I'll be clear. I've benefited from Qurator when I was inclined to create content. My main comment was uninformed surprise - as well as a disagreement with the tone of the message.
Imagine if a charity started going around plastering papers on peoples houses thanking them for living and that that the charity looks forward to their first donation. ;c) This is different but the peer pressure aspect remains the same.
I really am not trying to stir trouble and I can assure you that I doubt that I'll benefit much from Qurator in the coming weeks unless I truly am making a recovery.
However, if I may suggest it, since QT0 is causing such a stir - might I make the following suggestions:
1 - Once in a very blue moon - send 0.001SBD to some of the QT0 users who have posted at least once in the previous period. Have that message read 'Qurator remembers you and remains committed to helping you thrive! Don't forget that getting more rewards on your posts is easy! Check our latest daily qurator post for more information'
2 - Include a small paragraph near the beginning of every Daily Qurator post post linking to an informative post about how to get into tiers - and have that post or a linked post get into the pros and cons and hows of the different ways of contributing to Qurator.
3 - Consider providing a little room for persons (like myself) who may contribute over the long term but may not post in that same period.
Such could take various forms - but perhaps each tier provides 'Qurator points'.
You have set a price on how much a tier is worth. But the tricky part is evaluating votes against such. Such involves the most administrative costs.
One possibility here is to release monthly reports to all members of the total worth of their up-votes of Qurator (there are tools that do this - and I get the impression that the Qurator devs have the means to query the Steem blockchain).
Such reports could take various forms - and it is 'also' possible to enhance the previous suggestion by making such be personal in the form of a transfer note (You could make the frequency of such reports depend on tiers with the rarest at QT0 being once every 3 months - if that user is active - and maybe once a year if not (in case they return).
Qurator Points:
The simplest way to go about such is to say that Qurator Points translate to a post vote. The more Qurator Points a person has accumulated the heavier the vote - and the heavier the vote the more the drain on the Qurator Points total.
So - a person could theoretically upvote for 3 months and slowly gain Qurator Points (and other means such as delegation and Steem payments also involve a fixed Qurator Points increase for the period - hence the whole equivalency thing) without posting anything - and then when they 'do' post - they gain a healthy upvote from Qurator even if they didn't upvote Qurator that week.
Such is a proposed rebalance (and the tweeking and specifics need to be thought through). Do with such, what you will.
RE: A Shadow That Looms and Deepens