@marekkaminski thank you so so much for going against the norm and pointing this out! I agree.
We can either focus on community or grab at society's desire to make money and I do believe the money is the lesser of the two methods as well.
Unfortunately, when it comes to new user acquisition, the 'community pitch' doesn't work today as there is already widespread adoption of facebook, youtube, insta, snapchat, twitter, reddit, linkedin, etc. all of which have thriving communities.
At the moment, money is Steemit Inc's USP as seen in their call to action.
I remember the first time I saw this, I closed the tab. It wasn't effective.
The question that my partner and I struggled with when designing this event was, "How do we get 45,000 students to sign up for SteemUCLA?" which is basically a single steemit post designed to be an ongoing thread that introduces Steemit to these students.
Zuckerberg was a semi-celibrity on his campus due to "Hot or Not" before he launched The Facebook. With zero influence on UCLA's campus (I went to school in NY), I couldn't come up with a solution that didn't involve money.
I love your care for the community and thought process! What are your thoughts so far?
-Rob