I don't blame auto votes. I remember when the five minute window first went into effect. That encouraged automation, naturally. But I don't blame that either. You can see the moment that went into effect on my blog by looking at rewards. They were what I'd call low for a long time, then suddenly shot up with the next post after those changes went into effect.

So rather than thinking, "Oh boy! Nobody's looking! I'll take this for granted and become lazy as fuck while the free money rolls in!"... I felt it was necessary to work harder. As I worked harder, the pay increased, the views went up, more people were leaving comments. I also didn't want to be downvoted for being useless.

I think blaming the system is much like going out to the shop and yelling at the tools because the birdhouse didn't get built. We're all on the same playing field here working under the same set of rules. Even if there's a chip on the ice or some other flaw, that's something everyone has to deal with. So it boils down to the decision of each individual. They can waste their time posting rubbish filler content for crypto and go absolutely nowhere as a content creator, or they can work for an audience/views and see results like mine. The only thing I did differently was make a different decision.

The rubbish filler content for crypto chases eyes away, permanently.

It's a slap in the face to those of us trying to make this work because they're chasing our customers out the door with a broom. So any progress we make trying to attract interest is shit upon with a smile, and that stinks.

I don't know if you read that post I wrote. These lazy types with the shit content and no views but decent rewards are making the conscious decision to slowly deplatform themselves. They also think they're more important than the ground they stand on, in a lot of cases. They rather play the victim card and pout about downvotes instead of picking up the slack, gathering some business sense, then setting themselves up for success. Again, it just boils down to decisions the individual makes for themselves and nothing else. And are people keen on taking responsibility for their own decisions these days? Generally, no. So if they want succeed in a decentralized world, they got their work cut out for them.