Steemit is full of talkers and people who always run with someone else's good idea when it is of benefit to them. That could be pretty awesome if those same people were doers and made things happen in place of just making posts about ideas and collecting votes on them.
All those people are on the blockchain talking about what we should do and many of them have the power to make that happen but they just keep collecting rewards while just talking about ideas while never doing anything to make the change. Most of them are also the pushers of self-voting and not using bots even though many of them got to where they are by using bots themselves.
Your self-vote does nothing but remove rewards from your voters, it doesn't matter when you place the self-vote time-wise, it takes away rewards from one side or the other with each self-vote. The larger your self-vote is the more you remove from the curation pool of your voters. That's fine if you don't care about the growth of anyone except yourself and your friends you trade votes with.
It's all math and algorithms. It doesn't matter what your feelings are about it, you can't change the math of what the blockchain records and pays out. It the same groups claiming they want to make changes and doing everything to ensure they grow with very little real concern about the true growth of anyone outside their tiny circles. Those tiny circles which ensure they grow each day without concern for the rest of you who are throwing them votes believing all of the bullshit they post about communities.
Fuck it, if people are too stupid to see through absolute bullshit, shame on you. These types of things happen every day and is a part of life and those who know how to get over on others will always prey on those who are too dumb to see facts past what they are being sold.
That being said 
Not everyone can afford to give up 3 Steem per week to the project and that is 100% fine. You can do something just as valuable to help. You can help spread the idea, resteem the post and submit more users to us who are close but struggling to break 500 SP based on the low prices of Steem. You can drop the links to our post into the comments sections of those who are always talking about making a middle class but doing nothing but collecting rewards on the idea and not giving back.
This whole concept is about growing the community and weeding out those who talk but don't take action. I am coming up on my 1 year anniversary and would like a few more users made into minnows if possible before that time comes in 6 days. I had a witness pull my transfers since I started, I have transferred over 2,000 Steem or SBD to other accounts as prizes or gifts since I started. I am not sure how many of those users are still around. I am starting to see that amount of money could have been put to a much greater cause like making minnows out of accounts which are almost there but not quite to the finish line. I delegate out over 1/2 my remaining power as well, it's not about the money.
Do you know someone who is at or above 450 SP who is an active user? Are you above 450 SP and an active user? Drop some names, thoughts and idea's below. We need the community to help make this a success, are you a community member or are you just here for the rewards?