I don't doubt it will take off anyway, though. As long as there is money involved, there will be those keeping the game alive and newcomers trying their luck. It is too bad it is just... nothing special?
I think it is important to attract people that also care about posting quality content. Otherwise we are just attracting gamblers who just seek to make a quick buck.
Yeah, but quality content must be paid for. It is not charity. You can't have quality content producers doing it for free. It is good when you use SteemIt for an extra buck on the side - which is what most of the people seem to do posting link to, say, their original content on YouTube, but I wouldn't ever consider publishing my own articles exclusively here. I get paid 150$ for them in magazines, but the chances of getting anything like that here any time soon seem quite low.
My point is, there has to be a good reward for quality content. SteemIt is not a good platform for that where if you don't have a following, you post will be down on the list forgotten in under two minutes.
Is it quality though? Thats the question you have to ask yourself.
Until there is more exposure, most quality content will remain in the shadows and the people who got in early will keep trending.
What do you mean, is it quality? Everything has quality, it is a question of degree. =)
But yes, quality or not, whales, as they call them here, will keep trending, and newcomers will stay in the shadows. Some will give up, some will hopefully persevere. I am planning to give it a couple of months before I consider writing more than short opinion pieces and summaries of academic articles. I mean, I personally want a bit more discussion going after putting hours into reading and summarizing an interesting academic paper. Seeing 5-10 views breaks my heart. Literally. =(
Yeap, I meant it in respect to the degree of quality which might be illusive.
I had the same feeling in the beginning. I would advice you not to waste your time. I spend countless hours in making detailed posts and I was getting pennies. Focus on commenting first, build a follow up and then write quality posts.