I have seen several articles coming by that are labeled "hidden gems". These articles include other Steemit articles that are undervalued. The author of the hidden gems article wants to redirect attention to the other articles so that they can still receive value.
First things first
The people who are making these hidden gems articles are contributing greatly to the Steemit community. One of the more popular hidden gems author told me he spends up to 8 hours per day searching for these hidden gems. When they find these they compile a great list of articles to read for others. The author of the hidden gems article can of course get upvotes for this too.
The goal of hidden gems articles
I can only speak for my own perspective here. If I where to make a hidden gems article, one of the goals that I would have is to lead attention towards these authors. Therefore my reason must be that I find these articles undervalued and want to add value to them. Another goal would be to receive a little amount for being the messenger.
The problem
The problem with these kinds of articles is that they can seem to become unfair to the original authors. Let me explain. When someone creates a hidden gem article but does not have a lot of steem power the original author might feel honored to be mentioned, but since the hidden gem author does not have a lot of reputation or steem power, votes might not be pouring in and not a lot of money has been made.
When someone with a lot of steem power creates a hidden gem article, they will be upvoted quicker because of the early curation reward. Because that user already has an established base of followers and reputation he might also make a decent amount of money out of that article.
At this point the original author gets exposure by being listed by someone with a greater amount of followers or Steem power. There are people who click-through to the article and vote on the original authors article, which is the goal of the hidden gems article. Here is where it gets tricky, there are some people who vote just because they know that the hidden gems author will be worth a lot and want to get in on the curation reward. Thus never reading in and voting on any of the original authors listed in that article. In this case the original author therefore has zero benefit of being listed as a hidden gem. This is a problem in Steemit's functionality.
The solution
The solution would be to transfer the Steem Dollars to the original authors and keep the Steem Power to yourself. Why you ask?
Because the original goal was to rise the value of the undervalued article.
Unless the original goal was to make money by creating a hidden gems article.
If a hidden gem author transfers all the Steem Dollars to the original authors he or she takes a 50% cut by listing someone else's content. Which in my opinion is quite rewarding. This way the goal of the hidden gems articles would be achieved by adding value to a undervalued article.
Moral Compass
The way Steemit currently works does not force a hidden gems author to give any reward to a original author. Therefore they are doing nothing wrong. But if you look at the true goal of creating a hidden gems article, the author can either have the goal to promote listed content, earn money with listed content or end up somewhere in between.
It is up to the hidden gem authors and the Steemit community to determine where.
