RE: Steemit Alternative Surfaces on the Internet. Your thoughts?

Affiliate links are all over the Internet. In fact the "free" Internet is just a series of affiliate links. I don't think an affiliate link makes content inherently untrustable.

That being said, I don't think they above article is going to get much of a payday beyond his author reward. That site looks like it kind of sucks.

According to FAQ has been going since 2015.

http://decent.ch/faq/

Who is behind DECENT?

Founders Matej Michalko and Matej Boda brought the idea of DECENT to realization phase in early 2015. Since then the team of DECENT has grown steadily to a group of experienced developers, designers, marketers, advisors and people who came together to change the future of publishing. Development of DECENT is created by professionals around the globe from Asia to Europe. You can find us in our Team member section.