Curation rewards could in a roundabout way be considered profits though.
Curation rewards that have already been paid out to the eds-vote account sure would be classed as profits but not post rewards someone 'could' get by being upvoted imo, at least in the sense of getting votes for delegation/token ownership.
I just know there are some users on here who would get nothing in votes if it wasn't for their delegation to EDS. It's not that their content is crap either, it's just the fact that big holders tend to upvote the same accounts without branching out.
Indeed this is sometime the only way people see ANY votes at all, and while 'big holders' not branching out is part of the equation, limited user base as well as abysmally poor content discovery features are also a large player in this regard.
There is a lot stacked against users trying to get seen by what little eyes are actually active on hive.
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It's easy to understand why they would lean towards "schemes" like this then. I mean I know when I started here I was doing everything I could to maximize my gains, I probably still do today, but not as much because my account has become pretty sustainable and I have created a decent following. It took seven years though. Like I said in the other comment. I have pulled a lot of my delegations back over the past year. I just think a lot of people get hung up on the problems with HIVE, but no one wants to work together towards solutions.
I've done the same actually, on and off been delegating in one way or another trying to garner votes, get attention and similarly since my account is in a good place I've kinda just said to myself sod it.. I'll just get what I get.
It's easier to complain about a problem than think of a solution. haha. I've come up with 'solutions' to some problems before and they often get shot down.. because people don't seem to think optics and user experience is important.
At this point it makes more sense to just start making my own frontend to implement the ideas I have.
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Looking forward to seeing what you come up with!
Yeah and projects like these asking for delegations to "curate" but only voting their own bubble sure don't help make life easier for newcomers and retention, although they often like to mention that it's helping the retention of the delegators, meh.