I'm still very new here (day 3) but researching (trying not to get in trouble, more than how to get votes!), and first off Thanks Barry for being a big guy looking out for the new folks. I've read most of the comments on this page just to learn. And my feel so far is that this community is proving itself to be very self-correcting... Content is King, and cream rises - the rule online used to be "Don't write to/for search engines.. Yes "optimize" but write mainly for people and you will succeed" and imho that will happen here - so long as the platform allows these discussions to happen anyways. It's like the two-year rule built into the money aspects from the start up - slow growth, done right, will ensure survival and thriving. Even the fiction writer you replied to below Barry, should hang around, imho. When this thing hits 5 million users, he'll be doing okay too as the topics people look to on this site will diversify.
Since it's "possible" I do hope to make money here, but monetization is NOT what brought me to Steemit. That's like buying vitamins for the MLM program attached to them. I'm here largely bcz Steemit gives the world (and me) a completely free blog/website that comes without ads - what a gift to a "starving artist"! All of my past internet work is on sites built with Front Page and I need a solution now! I'm slowly ditching GoDaddy, pointing some domain names to my posts here (including my rinky-dink podcast and self-published book of poetry from high school) and I'm happy Steemit even exists so I don't have to pay hosting. I'm pretty sure I'll make money from my posts, in due time (and I'm of course investing some time learning how to "optimize my pages" for Steemit) but my point - finally! - is that this is such a perfect platform that even if the financial payout side goes bust, I'd still be an active user because I want, need, and love what it offers.