I see a vast separation of professionalism on Steemit. Some post, & some publish articles. An article that is an official publication requires a composition with mostly original elements, whether that be original writing, photos, videos, audio, or any combination of these. I am not saying an article has to be 100% original. It is fine to use some photos, images, and quotes from other sources, as long as you are not claiming them as your own.
However if you post a picture of a sports star or a movie poster, with little or no text, you cannot tell people that you published an article. In fact, if you did claim a post like that as your official publication, you can be sued for plagiarism (a textbook example btw), especially since we are all technically professional authors here on Steemit. All that is required to be dubbed as a professional is to be paid for your efforts. That is why once someone that plays sports gets paid to play a game, they can never participate in amateur sports again.
Lets say you are about to leave to go on vacation, so you take a picture of your packed luggage and post it to Steemit with some text saying "On my way to a very relaxing weekend. I can't wait to get to the beach!". While some can relate to this, and may be excited for this hypothetical person, it still does not qualify as published article. This is an example of a post. Even if there were a couple more pictures, lets say one of the car they drove and another of the person drivng, and even if there was a few more lines of text, it is still only a post.
"To publish is to make content available to the general public" (Wikipedia). In the context of publishing something on Steemit, this is a proper definition for a published POST. "'Publication' is a technical term in legal contexts and especially important in copyright legislation. An author of a work generally is the initial owner of the copyright on the work. One of the copyrights granted to the author of a work is the exclusive right to publish the work." (Wikipedia). This is the proper definition of the publication of an article on Steemit.
The copyrights we obtain for our published articles on Steemit are common law copyrights. These are the "legal doctrines which grants copyright protection based on common law of various jurisdictions, rather than through protection of statutory law. In part, they are based on the contention that copyright is a natural right, and creators are therefore entitled to the same protections anyone would be in regards to tangible and real property. The proponents of this doctrine contend that creators have a perpetual right to control the publication of their work" (Wikipedia). I feel posting a video with only a few lines of text introduction is also an article, provided the video also meets the same standards a published text article would.
I am sourcing quotes from Wikipedia partially to serve as examples of how it is okay to use others content as long as you are not claiming it, and partially to give my claims valid credibility. My professors in college used to tell me that Wikipedia is not a "credible source" to use in published articles, and the only internet sources that are "credible" are .edu websites. I must disagree with this partially since .edu websites are most definitely NOT the only credible online sources.
Wikipedia however is technically not a credible source on its own, but as long as the information on Wikipedia is properly sourced, then it is credible (the Wiki articles I sourced here have credible sources, I double checked: United States Code/Title 17/Chapter 1/Section 101). I do not feel that it is absolutely necessary to properly format your sources on your articles either, although it doesn't hurt. Even a loose reference in parentheses, like I use here, is not always necessary. It is more about how much more work you want to take on, to make your sources easier to find, or if you want the readers to do the research on their own. Personally, I hardly ever feel like sourcing my information after spending hours writing a comprehensive, informative, original article. I feel reading a quality article is compensation enough for the reader. However if I was making considerably more on my Steemit articles, I may feel obligated to source information properly.
The point I want to get across is that there is a near perfect 50/50 split among Steemians who post, and Steemians who publish articles. The rewards seem to be split 50/50 respectively across the platform as a whole in those two categories as well. A lot of Steemians that pour passion into their writing, videos, music, and/or photography get paid less than many Steemians that just simply post. I watch it happen all the time, and so does everyone else, from every angle.
This is the nature of the platform, and something that everyone slowly gets used to, or just gives up on. However this does not mean that we can not eventually change the ratio.
I encourage all of you reading this article to set an example for all your fellow Steemians closest to you. Challenge yourself when writing to do more research, so you can discover the real, entire truth of things. Cover all the aspects of the topic your are promoting, go in depth and explore everything in all its complexities. Use more original photos and videos than not, go out in the world and really give people a looking glass into your life, and if nothing else, provide content with subject matter that helps the Earth, humanity, the cause of freedom, and this platform. I ask that you meditate with these words as we move forward on our Steemit journey together...ESPECIALLY if you are in a sub-group on Steemit that expects as much! Let's make publishing articles the standard for getting paid more on Steemit.
I hope I have inspired some of you posters to publish some real works. You may be surprised by THE REWARDS it brings you. Steem on, blessings, & stay tuned - into the right frequencies my friends.
TM