Well, I think that it (Steem) started to work for a while when we were in the bull market. People were onboarding, building tools, projects, products and excitement were growing. That is how you create the network effect. People gather and others come to build, games, businesses, apps, gambling, sell them tee shirts, etc.

I think the idea of voting up the best content or even quality content is kind of funny.

As to the rest, it is just various challenges all projects have challenges.

I'm fine with a few self upvoters and I am fine with some of them and others getting downvoted that is how it works.

You know what those other blockchains do? They create stories. Bitcoin's story... Free, Fast Transactions, and freedom from over-zealous Government. It's not totally true, but it what they want to be.

Litecoin, An Alternative to BTC, it's even faster very focused on small transactions.

Dash - Privacy, still not totally true, but a goal.

ETH - Smart Contracts

They do things like buy a pizza with Bitcoin, to prove it as a currency and they tell the story.

You are right, it isn't the marketing budget it is the desire to make sure your project has a story and other people know what it is.

While I totally agree that our inflation IS a potential marketing budget and that much of it is misused I also would like to point out it is a distribution model.

Just as other tokens/currencies have POW we have DPOS. It is meant to distribute the coin. The more hands who hold it, the more possibility that it will hold value and be seen as an exchange of value.

While I know it isn't working smoothly, it is a distribution model and we do have the tools to allocate it. So, the project works, the price will correct until it is in the right hands.

Regarding our first conversations, yeah, the past is the past. :) No hard feelings. I am glad you shared your views, it was helpful.