Upvoting because I like the discussion, not because I necessarily agree. When it comes to meritocracy, I think it's important to separate out the quality of the written content and the efforts put into building and supporting this platform from the beginning. I've confused these before and someone corrected me in the chat, which I was grateful for. Those who built this system have a much better argument as far as the merits of their efforts. That gives them the right to control the conversation, to a degree. That's meritocratic, from that perspective and some I've talked to in the chat convinced me things will become less meritocratic as the masses join Steemit and the content skews toward what average people what (think mainstream TV... ack). Either way, like I said, I think it's an important discussion to have.