How Do We Make Steemit the Internet Home of the Next Matt Drudge?

(Photographer:  Me.  Subject:  Cindy)

In my opinion, Steemit's greatest growth challenge is the continued myopia of many of its whales.  The variety of topics that are regularly upvoted here continues to be rather limited--introductions, people being vulnerable, Steemit related content, blockchain and crypto content, and spiritual/philosophical stuff.  By contrast, art, poetry, photography, short stories, travel, third-party links, etc. are pretty consistently overlooked.   

I've tried to figure out why this is so, and it seems to me to be primarily a result of two things--the natural interests of current whales and a justified paranoia over rewarding spam or faked posts.  The material that is most consistently rewarded is either of great interest to current whales or is material that cannot easily be plagiarized, faked, or spammed.  Material that isn't easily faked or spammed is often either long-winded or highly personal in nature.  By contrast, photos, short stories, travel blogs and third party links are easily faked or spammed and so are often overlooked by whales in an abundance of caution.   

While this aversion to potentially faked posts and spam is understandable, it does limit the platform's usefulness and appeal to broader audiences and certain types of bloggers.  For instance, some of the more popular Internet bloggers--like Matt Drudge or "Instapundit" Glenn Reynolds--do little more than identify and link to very interesting third party articles, photos and stories--perhaps writing a short but witty and insightful headline or comment as an introduction to them.  Drudge is probably the world's greatest headline writer!  

Bloggers like Matt Drudge and Glenn Reynolds have huge audiences.  They provide a valuable service by essentially curating the Internet for us and by providing insightful but often very short commentary on the items they find.  And yet, were they to launch their blog for the first time on Steemit today, their value would mostly be overlooked.

I want Steemit to be the Internet home of the next Matt Drudge or the next Instapundit, and I think you probably do too.  If that's going to happen, then we better find a way to vet and reward their type of content, including links to third-party articles and resources.  Suggestions are welcome, but in the meantime I'd advise a little less skepticism over quality posts from known personalities around here.