I've only been a member of Steemit for a little under a month, but something doesn't quite make sense to me; If the whole point of Steemit is to give visibility to QUALITY posts by creating a decentralized power structure where the community is motivated to upvote quality content, then in a way, doesn't Steem power corrupt this ideal?
To me, someone who is new to the platform of Steemit and still trying to educate myself on the core principles as well as the technology itself, it appears quantity of upvotes by the community (decentralization of monetization) ultimately does not create post visibility. What does create visibility, is the number of upvotes by those with the most Steem power, those who got in early regardless of post quality, or their ability to accumulate steem dollars through trades that is converted to steem power.
THE WHALES RULE ALL ON THIS PLATFORM. Doesn't that completely undermine the community and core principles of a decentralized blockchain, by aggregating the power into the hands of a select few?
Another unfortunate thing that is making me skeptical of steemit is that this blockchain is so filled with scam-ish feeling posts (get rich quick schemes) and post boosting services, that I assumed services like minnowbooster, upvoteme, and others were required for post visibility. I've used a few and quickly realized that this isn't the case and I don't think I will use them again, unless someone comments and gives me a good reason to.
I'm not trying to spread FUD on steemit by any means, I think the ideals behind steemit are amazing and the functionality of steemit and dTube is surprisingly on point for any beta type of website, but I still think that the power structure is a little jacked up.
Please Steemians let me know what you think of these problems with the platform or conversely let me know why these aren't problems, I would love to have my concerns vanquished!
TLDR: Trending appears to only be filled with posts by whales, the power on steemit is disportionately centralized, and this platform has a very vocal minority consisting of scammers/shady business practices.