Steemit has evolved, but now it needs to be refined - with groups

The explosion of popularity of Steemit comes with pros and cons. Unfortunately, there are many people who will try to make a quick buck with as little effort as possible, and while it may not appear as "spam" per se because they are not promoting any particular product, instead we get high a very high volume of click bait, shock articles, sob stories, and titillation, most of which could only very generously be described as "curated".

At times the "new" section looks like one of those "article" websites where spammers and "internet marketers" just throw a load of pasted articles up. Please also keep in mind that some articles will be "respun" to evade Googles duplicate content penalties so a bot might classify them as original by accident. Anyone familiar with Warrior Forum will have heard of article spinner software, and even Fiverr gigs where people will respin content to make it appear original.

We need to discourage this kind of content, from the start. The Steemit system should be refined to encourage "spam vigilance" by all genuine users. It already does this to some degree, but that can still be fine tuned so that spam and bullshit is not only pointless, but harmful to the user who posts it. I don't think we should rely solely on automated processes to vet the content, but that could certainly help matters too.

There should be so much more to Steemit than simply "entertaining or informative articles and news items".

I look forward to the emergence of a "groups" feature -- communities of hobbyists, ideologues, educators, hackers, philanthropists, etc. Users within these groups will build relationships, create "thought leaders", and spam in these spaces will be weeded out unceremoniously. Steemit is ready to take the next step, away from spam, and towards real relationships and communities.