Did you notice ats-david had enormous payouts for 2 days, posts at $175 and $216 for author payout.

I'm not sure what everyone's obsession with me is over the last few days, but I can tell you why these posts received the payouts that they received.

The post about the hard fork was pretty well-received by the community, particularly with witnesses. It actually had some pretty widespread support from a variety of whales who frequently disagree on plenty of issues. The post also garnered well over 700 views and over 130 comments, so it appears that it was quite popular and engaging with the community, hence, the upvotes that reflected this.

As far as @smooth's vote is concerned - he gave a 10% upvote on it, if I'm not mistaken. The bulk of the rewards actually came from @blocktrades, who happens to be the the largest whale on the platform the last time I checked.

The post for NASCAR was the inaugural post for that contest and is part of the overall development project for a fantasy sports platform that will be built on the STEEM blockchain. It's essentially no different than any other development projects that receive upvotes from many whales, such as busy.org and the esteem app. If users feel that these will add value to STEEM/Steemit, then they tend to willingly support them. I can only imagine that @smooth believes that a fantasy sports platform will be a great benefit for STEEM, and in turn, all of its users and investors.

It should also be noted that @blocktrades is an open supporter of these contests (which are to be used as test cases/experiments for games and also return rewards for those who engage with them and can offer feedback) and is one of the main exchange platforms that can be used to deposit and withdraw money into the STEEM ecosystem. Obviously, building a platform on top of the STEEM blockchain is of great interest to him, so as the largest stakeholder of STEEM by individual accounts, he has taken an active role in supporting the contests and development and is one of the main reasons that the payouts are what they are.

And quite frankly, the payouts on my sports contest posts - which actually have more utility for users than simple announcement posts - are typically much lower than other project announcements and updates, which commonly see $250 - $1000 payouts, even at the recent low prices. The fact of the matter is - I don't receive the blessings of Steemit, Inc. for my projects/posts, so they don't reach those levels. Yet I don't see you harping on those other users/developers about their payouts.

You don't like sports. I get it. You've made that known and you've also made it known that you believe your content and ideas are far superior to everyone else on the platform. And that's great. Be proud of your work. But don't forget that your opinion of value is yours and that it is subjective. As someone who seems to be generally opposed to sports and sports content, you are pretty much in the minority of the global population. Sports is a huge market, both online and offline.

If you want your STEEM to be worth more - and in turn, your post payouts - you're going to need to accept that a large influx of users of STEEM/Steemit is what's needed, and with that large influx of users, your content will likely return closer to where it is in the normal marketplace of internet users. The general population - based on what I've observed over the course of my life - isn't interested in a lot of what you post. You can carve out your own niche, but understand that it will be a niche. Continually pointing out that other people are using their own accounts how they see fit and complaining that you're being mistreated by such users isn't going to change the reality of the marketplace.

So, you can either continue building your brand - with the blessings of Steemit, Inc. - or you can continue trying to browbeat everyone into believing that you ought to be receiving the payouts that you think you deserve. They will either agree or they won't agree, but post after post about how stupid and indifferent everyone is or about how evil and rigged the system is, likely won't score too many points with reasonable people.

And if you continue to personally attack other users, you can probably expect to receive more of the same treatment that obviously gets under your skin. Personally, I find it amusing that the most rewarded user on the platform over the span of at least two months - and earning well over double my rewards over the same period - thinks that I'm earning too much from my posts.

http://steemwhales.com/trending/?d=60

You really need to take a hard look at your own behavior and the market that you're trying to reach. That's the only advice that I'm going to give you and if personal attacks are going to continue to be your M.O., then don't expect me and others to just continue to play along. If you have a legitimate grievance, then use some of that rationality and superb consciousness that you always write about and work through these things like an adult.