Gentlemen and Ladies, we implore thee ..
In our brave new world, the success of one individual, or that of any group, should not limit the potential success of another individual or group, if it did one would have to say that there are limitations in the system's design that need to tweaked. High levels of voluntary participation, in pretty much anything, is something to be celebrated, not feared, punished, nor should the degree of participation be limited to any extent, otherwise the overall system, as Freedom Facilitator, falls down.
We must remain united in order to topple centralized media .. serious dissension is our Achilles Heel
Well, this is not entirely true .. but it sounds good. STEEM is designed to fuel many kinds of projects, that do not necessarily need to share the same "space" - busy.org for example and now steemsports.com - all that is required is access to the blockchain. However, in these early days, we should be seen by potential members and the competition as marching in lockstep .. a revolutionary group, that can not be divided ... can not be divided & conquered!
The fact that Steemsports is getting the attention it is, the level of participation that it does, is because it maximizes all the positive elements of this new world. It brings people together around a subject which they already gather around in all other "traditional" forms of media, in very very large numbers. As in those other venues, they are able to 'voice their opinion' on the outcomes of events, and because they are doing so on STEEMIT they happily receive a return that has monetary value. The same would be true if the subject was any other 'thing' in this world which statistical analysis could be applied to .. the thing is, not a whole hell of a lot of people are interested in crop yields in Sumatra, but for some crazy reason they LOOOOVvvve baseball.
"Sports Betting" and gambling in general, is the subject of a lot of moralistic grandstanding by non-participants .. with good reason of course, because there is real addiction, real losses, real familial disasters that result .. suicides, drug and alcohol abuse, the degradation of urban areas that surround casinos .. this shit is allllll true! But, what the hell does that have to do with STEEMSports!? People are not going to get a reverse mortgage to buy STEEM in order bet on the Pittsburgh f'n Penguins! Steemsports is 'communication about events', and the the evaluation of individual determinations of outcomes ... it is 'not' gambling, because nothing is put at risk. Things may have changed with the creation of pay-per-play, but I think this will be limited .. which is the rational thing to do.
People, we need to relax and determine what the 'real' issues are here, or we risk sounding like we are bellyaching for no good reason - sure, I'm jealous of their success, but I have not worked hard enough 'yet' to feel so justifiably. It is a great idea and it is implemented well, the posts that the STEEMSports crew provide are information rich .. if you are in to that kind of thing .. and the whole project serves as a model for any other individual or group that wishes to put together a series of posts that have the potential to draw any amount of attention. If you are not able or willing to produce posts that attract large numbers of people then there should be no expectation of return - even if what you are doing is 'very' worthwhile .. purely artistic, incomprehensible rageful opinion, or whatever you wish to share. These chaps just happened to choose one of the most popular cultural phenomenons ... sports!
Disclaimer: Personally, I do not consume porn .. I think it is dangerous to one's mental health and intimate relationships .. although if you have neither, it can be quite the opposite! :) Regarding sports .. I personally have no love for team sports, and regard 1-on-1 combat as the only 'real' sport that ever existed.
This also applies to pornography by the way .. we want to bring in as many participants as possible, from all walks of life - this we can all agree upon is our collective objective. When you say 'all walks of life' this includes high-flying intellectuals and more basically-oriented folks, as well as the absolute misfits, fiends, delinquents, and str8 crazy mfers. Yes .. yes it does include them, or we again lose our claim as a freedom-maximizer .. we begin to behave like a club, or worse even, a collection of warring cliques ... THIS WILL BE OUR DOOM!
Self-Policing & Transparency
Self-policing is sometimes a good thing however .. if @steemsports pay-to-play limited the size of bets that could be placed, so no one could get themselves in trouble, and if the 18+ content crowd limited their 'contributions', so as to not include that which has no value .. stuff meant only to shock and disgust, then we would have no reason to call anyone out. Discussions of whether or not something has any 'value' are always interesting, so if the poster really is no sure if it does or not, they can solicit feedback and a conversation can start ... which is what we are here for afterall, is it not?
Taking an open-source approach to projects is always a good thing .. fully informing the community about what you are doing, exactly and why, and what you hope to do in the future. This is in the spirit of the thing, is it not ... no one should use an open-platform to create an insular entity designed to benefit a few at the expense of the many, which in the long-run spells doom for the entire system .. which also dooms the kingdom they wish to build atop of it.
Geometric Consciousness Expansion
When you have a massive number of people engaging in the proper way, reaching conclusions, then re-reaching slightly different conclusions about slightly different perspectives, again and again, over and over what you have is a large number of people accelerating their awareness and understanding, and gaining an increased ability to participate in such discussions, debates, all learning .. .together. Beyond monetary return, this instrument of progress, is the true value of this system .. but incentives are an absolutely necessary element, in order for people to check their behavior .. yes, there is absolute freedom .. you are free to make yourself appeal to a large audience, and you are equally free to make yourself look like a ginormous twat, who should be entirely ignored.