Great post @pandorasbox.
I am doing this for the money...well the SP....I need my SP to keep growing so I can have more VP. I gets addicting to get the reaction from someone relatively new when I give them a 100% upvote. You would think they won the lottery....that is where my motivation comes from.
As I was reading your comment, the thought of communities came to mind. I think that will really help eliminate the need for "randomness" since, like you said, it is low retention rate. Communities could well put together strong groups of like minded people who are interesting in the same subject. Even within their "community" they can keep upvoting and commenting on each other to the point where their accounts will grow nicely.
Hell, there might be a post somewhere in what I just wrote. I will have to give that some thought.
Yes! I'm so looking forward to communities! I'm doing okay now, but a few months ago I was really struggling and being able to stand out in smaller communities would've really helped me. I think this is key for small minnows and will allow them to exist, grow and even thrive perhaps. Right now they just can't get through the shouting match that is the Hot and Trending pages. All they can hope for is a random passerby from the New section.. and how many dolphins and whales sift through that? Almost none... But in communities the whales and minnows would easily mingle and meet!
Especially if it evolves like Reddit, where /r/btc is the go to place for Bitcoin news.. We need Steemit Bitcoin communities where people come to visit to read the latest news! Even a newbie could make a valuable contribution and get noticed, just like on reddit.
And yes, making money while socializing is totally addictive. I too kind of get a kick out of doling out upvotes even though I can't give too much yet. Sometimes I get hit by a whalevote and my mind is blown.. right now I have one comment that three whales upvoted to $10 and I'm like "Whoa!!" and even moreso with today's SBD prices. I mean, whoa!!
I believe that communities will be similar to Reddit, from what I understand. It might be supposition on the part of some but I believe I was reading a post by the developers who talked in that manner...in fact, it cited Reddit and their userbase...so I feel it will be similar...
It is hard in the continually moving stream to get noticed. Communities will eliminate that completely.
Steemit being the defacto news source for people would be amazing...you arent the first person who mentioned that to me...it is a wonderful idea.