Its certainly getting a bit shady. Its a pity really, there is only a finite amount of steem in the pool just like 'money' in the system. People are made to fight for a share, and find ways to 'game' the system to their advantage. Soon using 'bots' or buying large amounts of steem will probably become mandatory to get seen and gain any kind of traction.

In the end those that abuse any system dont seem to realise that all they really have at the end of the day is a handful of paper/plastic/bytes. They then wonder why they have no friends or only meet people like them that hang around for a free ride. They did not take the time to make real friends in the community and share themselves.

Don't get me wrong, I like getting money as much as the next person as it has potential to make my life a little easier, but I'm not sure the way steemit is heading is going to be sustainable for much longer.
I hope I'm wrong.
Love the picture BTW.