Steem has the same like system of Facebook. While I'm not super serious about this, just like throwing out some ideas and talking about it, I can see a system existing more like the old Myspace, which maybe can be for the underdog types that don't like the Egotism of FB.
I wasn't thinking, also, of doing more things for money, but somehow just interacting with it giving you money, like how much stuff you do, verses people voting on it, giving you more money (Steem). So, if Grandma wanted to send out to her friends pictures of her grandchildren, no one could vote on if her grandkids or she was cool. Passive aggression doesn't have to off grannie in my system.
My point was rather, that if in social interactions, there is a suspicion of monetary interest, then the social value of it falls to zero. If I write posts on a forum to discuss, and to a certain extend, to "give some social weight" to my ideas, then if people would somehow know that I do this for the financial gain it brings me, it would ruin the social value of my contributions. Confusing social success with "getting money for it" is in my opinion a fundamental mistake. If people write articles because they want to get paid for it by their readers, then these articles lose their social value ; that is, the writer is then seen as a professional, producing articles to win money, and not because he has something to say. People will write articles that are studied to please and attract donations, clicks, whatever it is that generates revenue, and not to give out a social posture. Writing for money already exists: it is called journalism. The writings by journalists are business ; they are not "social interaction". From the moment they do it for money, they can't do it "for social interaction". In the same way a call girl has sex for money, and has nothing to do with amorous feelings.