Honestly, I mostly recommend people I know from other networks to post their photography and art here, but I usually explicitly recommend to not invest actual money (or a significant amount of time).
Steemit has to grow at least 10-15% a year in order to make up for its dilution and to be interesting for investors. So it's a speculative game, who knows maybe it will become as big as reddit or even bigger, as it also can provide other functionality.
because it is no direct competitor to Bitcoin and is thus very inclusive
well, in my impression, Ned and/or Dan sometimes doesn't sound very "inclusive" of Bitcoin, quite the opposite.
Same here when it comes to investment recommendations to people with no financial background. I never told anyone to do what I do myself (risk own money). What is more troubling to me, as a financial advisor, that I would not know what to tell a savy investor either. That's bothering me.
As for Ned and Dan and Bitcoin: ok, interesting. I will watch that. I had the impression that they both love BTC and Steemit would not even work without it.
I have been having the same feelings as you of late. I don't invest money, but I do invest time. I am now worried about my friends being flagged and all that, so I am having mixed feelings about sending people in here. I used to think this system was workable through time, but now I am feeling mixed. I was wondering if others were feeling the same way. What is the central problem you see? Is it fixable?
The central problem I currently see is that I can't find any reason to invest in Steem. If my perception is right, the price will keep falling and the authors won't get any rewards anyway besides some depreciating liquid Steem and depreciating Steem Power.
So from that angle, your concerns (also those voiced in the longer comment) seem secondary to me,because if problem 1 does not get fixed, there will soon be no problem 2 to discuss.
I also don't follow the flagging disputes in the english speaking community closely enough to really have an opinion. I am very reluctant to flag people, because to me ignoring is enough and I don't get why it's being used so loosely. I'm mostly active in the tiny german speaking island where we hardly ever flag each other, because we are so few and we do not yet have all the conflicts the english speaking community has. Maybe it's a good thing you hardly earn anything if you write in german, because there's less reason for envy? So unfortunately, I'm not quite sure what I could propose as a constructive solution for your concerns.
But is saddens me to read them, as you are to me one of the shining examples for what Steemit could be and it is frustrating to read, that you are frustrated.
PS:
I invest money and a lot of time and it's not for the financially insignificant (to me) rewards...
What could the developers add/change to provide the missing incentive to invest in Steem?
To me, it is crucial to get people on board who are used to paying to get attention, so advertisers/companies or market researchers (the guys paying just to get an opinion on a product). After the whole discussion here it seems so obvious to me, that I actually have a hard time imagining Ned and Dan not being aware of this and maybe (as I repeatedly said), I'm just impatient.
One thing I would like if I was a company with a marketing budget is the atmosphere here. You could get valuable feedback, because people here are much less inclined to trolling and flaming, but tend to be very constructive. So if I was some beer manufacturer and I had a new brand to introduce, I might buy some power to reward customer feedback. The reality check would be to see if people start just giving positive reviews because they hope for rewards, but the company could steer that rewarding constructive critique.
My impression. They did it backwards..... They want the readers to pay. It makes zero sense to me, rewards should have been skewed more towards reading and making relevant comments. As it stands, a new user can read/love/and vote all day, but unless there is a highly unlikely set of circumstances they will never see $.001 SBD for their efforts.
Why the hell they want only authors? Makes no sense to me.
What do you mean by "paying"? If you don't attract people and give them good reasons to put Dollars or Bitcoin on the line, STEEM is not much more than Reddit Gold. It does not make much difference who gets the most Reddit Gold, does it?