Would it be desirable and feasible to enable accounts to display an indicator, verified by the blockchain, showing that the account does not self vote? There could be one for posts and one for comments. I think it is important to give all Steemians a more visible choice between supporting accounts that upvote themselves or not.
Self-upvoting is NOT abuse in any way. It is an intentional benefit of accumulating, holding and using Steem Power. However there are clearly many accounts that are happy to act against their own financial interests for the benefit of the Steem community and the health of the reward pool. The question is, if some of the financial benefits of Steem Power are "culturally" denied, then will SP become less appealing? For some, quite possibly, however, I think those that sell will be replaced by other accounts that value SP more highly for other reasons.
Therefore, I think it would be very helpful to provide Steemians with a clear indicator of wether or not a Steemian upvotes their post and how long since they last upvoted themselves.
Perhaps a change in voting habits would then occur which would support a shift towards less self upvoting.
The assumption I'm making in terms of benefit is the more of the reward pool available to discovering and supporting quality newer accounts, coupled with the greater the influence lower SP holders feel in giving Steem, the better for Steem as a whole. I think the evidence provided by the no whale voting experiment showed a powerful correlation to that effect.
Let's give Steemians a visible choice. There may be other visual cues (like the 100% post power up indicator) that could also help.
I don't think this would effect a low SP account for self upvoting, especially on their posts, but at a certain level, Steemian voting support may favour larger holders who forego self-voting in favour of pure community rewards.
I would love to know your thoughts.
Happy Steeming