Thank you for the great summary of the topics discussed in roadmap 2018 @timcliff! To @noisy's suggestion of a revamped promotional system, I have actually believe it can be positivey impact Steemit in a massive way. It will bring in more revnue to Steemit, solve the issue of Upvote Services, aid the propagation of content.

I have posted 2 in-depth posts inline with @noisy's proposal. 1 diagnosing the issue on Steemit right now, and how it is negatively affecting Steemit and the other as a proposed solution on utopian.io.

If you have the time, you can find them here :

Growing Unhappiness with Upvote Bots on Steemit
Proposal for New 'Promoted' Function

I sincerely believe my proposed solution, if implemented can bring massive positive impact upon Steem and am doing my very best to garner attention around the proposal so as to hopefully see it implemented.