How to Help Clean Up (and Profit From) Steem Abuse

I've already made a post on this topic before, but this topic needs to be covered as much as possible.

For those new to the Steem ecosystem and lacking any real Steem Power, there is a considerable temptation to join the Dark Side. "What is this Dark Side" you say?

Without going into unnecessary amounts of detail, let's just say the Steem Ecosystem operates on a "proof-of-brain" concept. In theory, this means that content producers on Steem are rewarded monetarily in the form of Steem Power and/or Steem Dollars for producing quality content. The content doesn't have to be award-winning, but if you can tell that the author has a brain, then it's probably good content.

But it's tough for new Steemians to make any headway.

After writing a few posts and putting in some good effort, you get a couple pity upvotes and realize that making money on Steem isn't straight forward. You see posts on the trending list that are worth hundreds of dollars, and you cannot understand how some of those posts even got an upvote. What are they doing differently?

Many people just give up and quit.

Some figure it out, and start to find ways to grow on Steem.

Some Steemians start looking for ways to game the system and bypass the proof-of-brain model.

When someone attempts to bypass the proof-of-brain model of Steem, and to gain monetary rewards without putting in any effort, they are now abusing the platform and have joined the Dark Side. They are no longer contributing; they are stealing.

The real irony of all this, is that if these abusers were to put their efforts into reporting abuse to steemcleaners, they would make far, far more money than they do now with their garbage posts, and it would be a legitimate income instead of degrading the platform.

But I'm not an expert on stupidity, or self defeating behavior.

Some people probably just don't know any better, and that's why it's important that new Steemians are aware that they don't need to join the Dark Side to make money on Steem.

Thank you for reading.