Hey Steemit,
My current self voting policy is 1/3 to me and 2/3 for everyone else. Keep in mind that when I say 1/3 to myself, this is more of a theoretical maximum, rather than something I actually practice.
Right now, I don't even think I vote 1/10th for myself. I can't be bothered to look at my history and do the math, but that's my gut feel.
I think I'd be ok with someone who voted 50% themself and 50% everyone else. It's not the best but..I could live with it.
However if you are not even voting for others half the time? I have a problem with this, very selfish voting.
Dan worried about this too, and you see it in the whitepaper (you have read the whitepaper yes?):
The naive voting process creates a Prisoner's Dilemma whereby each individual voter has incentive to vote for themselves at the expense of the larger community goal. If every voter defects by voting for themselves then no currency will end up distributed and the currency as a whole will fail to gain network effect. On the other hand, if only one voter defects then that voter would win undeserved profits while having minimal effect on the overall value of the currency.
- From the Holy Whitepaper...
I love that the Prisoner's Dilemma is mentioned here. This is the classic example. A prisoner can benefit in the short term by acting in his own self interest, but cooperating prisoners will do even better in the long run.
Mr. Big Investor might say:
Hey Neoxian, I just dropped 60000 USD on steem, why shouldn't I vote myself twenties?
Dude, I totally get where you are coming from. I've dropped some serious cash into Steem myself, and feel sorely tempted to scoop up some bills back. But now..both you and I are heavily invested in Steem, and Steemit. We want this thing to take off right? (And ultimately get more rich, hey I'm not a saint here).
To many large SP accounts voting for themself and Steemit becomes this:
(Ouroboros pic from aquariusthewaterbearer.com)
The Ouroborus, a snake eating it's own tail. You may rack up mountains of SteemPower, but if Steem falls below 10 cents due to lack of network effects, then it all comes to nothing.
Steemit is a social system, fleshy human beings, interacting with each other, discussing, learning, being entertained, spending money is what we need. So sure, quietly build up your steem power if you must, but also share the love. This is the true path to success.
