This is an ugly situation. I believe all parties involved bear some responsibility. After all, it takes two people to have a disagreement. And, you've got people lining up and taking sides.

Although this is an interesting thing to watch (it's almost like watching a wrestling match or a competitive game) I do believe there are some platforms that are currently in development which will be exactly what you guys are looking for: a space-opera type of game where you buy tokens, fight over resources, craft and patent new items, and create smart contracts which have real consequences regarding monetary rewards with the scope of the game. And, those tokens will be able to be exchanged for other digital assets. So, how ruthlessly you play the game will actually reward you with real money.

What is the original intent and "spirit" of SteemIt? You could sum it all up with a few sayings but I will go with the simple promotion of, "Peace, Abundance, and Liberty."

Unfortunately for all Steemians, this kind of a battle over the "rewards pool" is somewhat of a side-show that gives our platform a big black eye. SteemIt is FOR promoting good content. The thing is, SteemIt allows for self upvoting. So, it's not all about "giving it away." It is also about growing your own stash, self-interest, and self-promotion. It is an interesting business model - one which I believe that even Dan Larimer himself no longer cares for. I've seen news of him talking about relaunching another social media platform on top of EOS, to become everything he wanted SteemIt to be, but isn't.

This shows me that that SteemIt is a temporary situation. I have always felt as if something in SteemIt were somehow "rigged" against the minnow, and there is no doubt that many Whales on SteemIt have been gaming everyone here, for as much profit as they can get, and keeping it on the low-down as much as they possibly can. It's too bad, really. It appears that even many of the 20 Witnesses fall into the category "corrupt self-upvoters." I suppose some level of corruption is inevitable, and SteemIt does have mechanisms in place for all users to have a vote and influence the direction of the platform - but the corrupted Whales do seem to have taken over control of SteemIt, making it a non-desirable place for me to invest very much money in.

As soon as Larimer launches his next social media platform on top of EOS - whatever he decides to call it - I will immediately exit SteemIt and go there. No doubt, he will incorporate the lessons learned from SteemIt into his new ideas. Hopefully, this kind of down-voting and horse-$#!t will be greatly reduced in his next project.