One minnows take on the whole MOGUL debacle

I rewrote this from my reply to this post by @ats-david) I know it's a little late.

The best protection a community has against being compromised by the interests of those who would move the entire community in a certain direction primarily for their own personal gain is the voice of the members in that community. Full consensus may be impossible but a consensus should be attempted where all feel free to peacefully share their opinions and use the power available to them to do so. I was particularly moved by the way the minnows were allowed to speak their voices and many whales listened to what we had to say.

As long as we aren't always jumping at opportunities to ostracize others, I think this is the best tool available to make sure the community moves in a positive direction. But it requires the community to continuously move in the direction of consensus about what it stands for and where it's headed. One thing that makes this platform stand out is it's focus on community and quality content. We do not want to clash with those who want to invest in the platform but we are worried that the place will be monopolized by companies and individuals who have resources to drown out the content of sincere members of the community.

My excitement about this platform has been revitalized. I came here 3 weeks ago, have very little steem power and have yet to develop a deep network of trust. I do however have a lot of passion for community and a desire to participate and pull others up as I pull myself up. Matt was in the same boat as a new face here but instead of passion for community, he waved money in everyone's face. I was really worried when I saw him pulling in $1000, with some upvotes from trusted whales in the community.

I am not going to call him a scam artist, for all I know his intentions were good (every bone in my body says that they were not, but I want to give him the benefit of the doubt). For me, the problem wasn't really him being here and sharing his plan, even if it was a scam...it was that he managed to get so much attention and support initially.

Minnows have to "go through the grind" but if you invest money into steemit, you can take a huge shortcut. This is kind of a loophole but still, many who invest in steem are interested in the community aspect of the currency and have something to offer, they like helping out others. But if a guy talking like that, making huge promises with few details and no visible stake in the community comes in, I would hope a majority of the community would blow him off or at least be skeptical, and thankfully they did.

At first, as a minnow, I felt a little out of my league being the first to say anything, but well known users like @stellabelle and @acidyo made it much easier for minnows like myself, @kryptik and @gktown to speak freely. When he started his list of people who were "disqualified from playing", I replied to him and explained in a peaceful way why people felt threatened by his post. I tried to represent the feelings being communicated by those in the steemitchat and discord channels. As I saw his post being flagged down, I kept getting upvotes on my comment. Since he didn't reply, I made a stupid parody of his post which quickly received 78 upvotes.

Of course it felt good to be heard after 3 weeks of feeling a little underappreciated as a minnow , but it felt even better that someone like me who only has a passion for community and a desire to make great content was encouraged to speak my voice despite being a newcomer with no money. Meanwhile someone who obviously saw steemit primarily as an opportunity to make money without much regard for community was left out in the cold in the end.

If Matt really has passion for his project and the good it will bring, I invite him to come back and build a relationship with the members here based on more than just money. If there is money to be earned, great, we are down! Don't wave that money in our face though, it's insulting. Prove to us that you have something substantial to offer, no one in their right mind wants to watch a 2 hour presentation from someone who presents their projects like a get-rich-quick infomercial.

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