HI thanks for your comments, you make some excellent points and I'll attempt to answer them . . .
Actually, Steemit is a Social Platform where people will be rewarded for their Content...
OK, you quoted from the whitepaper there, and sure enough you are right to point that out. However I would also point out that as well in the paper it talks about rewards for voting and general participation. On top of that there are the rewards that members attain through side projects.
For instance the amount of apps that have been written or work done behind the scenes by Steemcleaners and other such projects.
I feel the beauty of Steemit is that each person has a chance to carve a niche for him or herself, sure you will often be at a disadvantage over somebody who got there first or who has more money than you. But hey, that's life, and at least on Steemit you have a chance to gain parity through ingenuity and hard work.
Also, the only people who truly benefit from the "schemes and collaborations", as you called them, are Whales. If you read the Steem WhitePaper...
Hmm, I'm not sure the part you pasted illustrates the point you're trying to make. I'll say this about that particular aspect. Steemit is ultimately a capitalist eco system, many more would prefer a kind of communist set up, however that's not what it is at the mo.
You cannot ignore self-interest, I think whilst it's in no way perfect, we still are working towards a point whereby the self interest of the whales will align with that of the minnows. Many people have benefited from these schemes, and yes, the people running them have as well, but whoever said they shouldn't?
It appears that we have fallen into the Voting Collusion trap outlined in the Steem WhitePaper...
You're forgetting that the whitepaper is out of date, and now that linear rewards have been brought in we are seeing changes in voting patterns. I believe we have to let these patterns play out for a while longer before we can truly say whether they're good or bad.
Once more thanks for your comments, you've made me think some more about it, and that's always good!
Thanks for your sincere response. I am glad that you took the time to provide a thoughtful response and I am happy to give you something more to think about! I'm going to hopefully provide a little more color to my thoughts and the excerpts I selected.
I agree, as I was pulling some excerpts from the WhitePaper, I saw many items that were clearly outdated (especially since HF 0.19.0). That doesn't mean that the underlying message should be thrown to the side simply because the Witnesses have decided to take action and "step away" from portions of the original purpose of Steemit.
Some of the changes to Steemit will be very valuable, and others will be detrimental. Since HF 19, I have seen a significant shift in the atmosphere on Steemit and the "capitalist" mentality has shot through the roof.
Improvements to the user experience of the platform through SmartPhone Apps, Trading Apps to more easily convert Steem to BTC or eventually fiat, and other improvements that are completely unrelated to simply "Earning Steem" should absolutely be able to earn Steem from their ORIGINAL Content that they are bringing to the Platform.
I find exception when accounts are creating the SAME SCHEMES, such as the Pay-For-Upvotes bots, where the explicit goal is to Game the Earnings System. At this point these accounts are bypassing the 7 day waiting period and eroding some of the basic ideals of the Steemit Platform. While we don't have to wait a full year to Power Down 100% anymore (since it's been dropped to 13 weeks), there is still no other method offered by the Steemit Platform where an individual can immediately obtain value for an action on the platform, EXCEPT for the Pay-For-Upvotes Accounts that are receiving Liquid Steem / SBD
Even when Converting my SBD to STEEM, I have to wait 3.5 Days! (Unless I take the Conversion Hit in the Market)
While the idea of paying for upvotes is very clever, it is a blatent abuse of the Steemit Platform. These bots can game the system with small effect because their upvotes are free, and the SBD they get has more value to them after converting it instantly than by waiting the 3.5 days, or earning it legitimately by producing original content or actively being involved in the community (a bot is not "actively involved").