My comment from a few days ago, in another article's comment section:
Steemit now is a little place.
I think, most of new members come to earn. Earn fast, now, a lot. It doesnt work. But they dont know. They can see the trending page, a 5 min video in dlive make 500$, a two-picture post make 200$.
And they think, its work like youtube or insta. But is not.
I think, steemit its like a marketplace, but we are the seller AND the buyer, and the market-boss give for us a money every morning, "go, and spend this". Its a little weird idea (i like it btw), so its almost unbeleviable for most of the people, and for the new users. They can see the working, and they dont believe it.
If the community can teach this simple rule for every new member, we win.
I can understand... And while I'm not really a "Steemit" user anymore I can remember using that site.
I do agree that expectations are a little bit skewed from several things.
One of the things that make us decide to not use the term TRENDING on our Steem interface.
There's still some more things we can do to help people set their own healthier expectations.