I think a lot of this comes down to the experience you are expecting from Steemit.

For a professional writer, if they put out an article they have carefully crafted and it makes them less than they could get for a writing job, they may not continue to post.

Talented writers like @stellabelle @the-alien @rok-sivante @kevinwong and others have spent a lot of time and effort creating unique content and in the beginning saw very high rewards. Now that same effort might not make as much as it once did, so the question comes as to what you want out of this platform. A job, a platform to voice your opinion, a fun way to interact, or a number of other possibilities.

I myself have no writing background and found it amazing that an idea from my mind or a comment I put could earn me $0.09 That is what got me hooked. Nine pennies. It made me want to learn how to write better and become a better communicator. I've always been creative, but writing never really had interest to me until I saw that I could blog about anything I wanted and interact with the community that way.

The people I believe will stay with steemit are those that would continue posting even if rewards didn't exist. I don't think the value will ever get that low, but the community means enough to me, that even if there were no rewards I would continue to post.

I don't think introduceyourself posts ever deserved thousands of dollars, but at the time it got people thinking and excited. I think @ned and some other influential minds should give a gameplan to those who are willing to go balls to the wall for steemit.

I think ad dollars and partnerships with colleges and some creative ways to advertise steemit would be great. Things like blogging workshops or writing competitions sponsored by local colleges with sbd or chromebook prizes etc.

I think curation is a problem since it does not require someone to read any content. The biggest issue I see right now is how comments are devalued. With a curation bot there is no human interaction, just investment based on probability and other algorithms. It helps those who post great content make some money, but without feedback it won't be sustainable long term.

If my post makes $25 and there are 0 comments, something is very wrong with the system. People who used to spend a lot of time crafting comments see that there is no real reward in doing so (time is money so most will focus on blog posts where money is to be made and the same is true of vote bots - there are no "comment" vote bots to the best of my knowledge and curation doesn't make a whole lot of money through comments at least of late.)

We also need to somehow hire or have a group of people that help new users with a live chat feature so they are able to get feedback quickly from users that know how to post, format, explain what steem, steem dollars etc are. Maybe something people could apply for by showing their knowledge and being available for an hour time frame for x amount of sbd.

Great writers will come and go and the price of steem will ebb and flow. I'm happy to do anything that will help steemit, whether or not it pays. I see so much value and potential in this platform.

I'm interested to see what others have to write in the comment section. Thanks for opening this topic up for debate @joseph