Good morning Asher. I came across the same post and felt unknowledgeable to respond since I didn’t understand linear rewards. Thanks for linking to the fork post.

My understanding is that in the past, the worth of an upvote had less monetary value because it was less concentrated. With the fork and linear rewards intro, the upvote value increased substantially and is now proportional to their stake. So anyone with a lot of SP back then became the whales now, especially if they self vote. I am talking myself through what a linear curve is and hope I have it right. 🙂

The sad truth is, the system is built now to reward this behavior. Not simply for self voting but also vote selling. I don’t know how long altruism could exist when the rich keeps getting richer (poor behavior is encouraged) and the gap between the rich/poor grows bigger over time.

The system is built for early adopters to come out the winner. They have the biggest stakes in the game. Anyone late to the game can strive to make it into the big league but let’s face the reality, it’s simply not possible. An honest worker working a 9-5 desk job in the real world can only get so far. A businessman with some savviness and wheeling and dealing will be the winner each and every time. Steemit is just like the real world except now, the platform is built so the businessman will continue to stay on top.

On a side note, I had to pause when I came across the first commenter you highlighted. I received an upvote on my post yesterday from said individual. I hope it’s because the person liked my post and not because of his/her involvement with MB.. because if the person is involved with MB, sounds like there is now a change in perspective with the comment made then and action taken now. So what does that tell ya?