Do the examples below qualify as scammy as well or is it all in good faith, just-the-free-market-at-work, and for the best of Steemit?
Look at this, a photo worse than my worst outtakes when I was taking photos aged 9, then look at the payout.
Or this. Content: "Cross-post on Golos, make some extra money". $1000,- Yay.
Or this, a few stats from Twitter. $560,-
Or this. Content "My witness node crashed. It was badly set up (Was it? Not the most dependable of witnesses then, are you?). It is better now. Some technical stuff about how it is set up. $1800,-
That's a good question. I would say that it depends on the individual posts/accounts. But votes/payouts alone wouldn't really be a scam. Motive is one of those things that we really can't definitively know.
However...if we know that one of the users has schemed/scammed or abused in the past, we should certainly take that into consideration. If you've been around long enough and have paid attention, you should have an idea of who's who around here and how they've earned their influence/stake.
I agree, we can't begin judging motives.
Just continue posting good photo's and content and hopefully it will all even out.
300+ for that huh? Following you @ocrdu.