These thoughts are in response to @laonie, who posted a brief article expressing concern over a fall in 24-hour active users...

The Bots Are Under Serious Fire

The most likely cause of the decrease in active users over the last 7 days is the substantial changes that have been put in place by the devs over the last week. Bots, over the period of the last (which is my first!) week here, went from being a serious problem... to a nuisance... to a complete non-issue.

The reputation system from my perspective has been nothing but positive. It has been a huge boon for helping to filter out low-quality users (and thus content) at a quick glance. An interesting title or image from low-reputation users occasionally catches my eye, but I rarely end up upvoting it.

In other words, the system works. It's eerily accurate already. And that's a very good thing, because it means the bots have no incentive to post at all. It's gone from "Great Post!" and "Upvoted" to (-5) and (-6).

Show comments hidden due to low ratings? Mm, no thanks.

Overall Activity and Quality of Content is on the Rise

There is no shortage of activity or lack of quality of content on the site, and the number of accounts registered are sprinting towards 50,000. There will very likely be 100,000 accounts well before the end of the year.

But the numbers don't matter.

Higher numbers of active users is not a good thing if those users are producing low-grade fodder. Most of those "active users" are simply spammers that are being snuffed out thanks to the changes that have been made.

Those who put out quality content once or twice and leave forever because they don't get paid well enough...are not users worth paying at all!

With the Reputation System in place, Steem continues to move closer to being the perfect incentive engine for genuine, unique, high-quality content.

Steemit is not a get-rich-posting website. It's a magnet for authentic entrepreneurs, celebrities, influencers, authors and change-makers.

As more success stories sprout from the Steem ecosystem (as well as public exposure to some of the crowdfunded advertising campaigns I've seen hit the front page) word will continue to spread that Steemit does in fact offer a very legitimate way for high-quality writers, producers, artists and entertainers to earn an income and living.

Is it obvious I'm bullish?