make this a better place. Not all whales are doing this, but some certainly are.
Thank you for your comment @donkeypong, I appreciate it. No matter the upvote or not :)
I do understand that the title might feel misleading, but it did what I hoped for (and it's still at least half true in my opinion). At least when it comes to you. It did reach some of the people I was looking for and you are one of them. I also understand that there's a bunch of whales, dolphins and minnows who are digging around steemit regularly to find quality content from new contributors instead of upvoting content from the same authors multiple times per day.. But, I didn't know what to write in the title so I could catch the eyeballs I was hoping for. Anyhow, both @berniesanders and @dantheman are two of the people I know are doing the things I've talked about in this post.. They are trying to find some of these "gems" out there and I've also stated that I know there's other whales doing the same things.
With that being said, sorry for not using a better title but thank you for your awesome reply in this post. It means a lot to me and hopefully others will see the value too.
"poster is relatively unknown (and perhaps, not yet 'trusted' by the community"
A poster shouldn't have to be known to get upvoted. Good content is good content. If a whale sees good content they should give it a vote.
I agree with you. But that's also one of the problems.. Some of the whales aren't looking for new content or new authors.. They upvote the people who's already established and well-known.. Some whales are doing the digging but as it seems to be right now.. That isn't enough.
**There's a lot of good content that doesn't get upvoted. Reasons for that include that the poster is relatively unknown (and perhaps, not yet 'trusted' by the community). **
Yes. but.....
This post is in the top
And Part.2 - far better but 8 upvote only
https://steemit.com/steemit/@konti/steemit-art-steemit-wallpapers https://steemit.com/steemit/@konti/steemit-art-steemit-wallpapers-creative-design-part-2
I'm not sure why that's the case. It may be that people were intrigued by the first post, which was really something new, and they wanted to reward you. Some may have even looked back and decided that your payout was enough already and wanted to save their upvotes for someone else (?) I'm just guessing. Also, 2-part (or multi-part) posts have a very sketchy track record on Steemit from what I have observed. With some exceptions, the later parts don't generally do as well. I'd suggest using a totally separate title the second time unless it is necessary to point out the continuation. And in the end, you just have to keep trying new and different things, because regardless of what I say, the truth is that we're all still learning what works and what doesn't. :)