The time frame available for upvoting steemit posts is one week. Then comes payment and all steemit posts become inactive in terms of earning steem. Why is that? I find it quite strange that posts that rquired hard work from their writers are not able to keep earning after seven days. New steemit users don't get the chance to upvote content of great value just because it was written in the past. Creators can often be discouraged to write pieces that require research and are time consuming (e.g journalism articles) when the prospects of potential rewards are limited.
My preferred method would be to extend the earning period indefinitely. Payment could still occur after seven days. Actually payouts should be made each week without any limitation.
Mainstream social media already offers the ability to monetize your content indefinitely.
Steemit should offer its users that option as well.