The most common criticism I hear about Curie is...

Curie "just" gives authors a big upvote and then "abandons" them.

The inference is that it doesn't give them a community, work with them one on one to help them learn how to improve their posting, mentor them on the ins and outs of the blockchain, etc. The funny thing about that... let's poll the minnows here, shall we?

Hey minnows!

Is there a shortage of communities you can join here? Any shortages of Discord groups you can join that will help you learn to post better or teach you about the intricacies of Steem blockchain? Any shortage of communities on almost every conceivable posting subject out there?

Now... is there a shortage of huge accounts willing to give you a huge upvote without making you jump through hoops or pay for it? Is there a shortage of accounts with huge votes that are upvoting good content just because it is good content?

The answers to these questions are clear.

There are tons and tons of communities here and pretty much none of them give out $100+ upvotes to their members. DTube and Utopian.io are obvious exceptions, but are also obviously focused on very narrow ranges of posting (video content and open source contributions, respectively).

For just an average blogger or social media user who has read the advertisements that STINC continues to put out there, saying that this is a place where you can be paid for posting, the truth when they come here is that groups like Curie and OCD are the only realistic chance of getting a big upvote. This is the reality - and it is reflected in the staggering user churn rate of 120% experienced by Steem in Q1 of 2018 (see Hive account@paulag's post here). If that figure doesn't alarm you or give you pause as to the long term future of Steem, it should. It doesn't matter how many new users sign up, if more users are dropping off because of the frustrations of life on what is rapidly becoming a pay-to-play platform than are joining... it is bad news.

Now lets talk about value added to the platform.

How many people are talking to friends and family that are not on Steem platform yet about the awesome Discord community they joined? Versus how many people talk to friends and family about the USD $200+ upvote they received just for posting a song or artwork or story that they would have posted for free in the past on Facebook or a personal blog?

Every single large Curie upvote is an advertisement for Steem

An advertisement that reaches a large group of people who are not currently on Steem blockchain. This advertisement for Steem is delivered by a voice these people trust - by a friend or family member excitedly talking about the large (in some parts of the world, REALLY large) payout they just received on a post. I can practically guarantee you that every single person who has ever received a big Curie upvote has told their friends and family about it. I certainly wouldn't shut up about it when I got my first Curie.

This form of advertisement is by far the most effective way to get people to join the platform. STINC knows it, that is why they still use this line of attack in their advertisements when the reality of the platform has shifted so far away from rewarding quality content (hello bidbots!!!). But unlike STINC, which has done nothing to adjust the algorithm on the trending page to remove paid advertising (cough... posting boosted up by bid bots), and has done nothing to make delegating to vote sellers the most profitable way to use your stake, and which has chosen to only support apps and developers with its own stake, Curie has been actually going out and keeping the brain in Proof of Brain the entire time. Curie is actually supporting content creators.

What is more likely to get people to come here and stay here...

a community they can join or a huge upvote on their posting that they didn't have to pay for? The answer is so obvious that it blows my mind when I hear people questioning the value of Curie. Wake up people! You can find a community of friends and peers on Facebook or any other social media platform. You can't find a group like Curie that will give you a significant sum of real-world money for your posting there.

If you want to support Curie you can:

Follow the Hive account@curie blog for twice weekly Author Showcase posting and resteems of the very highest quality posting
Follow the Hive account@curie vote trail on SteemAuto to support the authors
Vote @curie for witness (100% of witness proceeds are used for Curie operations)
Consider delegating SP directly to Hive account@curie if you can afford it (remember to leave at least 50 SP in your own account so you have the bandwidth necessary to transact on Steem blockchain). If you would like to delegate to Curie you can do so by clicking on the following links: 50SP, 100SP, 250SP, 500SP, 1000SP, 5000SP.