It is with great pleasure that I welcome you the twenty-seventh edition of SteemMag, a weekend digest for Steemians.
Every week, I take a look at some of the most important topics and have a chat with top Steemians who have expert views on such topics.
In case you missed it, here are links to Issue #1 , #2 , #3 , #4 , 5 , #6, #7 , #8, #9, #10, #11, #12 , #13, #14, #15, 16,#17, #18 , #19 , 20, 21, 22, 23, 24 , 25 and 26.
This weekend’s SteemMag is going to touch on quite a number of pressing issues currently affecting Steemians – Price, Comments rewards pool among others.
SteemMag had a chat with 
I also had a chat with 
A Chat With
SteemMag: Why did you decide to start rewarding comments? And have you noticed any effect so far since you started?
(1) to reward engagement. (2) to avoid voting on plagiarisms. (3) to earn more curation rewards (easier to get around the front running bots)
In regards to effects, actually I don't know how much it is.
SM: What is your thought on the proposed niche communities?
Niche communities: It's a good idea, but it still needs huge efforts to be possible to succeed. I had tried to run a cn-programming community for a short period, my conclusion is: it's not easy.
Thanks
Why Are You Powering Up
A Chat With
SteemMag: Why are you powering up?
I’m in STEEM for the long term. I’m powering up because of where I see STEEM (and Steemit) in 12 months time.
8 months ago I set myself a target to Grow my share of Steem Power from 0.05% to 0.1% of Steemit’s market cap.. I’ve achieved that target at a price I’m comfortable with. I’m also relaxed if things don’t pan out. ->Mo' Money, Mo' Problems - how to keep calm in the storm of Rewards mania!
As I also wrote back then in the same post,
Sometimes in life, if you find something good you have to go for it. Commit to it. Live for it. If you fall on your face, you’ll get up stronger. At least you tried to live the dream.
I still feel pretty much the same.
SM: What is your opinion on the current situation of Steem and Steemit?
I’ve noticed there has been a lot of discussion around rewards and voting. Outside of all the noise and drama, I see some bright minds coming up with good suggestions.
That’s the nature of STEEM. While other coins have private slacks with a handful of like-minded individuals discussing its direction. STEEM has a room full of diverse people plastering their thoughts in an unfiltered manner on the ‘frontpage’ of the currency, Steemit.
I trust 
Fundamentally STEEM is strong. It has an excellent dev team. A vibrant community. And in Steemit the best on-boarding ramp, that will only get better. It just needs to iron out the kinks on rewards and voting.
Thanks so much
Steem drops from last week's position to 16th on the coinmarketcap.com’s crypto market capitalization list.
For a comprehensive list of dedicated Steem blockchain apps. Check out SteemTools.com
Meanwhile, SBD rates ranged from 1 SD = $0.89 – 0.99 this week
~$0.0867 and $0.117 were the lowest and highest value traded this week for a unit of Steem respectively.
Thanks for reading this weekend’s edition of SteemMag. I’m currently in the process of adding a number of new features and also contemplating experimenting with the day and time to release SteemMag.
If you’ve got any feature or Steemian you would like to see on SteemMag, I would love to hear from you.
Thank y’all.