Is Self-Voting Acceptable?
I recently came across a topic that I feel pretty strongly about because I've seen the abuse of the system here and have to chime in. I believe in investing in yourself as to better invest in the platform as a whole. By voting on your own posts or comments, you give back to yourself and are better able to give to the community. I'm not saying go out and give yourself ten 100% upvotes on useless comments. I am saying, it's ok to vote on yourself in moderation because they're YOUR votes. No one should be able to dictate where you can and can't put them. I recently read an article by @mikepm74 that has gotten me itchy on the subject, which also led me to a few other posts I will include here later.
Other People's Opinions
I believe, in certain posts, that my content is worthy of the Original Poster's attention, so I will give an upvote worth enough to put my comment toward the top of the default trending results.
I do this myself. I believe it is a fully viable and appropriate use of self-voting and should not be frowned upon. At the same time, you'll often find me on the top curators lists because I also REWARD good comments on a regular basis. I give more attention to my team members in #thealliance, but I do not ignore worthy and well-thought out comments that clearly signify an individual has read the post I put up. I even upvote comments on other people's posts I think are sufficient of recognition. In fact, @eturnerx gained my following today because of his comment. Proof of what I'm saying can be found here:
Another article I read on the topic really got me thinking. It kind of shed light on the vanity of it all.
@klye made a reference to Facebook and how if you 'like' your own post on there, you were a mockery of the platform. But you know what? I almost ALWAYS liked my own posts, do you know why? Because they were mine. If I didn't like them, I wouldn't have most likely put it up to begin with. Granted, there were some I put up that I did not simply 'like'. There were angry rantings, and as such, I used fitting reactions like an angry face. I've put up some comedic memes and videos, they got a laughing emoji attached. My point is, it is all OPINION. Nobody can dictate that except the one who holds it. They should not be punished or ridiculed because of it. As such, I almost always keep that default box checked when I make a post here on Steemit. Freedom of Speech & Expression anyone? @klye's post can be found here:
I'll just clearly state my position: Your stake is your stake. You earned it. Use it any way you want.
Is self-voting bad? No. Is it good? No. It's completely neutral.
Voting is not about peer review. It is about using your stake as you please.
It is arrogance to imply that someone cannot use their own stake as they please.
Giphy rocks!
Now, I may not have been here as long as some people, so I don't know @inertia well. But, I do know he/she is just spot on with this post. I actually read this after I made a comment on @mikpm74's post. I was pretty heated and just had to let it out. Feel free to venture over there and take a look. But that is my point exactly. It's your vote. You will get mine if I like your shit. Simple as that. I'm no greedy miser and love sharing the wealth and helping out when I can. Which brings me to one more thing @inertia said:
...a person with 1,000 SP is going to vote ten times a day and walk off with 2 STEEM every day by self-voting...The really weird thing is, this person isn't going to ever realize that they could make more by voting for other people's good content. You know what? I'm fine with that. Their loss.
What Do I Think?
...some of these bigger guys yak about self voting and circle jerk rings and we know for a fact, they're being entirely hypocritical. Steemit is not just a social media platform for some people. It's a business and those that treat it as such are the same people saying you shouldn't do this or that and they're doing it themselves housing multiple accounts and upvoting their inner circles. Then, they get mad when other people do it? Can't agree. You should be able to put your vote wherever you want, how you want. It is YOURS. No one else's. To dictate how a person should or shouldn't vote infringes upon the decentralization of the platform and makes it less appealing. Should you reward good content? Of course! But at the same time, I see posts that are total shit getting upvoted by a dozen different bots that have no discretion of content and also see sold votes for total garbage. Votes bought from accounts that hold stature. You want to talk what's really wrong with the platform? Start there. The people that treat it like a business and use their oppressive big ogre thumbs to press their own agendas.
As to not target anyone specific, no names will be mentioned. Anyone with an inquisitive mind can follow a few trails of bread crumbs and see for themselves. So, what's the real problem here? It's the vile business mind that is giving other Steemit users guff. Greed, and nothing more. It's great making money, and we all love doing that. BUT, with so many new users coming in, some of those 'big guys' are losing votes and money because they don't think they need to post as often or put out as good of quality content anymore and still expect to 'make money'. So, they feel they have to take action. I've seen 'abuse bots' built to try and stifle people that are genuine in their content and have outstanding posts. I've seen excellent comments flagged for nothing more than disagreement of OPINION.
But seriously, let's be real here folks. Facts are facts and opinions are opinions. Learning to decipher the two is entirely on you. Who cares what someone does or doesn't vote on? I've actually stopped voting on and following some people because of their self-righteous duplicity. I've removed votes for witnesses as there is 'more than meets they eye' to some of them. Let's keep Steemit great by recognizing what is fact and what is opinion and giving people the freedom they deserve. Like it or not...the cream will always rise and the dirt will always fall, regardless how thick the mixture.
