There were many more like these three and they all left because of dwindling rewards/engagement. Some of these were real ambassadors of the platform too. There were a lot of philosophical skirmishes back then, people who had different visions of which directions the platform should grow. Can you imagine the traffic a person like Neil Strauss would bring here today?

That's good to hear some whales are encouraging new users! It sounds like there just needs to be more of a balance between concern over HBD stability and rewarding talent appropriately. In the beginning the model was more of a meritocracy where everyone with skill and imagination would aspire to reach the highest levels of engagement/rewards. This had an effect on everyone to become better as well.