@venuspcs you and I started on steemit around the same time.   I believe we both started with steem power of 10.  
I have made 1326 posts (most comments, replies, etc) and I now have 625 steem power and I've been here almost a month.   I consider that a pretty good return.    I haven't landed the massive posts, that pay big payouts.   That is not solely why I am here.

You (whom I have been following since before following worked) have posted 558 posts on your @venuspcs account and yes you get a lot more votes than I do.  I am actually fine with that.  I up vote a lot of your stuff.   You have been on the trending page at least once, if not several times, and you've had multiple posts break $1000.   I think I cleared $300 on a post once.    Sure the majority of your posts don't make much.   ALL of them make something.   I have posts that I worked hard on that made $0.00, and I have many well below $1.    I am not complaining about that.  ***I am making something in a field of endeavor where previously I made nothing (reddit, forums, etc).***   So your description is not entirely accurate based upon the numbers.

Though I will continue to follow your work as I enjoy quite a bit of your stuff.

Ultimately how much someone else is making on their post is not my concern.   It is the fact that I do have the opportunity to make something.    A vote worth $0.00 means something to me.   A vote worth $0.01 means something to me.   A vote worth $100.00 certainly excites me and makes me happy.   Yet that is not what it is about.

If you look at how much you've made in a month with your now 4700 steem power, you asked us the other day if you should quit trucking.   If you continue to do that well, you probably safely could, yet that is still your decision.

I post a lot... that doesn't mean people view the quality of my posts as being worthy of votes and money.   I am long winded and opinionated.    So are you, but ***your posts are a hell of a lot more amusing and entertaining than mine.  :)   So I think you deserve more money than me.***   That is my opinion.    Guess what?   It is working you've gone from 10 steem power to 4700 steem power in the same time I've gone from 10 to 625.   Most of my earnings have been reinvested into steem power.   I didn't really dig to see if that is also the case with you.

I am pretty satisfied with the system except for the negative perception that a big flag/down vote can have on the perceived earnings of a person simply because someone disagreed.    I KNOW that the vast amount of the population will not understand that and it will be viewed as an attack.    I'd like to see the steem platform grow, and I'd like to see it crush reddit, youtube, etc and tons of other steem blockchain apps, sites, etc born.   It is  a revolutionary moment.    Yet perception DOES matter, so whether we think that people should be able to negate something and take perceived money away is acceptable or not DOES NOT change the perception of the masses.   We have some opportunities.   ***Do we leave it as it is and LIVE with that fact and take it as a mind changing, educational opportunity and just prepare for the "shit storm" (sorry was fitting) that will happen as more and more of the typical people join"?   Or do we do something to make it work yet head off some of those perceptions?***   It is kind of a catch-22.   If we educate people it will be harsh but would likely in the long term lead to a better world, if we "fix" it to promote PR better we grow the platform much faster yet we miss out on an educational mind awakening opportunity.

If the desire is to grow the platform fast then I'd say fix the issue with perception around funds.   If the desire is to long term make the world better and we are willing to wade through the flak and take a bit longer getting there then you could leave it as it is.

I do not advocate redistribution, or nerfing the reason to accumulate steem power.   Getting better payout is a big reason to increase steem power.   Increasing steem power locks the funds into the system and makes then much slower to get at (reduces liquidity) but also protects the system from being killed by people suddenly pulling all of their funds.   It makes it far more difficult for people to game the currency.

To vote or not to vote. It is "out of the frying pan into the fire".

Some quick comments:
A) Whales may simply opt to post with a different handle and upvote with their whale only. Many whales are already split among a few accounts.
B/C) IMO, vote count shouldn't even be displayed as it can easily be gamed with sybils. I can give something hundreds of upvotes just with my mining accounts.

I agree with D/E, though, they are problems!

> B. Any system where a post gets 100 up-votes and is still under $5 Payout is inherently flawed, IMHO. Just look at my Post History and you will understand why I say that. If there are that many people who like the content it should be paid a reasonable and fare rate. Which brings me to my next point.

This I've witnessed before.

>A. People shouldn't be allowed to Up-vote their own content, especially whales who can instantly push that content to the top of the /trending page in the category (tags) they posted it in.....AHEM! (Yes I am guilty of it myself so I am not a hypocrite)

How would you prevent shill voting?

>B. Any system where a post gets 100 up-votes and is still under $5 Payout is inherently flawed, IMHO. Just look at my Post History and you will understand why I say that. If there are that many people who like the content it should be paid a reasonable and fare rate. Which brings me to my next point.

How many of those votes are organic? 

I think you believe you deserve a larger payout for 100 upvotes, while I think that most of those votes come from bots and that it works as intended (bots shouldn't be able to give you $ without reading your post.). I know it cause, my bot (this account) has upvoted a lot of your stuff. **This is more a critique of the system than it is of your content.**  It sucks for you, cause it probably gives you a false impression of what you should be getting. 

