It's fair to say this has been tried before, but the landscape now is much different than it was two years ago. If this was explained to every single active user on the platform back then, it would be a small percentage of users now. There are plenty of people commenting and supporting @haejin's posts without realizing anything about what you're describing. These are things which have to be repeated over and over again. It's tiresome, but I do think it can work. If we don't at least try to enforce community norms through continued education and communication, we risk <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternal_September">an Eternal September</a>. Maybe that's already what we have.

> little to nothing to add value to STEEM
> with little or nothing to show for it

This may be controversial to say, but if the view counts aren't manipulated, the number of views @haejin's posts get are quite impressive and may contain the perfect demographic to increase the value of the STEEM token: cryptocurrency investors and speculators.

I'm not defending @haejin's flagging actions or @ranchorelaxo's lack of communication and disregard for the community desire for explanation, I'm just saying an argument can be made for some form of value creation here, and I think we'd all do well by discussing it.

That said, I agree, they could (and probably would) just create new accounts to repeat the process. It's part of the fight we continue to fight in order to protect what we value. That's the work we put in. That's part of proof of brain.

I appreciate what you mean as far as not doing the same thing an expecting diffrent results, but I also recognize that you _aren't_ doing what I'm talking about. You are active in comments, which is fantastic, but your blog is mostly empty with tests and burn posts for the last two years. You have a strong voice here, but you're not using it in the way I'm describing. You post very little. What could change if you posted more often explaining your views (which, to me, are always very intelligent and well thought out)?

> Long-term rational self-interest at the moment

"Long-term" means not thinking just in terms of "at the moment." I get what you're saying, but again, reputation and identity matters. That means people who extract now may be limited in what returns they can gain in the future. Maybe that's a problem in terms of a lack of true identity management around here.

I never did like curation guilds, but I do think linear rewards fixed some problems (some people actually see rewards when before they saw none) while creating new ones.

> they currently do not.

This is where factual claims regarding future time-scales are difficult. We can't know _for sure_ what will happen 5 to 10 years from now ("long-term") so all we can discuss is our opinions using rationalizing and some data thrown in where we can find it. It's probabilistic stuff.

2M USD/year is a LOT of money. If STEEM goes to $20+ each _if they acted differently and contributed to that increase_, that's also a lot of money. Again, thinking in terms of 5 to 10 years (or maybe even less than that), $2M a year at $3.50 per STEEM doesn't seem so amazing anymore (compared to other possibilities).

> The most likely solutions I see that would probably work are:

Now we're getting somewhere! Can you do a root post on them? That, I think, is part of what is needed more around here. Stake holders, witnesses, and engaged community members discussing these ideas again and again and again. When it comes to leadership and vision casting, the ideas need to be repeated so often that everyone is sick of hearing about them and then, only then, are we just starting to get the saturation needed for it to change the way people think and act.

I have some more thoughts on your proposed solutions, but I really would love to see these discussed at a root level so more people will engage with them.

I know I'm calling you out here and expecting a lot in terms action on your behalf (more regular root posts about your ideas), but I do think your ideas are really valuable to the community and worth sharing. If you have concerns about rocking the boat and how that might impact your witness position, I get that also, and it's a valid concern. I hope you'll push forward with more communication anyway.