The main point I was getting at is that money changes how people behave, even if its subconscious. I don't necessarily think that it always manifests itself in the form of being fake, but I think that the fact that you're paid to interact with people inherently stunts certain behaviors that would be plentiful on any other platform. And I'm not necessarily talking about trolling or negative behavior, but just the way people conduct themselves in interactions. I think that Steemit is a fascinating idea, I just think that it's flawed as a social network. I know the only reason I made an account was because of the money, and I'm sure that was the case for everyone else here, otherwise they'd be on a platform with a larger user base, like Reddit.

You're definitely right about me not trying enough though. I just got frustrated with spending an hour writing an article and having it earn 2 cents. I just heard about the sign-up bonus at the time and made an account. I tried for a couple of weeks to gain a following through the discord chat but obviously didn't succeed. Throw in the fact that I don't even like writing and you can probably see that my dislike of steemit stems from much more than peoples conduct hahahaha