First, thank you for using the term "reward pool abuse" rather than "reward pool rape." Just accusing someone of raping anything is really offensive, and I'm sure it's doubly offensive to anyone who has actually been raped. I think we need to keep that term in the context of sexual assault.
As a minnow, flagging wars and reward pool abuse are both problems that I am very interested in fighting against, because they basically equate to the platform allowing systematic censorship. However, as you point out, the only way to combat it is to become a whale first, and then hope that by the time you become a whale you haven't become so blinded by greed that you in turn abuse the reward pool.
I was sad to see that @mitrado is powering down and leaving steemit because he cannot post without being flagged or censored due to a personal vendetta by guess who. Do you have any advice for someone in @mitrado's position on what to do to be heard on the steemit platform?
I have personally been wrestling with the decision of using my SBD to power up or to wait and see how steemit addresses reward pool abuse. I certainly don't have enough SBD to fight other abuses, and don't want to be in the position of having my money tied up for 13 weeks if I become the target of some whale that loves to troll minnows by censoring them and find myself unable to participate on steemit at all.
If the answer to stopping abuse is for everyone to have a giant financial stake in steemit, this signals to me that the underlying rewards structure is flawed and needs to be changed. The system should not be set up so that the wealthiest fraction of users can systematically censor other users for posts that the extreme majority find inoffensive and valuable. Since steemit is a diverse community with a worldwide presence, how can you ask someone who is living on an average salary in Bangladesh to power up his account to the extent of someone living on an average salary in the U.K.?
Steemit is an interesting social experiment, but I don't think it will be a successful one unless new users have a way to be on more equal footing with greedy whales who think that anyone receiving a fraction of a percent of the reward pool is cutting into their bottom line. I am very interested to see if and how this problem will be solved.
Thanks @sc0ut for sharing in this post, you do touch on important points.
Steemit and I agree with you, is a very interesting social experiment. It is one, that is showing us the flaws that can be improved on.
But then again, what might be considered a flaw will be an advantage for other members of the community.
My best advice in such context, can be best summed up with this saying "Be the change you want to see in this world".
By that, confrontation is not always the best and least resistant path in order to come out victorious, especially in an ecosystem like steemit, at this point in time.
The game just got started and that's way I encourage to focus more one adding value to the community by indirect means and try to understand why this "acts of injustice" are allowed to happen, will only give you a good experience on steemit.
Do not focus too much on fighting the whale abusers, as it will only discourage and give you a bad experience of this rather amazing social experiment that we are a part of.
As @ronel just posted here - "Everything will be fine in due time.", so focus on the exciting part of steemit at least for now. :)