On The Topic Of Guest Author (Feauturing @clevecross)

I am getting a little torn here and want to open a discussion. What is it our guest author's are truly accomplishing?

On Principal

I like the idea a lot. I believe people are doing this with the best of intentions, but sometimes it has to be about the results. The idea of an author helping another author achieve a following is fantastic, the promoting author getting a larger voice to help promote other new authors is also great. What I am asking though, is what is it actually accomplishing?

Promote Their Work

Currently I am not seeing much more than a post that is a copy/paste of the guest author's work. The assumption being that the work and link to authors username provides the exposure needed for a boost.
Awesome, can I see the results so far?
I don't know that I have really seen results. Hive account@sirwinchester recently started his own program, he did so because when he started with the program he had help getting recognized from Hive account@stellabella. I don't remember her posting the work for him, she used her followers to get him his own attention, and with his talent to entertain, he did the rest himself. A guest author program is entirely different.

How?

Our people starting these programs are highly respected in the community here and I am sure every SBD goes to their guest as promised. Really though what happens from there? If the steem power could be transferred instead, I would be all about these programs. Instead we transfer a liquid asset than is just as likely to be cashed out as it is to be powered up. I have seen no numbers on this, and while it could be argued it is their content to do with as they please, I would argue that trying to promote someone in the community should come with a responsibility to the community.

Does It Even Work?

I am trying to think of an author I have seen featured as a guest that I begun to notice afterwards regularly on the trending pages. I am not saying it hasn't happened, but as popular a trend as this has become I should have an example come to mind. So what's the benefit? Does it promote their work, or just give something for a popular author to post?

The Alternative

I like how Hive account@stellabella had started her version of the program. Secret-writer, she took an emotional experience from someone they wanted to share, but not attach to themselves and she told their story with her words, or injected herself into it.
Why aren't we using a post designed to draw attention to someone to accomplish exactly that? A post talking up the author, how you managed to start a conversation and what it is about their work you like. Then a "headline" for their post featuring a photo and headline (link). If your answer is at all anything sounding similar to "it won't work", then something is broken. Worse, instead of fixing it, your breaking it further.

My Example

On Hive account@dollarvigilante's second post the top trending comment. It received $1000 in votes and included a link to their post they believed in. The post they linked received very little additional traffic and was actually a link to a vote swapping tag. This isn't really a guest authorship, but similar in concept. When you feature an author, I am asking if it helps the author? Hell, has the author even really tried on their own?
Hive account@sirwinchester's first guest author Hive account@chris.roy has a total of 7 posts submitted. I would much rather see the authors working together on a project instead of posting on behalf of.

Conclusion

I said it above. If the system is such that the only way to get some attention to a persons post it to publish it for them, then it is a broken system and needs to be addressed as such. If the system is not broken, then use the post you are generating to build up what you like about the author, and this specific post, and direct traffic their way.
Again, I very much like what I believe this type of collaboration is intended to do, promote people that support similar fields to themselves for the purpose of growing people capable of rewarding great work in that particular field/hashtag. I just argue that this doesn't really accomplish that.

I would like thoughts on this.
Is this a program working as intended?
What's another way this could be approached?