When I first started posting on Steemit:
Steem was overwhelming.
Everyone seemed like they were in a rush to produce, produce and produce some more, simply to make some sweet crypto cash and buy a new monitor or what not with the profits. Everyone was stepping on one another's toes trying to produce faster than one another and to mine as much profit from the Steem community as possible.
Posts were all about a single/few subject(s).
Everyone was writing about 1 of 5 subjects, Steem, Crypto News, Introductions, and so on.. simply because noone upvoted other content due to the low rewards for doing so. Everyone started a big circle jerk of content creation as opposed to an exploratory mission to create a new info-sphere called Steemit.com. After a while everyone stopped reading most of the content and started upvoting based on titles and imagery and whether or not it was in the "hot" section. Most of this has been remedied since, which is great. Content is more spread out and everyone is creating their own content sphere, which in my opinion is what Steemit excels at, and people overlook it alot.
Posts were all written in the same fashion...
Everyone was using the word "STEEMIT" on every subject line, categorizing everything under the same 5 categories and forgetting all the cool nuggets in this community such as #marijuana and so on.. Everyone was simply writing the same thing as other people, 3 weeks later, in their own words, to make a quick buck. I believe Steemit has alot more potential than that and since then Ned, Dan and others have done a wonderful job steering the SteemShip to new heights. More people have joined since launch and brought their own takes on using Steemit, and over time it has helped curb the templated posts, and over time I believe that will continue.
Steem was all about the monetary value provided, rather than valuable content.
Every post I read or attempted to read was always aimed at profits, meaning the content was short, sweet and to the point with nice gimmicky tidbits and fun images, with a HUGE lack of depth. And an even larger lacking of creativity. Most posts were ripoffs of one another, stolen ideas from around the web, half written articles geared towards going viral on Steemit to generate those awesome sweet profits. The only real way to profit was to "write for the whales" and hope one of them liked your post..
But that all is changing slowly and most of it has died down to acceptable levels from what I can see..
And what we are left with is what Steemit.com was always intended to be, a community of content curators, creators and fans all sharing and generating a little side money for their hobbies and interests, rather than a piranha style feast of "profiteering" by creating content. There doesn't seem to be nearly as much whale hunting, the posts floating around are far more creative and have much more depth than before, and the wealth is being shared much more responsibly. That is what excites me about the future of Steemit.com more than anything else, and thats why even though I'm not much of a writer, I don't ever see myself 'walking away' from Steemit. I'm excited to see what comes next!