I used to follow along the STEM curation trail. I have a soft spot for STEM and I don't have time to review everything out there. StemGeeks is another great group. It's hard NOT to feed into a curation trail run by someone whose curation method you trust.

I favor theMarkyMark approach to data analysis. It's what I use at work. Jesus, it's part of how I defend the numbers. Check out his post on LasseCash, for example. Present the information and discuss trends and variations. Address any concerns that appear in the numbers and determine, as best as possible, the cause of problem with recommended solutions. Provide comparisons between datasets to show significance.

When someone posts a chart to present information, the first thing I look for is a trend. It's usually easy to find. However, if someone is going to list it up just to point out that there's a lot of stakes involved then I question the presenter. Note, this isn't against you. This is against the common display of information I see out there.

Sounds great, so people have a lot of stake. And? It's that way in other tokens as well as HIVE. Some people will always have more than others. The data becomes valuable only with comparison. Convert the value of POB to HIVE and then compare it to other stakeholders in HIVE. Show me that the concerns you raise are valid in the comparison. Anything less is a disservice to the platform and investors that people are apparently to protect.

My point is your concerns are valid as is @clixmoney's. A problem in the argument is that manual curation is a beautiful concept very difficult to maintain if the goal is the growth of wealth distribution. The idea of reading through and voting manually is alluring. Yet, do we all have time for that action? Some people do and bless their hearts for that ability. Honestly, I applaud them, but I can't do it all the time. So, what do I do? I place my trust in someone's ability and must VERIFY their behavior acts in accordance with my expectations.

I favor both manual and curation trails. I don't think there is anything wrong with them. It is the responsibility of the investor to make sure their money gets used wisely through BOTH methods.