So you just arrived on this platform looking to see what all the fuss is about, you stay here for a few days or weeks, and very soon you start to realize how come always the same people end up on the trending page with the massive, almost ludacris rewards. The best analogy for tiers of hierarchy on steemit can be found in marine life.
This is the top brass or the whales and orcas, these guys can give you a vote and make you celebrate, they can also flag you if you end up on their bad side, and your payouts will be precisely 0. Selfvote if you have more than 200k Steem Power will immediately skyrocket you on the trending page, a practice being done by essentially everyone who has it. Users with so much steem power like to hang together and "collude", there is nothing inherently wrong with that behavior, people in all sorts of areas in real life will do the same, you hang with "your" people.
We have another rising type of hierarchy, people who bought delegated steem power, or they were given that steem power to use, they also like to stick with the big guys in order to jump up the ranks of the payouts, again acceptable, but there are some who use that delegated power and selfvote 5-10 posts a day on their shitposts, virtually draining reward pool and raping it, it would be good if we return to 4 posts a day to reduce that kind of behavior. They can easily split and leave the platform, or stay if they wish. Again there are good and bad players in a delegation game.
Another tier of hierarchy are the dolphins (5-30k steem power) who bought their steem or they've earned it by blogging here from the start of the show. We also like to stick together, and this is the tier of users where you will find the best content on steemit, and realistically if you comment on their blogs most of the time they will check out what you write and toss you a vote.
Minnows are among the lowest slum scum life, look at that dirty minnows, fuck off you dirty peasants, learn english. Oh I kid the minnows, that was just a joke, they are the living breathing and the most important aspect of the steem game, they bring all the comments, votes and traffic. There are some rising stars there so watch out.
Newcomers like you will be confused by everything, what is steem, what is steem power, what are steem dollars, what is curation, when do you get the money, where to take that money, how to cash out, who to vote, who to follow. Everything is a mystery when you start blogging here, takes time to learn all that but very soon you will learn to swim with the marine life here and find your place in all the hierarchy zones on steemit. It won't be easy, but the long game pays off here. Happy swimming!
Bonus Hierarchy are the Ferengi of the bunch, these slimy fucks will stick on you and drain you from your life force. They are so called vote beggars, they will promote their posts everywhere and will find every channel to nag you. Are they good, perhaps some are, that's not really the point. They sure do stick around once they've found their sugar daddy. These peeps will do anything for a vote, sell their own family if they need to. Don't be a leech. Do your own thing, the votes will come.
Peace out.