Great stuff Karl, thank you for this well written response!

I think all of us community minded folks need to be ready to jump ship if (1) the algorithms which incentivise self-interest over engagement don't change and (2) a similar platform with more socially aligned algorithms emerges.

I know what you mean, and the likely destination dont worry :)

And I hope that the changes in the next fork take place. I see one of them as a positive for curation rewards, which involves the author receiving no curation if they vote within 15 minutes. It could end up as a battle for that 15 minute position, but could still work out a bit better than at present.

This is still all a bit of a test, after all... and let's remember, in five years time, steemit probably won't be the only established blockchain based social media platform, and if this place doesn't change there may be somewhere more aligned with our values to which we can all flee.

Yes this is very true, and indeed the vision of @ned hearing him talk at Steemfest. I received a comment on discord today which was a little tongue in cheek, but suggested that the UI here was left alone (requiring changes) in the hope that something better would be developed to serve the purpose of blogging/content creation on the Steem Blockchain :)

Anyway, we shall continue on doing what we think is right, and if we end up with nothing for it, at least we tried.

Cheers!