Wow!!!! @tombstone I seriously now have an immense amount of respect for you.

With my own personal experiences from whales abusing their power (although I could see where they are coming from). I feel that it is something that needs to be taken into consideration, and needs to be controlled.

I feel that the abuse of power not only is driving away new members, but big ones. As previously stated in posts, and now backing what you say here. I can only agree 100% with you that as someone who has a decent following elsewhere on the internet, my steemit following is mainly derived from in house building. Occasionally, I advertised, supported, and promoted Steemit on these other platforms and social media, but the biggest problem I have in bringing over people to Steemit, is that it is to easy to google "steemit" and see news stories about abuse, problems, and even hacking.

A lot of people get excited about Steemit and then run into problems and realize underlying issues. For the most part, as someone who is able to pursue and talk to people based on their needs, wants, ideology, and understanding. I feel I connect with people on a personal basis and that becomes a better way for me to understand how to bring to light something useful like steemit.

I am trying, to build, help grow, and develop this wonderful community, even with small problems and simple obstacles I find that there is always something to learn, a reason to continue the fight, and more importantly a reason to share this experience.

Thank you for this bit of information from someone of your influence and caliber, it has given me great joy to understand more about the way things work, and the insight from someone who obviously cares about Steemit as a whole and not just about their own self.

~Timbo