Looking for sources for a feature on Steemit

As I mentioned in my first post, I'm a journalist and new to the Steemit community. As such, I'm very interested in its potential as a new funding model for journalism, but would also like to take into account criticisms that have been levelled at it and try to understand how it is likely to develop going forward.

I will be writing a feature on Steemit for VICE Motherboard, and am looking for sources who can talk to me about their experience using the platform, especially:

• Writers who have been able to make large amounts of money through the platform, or sums comparable to more conventional freelance work.
• Users who have invested their own money in Steem.
• Users who have been involved with the platform since the early stages.
• Anyone who has experienced negative aspects of the community they are willing to share.
• Anyone with an unconventional story relating to Steem.

I need to be able to fact-check any information provided so you need to be happy with going on record with the information, i.e. I won't be able to include any anonymous claims.

If you'd like to talk you can reach me through Twitter as @corintxt where I have open DM's, alternatively my email is in the format firstname.lastname@gmail.com (you'll see my name on Twitter). Of course feel free to comment directly on this post too, or tag another user who fits the above criteria.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Corin