Good to see you. Let's lighten you up a bit. There's no need to powerup thousands of Steem to be in a club. Just a percentage of what is left (your earnings minus what goes to the curators!). So if you have 1 Steem you can powerup 0.50 and be in club 5050. If you powerup 1 Steem it's club100 (note: upvoting should be done for a certain period!). So the clubs say nothing about how rich you are, the amount you are rewarded with but about the percentage you powerup from what is left and that can be a very tiny bit!

Example
Settings 50/50
Of the rewards a part can go to:

• curators (those who upvote you, with me in average 50% at times more)
• burnsteem 25%
• community support (in average 10-15℅)

Imagine your reward is 2 $... How much do you think is left?

I don't agree with you that each host of a contest is free to set the rules. I can if I pay the prizes myself but if I use booming upvotes it is a complete different story. Those votes are not given by a host or community.

If you go for regulation, rules you agree this platform is centraluzed, right?
This also means that rules set count for everyone and it can't be that who is clubless can asks others to join or reject them. With you I agree there's no answer given and I would not count with the fact that will happen.
As you can read the excuse is "they might not have known it".
Better be careful what I say or... Interesting how adults hide and don't dare to speak out on a platform they say is de decentralized.

I would love to hear some answers amd if the answer is: I never check, I am lazy and don't care but just do as I am told, I can live with that. It would be at least a honest answer.
But who knows all who I mentioned are ill this week and next week.

I tried. No idea if it's a woman or man thing to do or just a nutjob done by a crazy idiot no one takes serious. But hey, the blockchain noted it.
😁