The most common criticism I hear about Curie is that it "just" gives authors a big upvote and then "abandons" them. The inference is that it doesn't give them a community, work with them one on one to help them learn how to post better, etc. The funny thing about that... let's poll the minnows here, shall we?

Hey minnows! Is there a shortage of communities you can join here? Any shortages of Discord groups you can join that will help you learn to post better? Any shortage of communities on almost every conceivable posting subject out there?

Now... is there a shortage of huge accounts willing to give you a huge upvote without making you jump through hoops? Is there a shortage of accounts with huge votes that are upvoting good content just because it is good content?

The answers to these questions are clear. There are tons and tons of communities here and pretty much none of them give out $100+ upvotes to their members. DTube and Utopian.io are obvious exceptions, but are also obviously focused on very narrow ranges of posting (video and open source contributions, respectively).

For just an average blogger who has read the advertisements that STINC continues to put out there, saying that this is a place that you can be paid for posting, the reality when they come here is that groups like Curie and OCD are the only realistic chance of getting a big upvote.

Now lets talk about value added to the platform. How many people are talking to friends and family that are not on Steem platform yet about the awesome Discord community they joined? Vs. how many people talk to friends and families about the USD $200+ upvote they received just for posting a song or artwork or story that they would have posted for free in the past on Facebook?

What is more likely to get people to come here... a community they can join or a huge upvote on their posting that they didn't have to pay for? The answer is so obvious that it blows my mind when I hear people questioning the value of Curie. Wake up people! You can find a community of friends and peers on Facebook or any other social media platform. You can't find a group like Curie that will give you a significant sum of real-world money for your posting there.