Hives/communities are intented to bring people with shared interests together rather than having to follow everyone who might post on that topic. A lot of people may stay within one community, but I have broad interests.

I try to help make anti-social activity unprofitable. If those people do not want to work with the community they can change their ways or leave. I prefer the former. If we do nothing then more will buy votes, self-vote, plagiarise and 'circle jerk'. There has to be a disincentive to do these.

For now a couple of dollars per day is all most of us can hope to make, but in book times I was making nearly $1000 per month. I did not cash it out, but it was a little scary. Others made thousands on a post in the early days, but that is less likely to happen due to various changes.

As I said, this is really a hobby for me. I want to do what I can to help Steem, but if it makes me rich in the long term that's a nice bonus.

Gaining influence/SP here allows me to do more good, but also brings some responsibilities to use it well. Bigger accounts also earn more in curation and in some cases will get more support as people hope for something in return. The more big accounts we have the wider we spread the load. I have tried to help small accounts grow with @tenkminnows so they gain influence and feel they have more stake.