This is something that has made me cringe for the later part of my Steem journey.
I know I'll get heat and hate for saying what I believe is the truth, although, my intention is not to create drama, but to change the minds of most content creators.
On Steem we have a really big issue, and it relies on the fact that most content creators really care too much about the money that is to be made here.
The problem with this way of thinking and the main reason no one from the outside is really compelled to consume content on this network resides on the fact that what is posted here is mostly irrelevant to anyone that isn't already on this platform.
Why?, you might ask yourself.
Well, because most creators here focus only on reaping rewards from whales/dapps by creating content based on given guidelines that only follow the whale's own agenda, which the content creator ignores, or chooses to ignore. This leads to a torrent of spammy posts that are very far from interesting or valuable.
Remember: money talks.
Nothing wrong about that. But when not a single content creator that gets some kind of exposure is pushing out anything truly original and interesting to the outsiders, and every one of them is repeating what the other did because they see them getting big upvotes, then this becomes a big fat circle of users jerking off one another, and a collection of uninteresting blabbering.
Please prove me wrong on the comments by linking exceptional content posted exclusively on the Steem Blockchain, that has organically reached the trending pages. At least this way this post will serve a greater purpose.
In other words, most users are here for the money and not for making stuff that they really believe in. Because those who do, don't get properly rewarded, and end up leaving or switching their content strategy into the dapp/whale ass-lickery for profit. Period.
No originality, and a never ending regurgitation of "thoughts" and "opinions" of content creators just playing it safe mostly repeating someone else, and that no one, not even steemians themselves, really care about.
"Oh but wait greencross, don't you see there are countless of posts with original and exciting content like paintings, music, comedy sketches, photography, travel vlogs and so on?"
Yes there are, but guess what?: the whales who could really help make this content visible and motivate the creators to keep creating (while driving outsider traffic to the platform) really don't give a steeming pile of crap about it. Unless, the content created is about shilling the whale's project or a dapp running on the Steem blockchain that they have some kind of monetary agreement with.
When there would be content creators pushing out material that would add real value to the people outside Steem, and the whales would support them, then, and only then, there will be actual consumers from the "outside world" interested in what's going on here, and taking an active part on the discussion.
Sadly, the type of content that would drive normal users to Steem doesn't get rewarded at all, and doesn't get true engagement because it falls short of requirements to get an upvote from most of those whales.
Unless these creators start giving value to themselves and their creativity, this will just look like a fest of dapp/whale ass lickers, circle jerkers and people flossing fancy equipment they bought with Steem to prove to other steemians their superiority, while masking it as proof that the economics here really work (like if we didn't know that already).
Kudos go to curation initiatives like C-Squared, Curie, etc that are rewarding outstanding content. However the visibility is still minimal because hardly any of these posts make it to trending.