Steemit: The Good and The Bad

At this point I've invested quite a bit of time into Steemit, and I really want to see it be as successful as it can be. I think Steemit has the potential to be a huge net positive for society, but I think it is also subject to some potential challenges. Here are some of the things that I find to be great about Steemit, and also some things that I feel need to be worked on.

PROS:

1.) Youtube started to let their advertisers dictate what would be considered "offensive" content, and lets be honest, that means almost everything. YouTube has essentially destroyed free speech by allowing advertisers to control their content, and not their community. This is what I like a lot about Steemit. Steemit promotes freedom of speech by allowing content producers to make money doing what they love and talking about some issues that are difficult to stomach.

2.) Steemit is a platform where looks really don't matter, and content is king. it's the only social media platform that I see that isn't run by a bunch of attractive people taking pictures and constantly showing off.

3.) Steemit is a platform that is run by a community where flagging things hide content. This is so much better than allowing Facebook, Twitter or Youtube and their "terms of service" to remove content that is perfectly fine that they don't like.

4.) Great bots that are helping minnows such as @banjo and @minnowsupport. These bots can upvote your posts and help new users a lot.

CONS:

1.) Starting out new here, it can be very difficult to get views on your articles, especially when they only are visible to other people for a few minutes. There is little motivation to write an article that takes about an hour when it receives only 2 views.

2.) Steemit is run by the Whales, and as a lowly Minnow, it is tough to catch up. There is too much power in the hands of too few. A lot of these more powerful members don't really vote or resteem lower level content either.

3.) Many of the powerful people on Steemit are YouTubers who are gaining power in this community because they just bring people from their other platform here. There is not enough organic growth, as in people coming to power from just this community alone.

4.) I'm not sure how I feel about being able to buy steempower. If steemit continues to grow, large corporations will pay tons of money for influence and just dominate the platform with brainwashing propaganda.

5.) Lots of people trading votes, or follows, rather than following, upvoting and resteeming the quality content.