I agree that the system might be flawed, maybe not for the same reasons. Content that will make the front page is just too easy to predict. Here's my trending page, I haven't upvoted a single of these posts manually, they were all upvoted by my bot - without it reading a single word:

<center> http://i.imgur.com/OT1Wi6Y.png) </center>

Its at a point where voting for what I believe is good content is probably not as good as letting my bot upvote what it deems will become popular. I would perform worse than my bot if I read everything on the site.

*I'm aware that I'm part of the problem, but it goes to show that the incentives aren't aligned properly.*

>C. The current structure of Steemit and especially the Voting system means that no matter how good or desired your content is, if you do not get Whale votes you do not make jack diddly squat for your efforts. I have over 50 Blog Posts with less than a $5 payout, most of them with a metric butt ton of votes. This leads to the next comment... 

I totally agree, but you made it to a lot of bots radars too, and probably get more visibility than most people.  




> As more and more whales get fatter and richer the minnows that are here are going to continue to grow disheartened and eventually leave. Additionally, any new members that arrive, with the hopes of making money on steemit are going to rapidly realize they don't stand a chance and move on as well. Without a constant influx of new users who contribute (and get a fair reward) new content steemit will not survive and will ultimately go the way of Digg/Slashdot in a few short years....if not sooner!

Are you proposing anything to solve those issues?  I'd personally love to see a mix of  @arcurus's visibility improvements ([here](https://steemit.com/steemit/@arcurus/tagging-and-flagging-hidden-by-a-whale-how-to-evolve-further)) and an incentivized downvoting system ([shameless plug](https://steemit.com/steemit/@owdy/scalability-content-quality-and-centralization-an-open-discussion-on-an-incentivized-downvote-system#@owdy/re-owdy-re-arcurus-re-owdy-re-williambanks-re-owdy-scalability-content-quality-and-centralization-an-open-discussion-on-an-incentivized-downvote-system-20160813t131602273z)).

I decided to stop posting for a while when i realized no matter how good is my content, bots are up voting other authors. If you are not in the up vote list you get nothing. Efforts don't get well rewarded. Only networking. And i don't like it.

Too much focus is on the dollar payout when what it's really about is the reputation, the Steem Power, the followers. People getting voted down for earning too much Steem Dollars on a particular post? What is it really about? It's about reputation and Steem Power which is long term commit to Steemit as a platform.

When you get a lot of votes from minnows what matters is whether or not these votes translate into followers. Over time the power of their votes could rise and you might not have to rely on votes from whales to get a decent sized payout in Steem Dollars. But on the same token, Steem Power is what you want to track to see whether it's being transferred from whales to everyone else.

There might be temporary marketing value in having dollar payouts on public display but I think we should have a debate on the merits of that UX feature.

I've only been here a week, but I have noticed exactly the same problems. And I've seen what you're predicting play out on other sites that were similar to this, where authors were rewarded for content. I cannot tell you how quickly things can go sour and how quality content creators will abandon a platform at the drop of a hat once they recognize the game. Yes - right now, this platform is turning into a game for everyone...minnows to whales.

>"Because of (C) there is a growing subculture in the Steemit Forums and Chat of Vote Swapping, Begging for Votes and so forth. Which sadly still leaves most posts not getting paid anything or very little....even the ones that are Quality Original Content and deserve to be rewarded."

This is indeed a sad situation. I have even engaged in the chats for hours to try to drive some people to my posts with very little luck. I spent several hours writing original content accompanied by original photos for a two-part story. After almost a full day of trying to get *any* attention for them - because I believe that they *are* good quality - I ended up with about $0.50 for two posts. There were whales in the chats - but I couldn't even get a response there, let alone on either post. I even asked for just feedback, screw the votes...still nothing.

When good writers are begging to be seen and posts that are just a collection of commercial-use photos with a few sparse words thrown in are getting $1000+ each, there's something wrong with the voting - or more accurately, with the "whale" voting. Good writers shouldn't have to repeatedly beg to be seen, especially when whales are there and are ignoring them.

>"As more and more whales get fatter and richer the minnows that are here are going to continue to grow disheartened and eventually leave."

They already do leave. It's just not noticed because of how many more people sign up...and will inevitably follow suit. Active users were around 6,000 for the past week. How many user accounts are there? Over 60,000? People are signing up and either doing nothing or have already left. If the whales/bots keep skewing the trending content and ignoring actual quality *original* content, and those quality contributors continue having to beg for attention, this site is going to be left with Buzzfeed-type clickbait with no substance and various "celebrity" cliques, who will eventually abandon the platform anyway once the rewards dry up.

As a famous little presidential candidate once said (and this is paraphrased) - you'll just hear a giant sucking sound. That'll be everyone leaving who once cared about this platform's success but were drowned out by people only concerned with playing the rewards game for quick cash. 

The whales have the largest share of responsibility for ensuring long-term viability of the platform and curating quality content, but from where I'm sitting, they're not currently living up to it. There are dolphins trying to help, but they seem to be getting continually undermined by the voting habits of the whales. The large power-downs might help, but it may not happen soon enough, especially while the whales still participate in their feedback loop of upvoting schemes (including their own posts/comments).