Hey my friend, welcome to Steemit! The reason it is crossed out is because the author, which is Dan in this case, has declined payment when he submitted the post. So the post can still be voted up and seen by everyone, and they still calculate the value it would have been worth, but there won't be any payout on the post. He probably did that because he wanted to promote the post, but didn't want to look like he was taking away rewards from everyone else.