Cutting through the confusion is helpful, and you do that here.
"... get passive curation rewards is by following an account with a large trail, and getting in towards the front of it"
I note, however, that chasing rewards is contrary to actual engagement and the more useful rewards of social interactions, as you point out that simply focusing on monetary rewards completely ignores those more valuable benefits of society.
I'm not accusing you of anything, and note you later point out that folks should just engage with content they like.
I'm just trying to point out that society is far more valuable than it's economic aspects alone, and stake-weighting has similar effects on social media that it has IRL. I am confident you aren't ignorant of the benefits of society beyond mere finance, and have followed you for reasons that have nothing to do with money.
"Die of Boils."
=) LOL
Thanks!
You are right, of course, but nevertheless, this series has been about maximising your curation rewards. I have written other posts about curation before, but I'm not going to any more. L0ook around you - a network where the home page is dominated by people buying votes will never be social. While there may be a fair few good people such as yourself who are here for the community, the reward pool is dominated by pure financial greed.
You're right about domination at present. It's the way of the world as well. Still, we wee folks that are here for other reasons persist somehow.
I'm on Reddit often. It's not like this. It's an actual social network where all the emphasis is on discussions, content and engagement. There are hundreds of millions of people on there, and there's lively discussion on even niche topics. Sure, there are trolls and bots, but there are moderators too that quickly deal with the menace. With premium, there are no ads either. So, in my world of social networks, Steem is an abysmal experience by comparison.
But yes, I know what you mean by "the way of the world".