People often talk about upvoting and what is the best way to go about it.
I think it important to note for all new people, everyone on here, whether Whale or Red Fish, operates under the exact same voting rules. While the value of the vote changes as one amasses more SP, the amount of votes does not waver.
Each person is entitled to 10 full votes per day (100%). This is because it takes 2.4 hours for a 100% vote to replenish.
When one is new to Steemit.com, the voting slider bar is not available (from what I understand, it is available to those who use busy.org). Hence, all votes have to take place at 100%. I do not know the reason for this but it is how it is. Once a person hits 500 SP, the slider bar is available and will enable one to vote at lower percentages meaning he or she gets more votes.
Before deciding how to vote, I think it is important to know what your goal is?
Being a part of @fulltimegeek's program, we see a weekly listing done by @abh12345 of what each person who was delegated SP does. One of the big areas is the number of votes cast. If you click on his last update, you can see the voting is all over the place.
To read abh12345's full post:
@abh12345/fulltimegeek-s-stewardsofgondor-weekly-stats-with-self-vote-percentage-data
As you can see from the chart, the number of voted given ranges from 55-1600+. That is quite a spread. So which method is correct?
The answer is they both are, depending upon the goals of the individual.
With voting, there are basically two approaches:
Giving fewer votes but having each worth more.
This is the method that garners attention especially if someone has a lot of SP. Here is where a post can really jump. From my observation, this is a method that many whales use. They will go around upvoting content they like yet give the article or comment quite a lift. These are the ones who are really looking to reward quality content.
Of course, it isn't only whales who do that. I know a few dolphins who are not as active as others on here, hence they can vote at a much higher percentage and still keep their VP up. It is nice to get these votes and these, people, even though they run in small circles, tend to be remembered.
Giving lots of votes but reducing the amount of each one
The individuals in @fulltimegeek's program who are casting 1,000+ votes a week are utilizing this approach. To them, giving votes to many different contributions is important. They certainly are from the "spreading the wealth" camp. If you look at the number of people they voted for, it tends to be a high number. They are all over the place upvoting things that catch their attention.
The first approach is a significant monetary award for putting up a quality post that someone likes. If you goal is to really reward the best of content you can find, this is the way to go.
If however, you want to motivate the masses, then spreading one's vote to as many different people as possible is very effective. This carries on even added meaning when upvoting newer people. Since their voting weight is not much, getting a vote worth .10 or .20 S.T.U. makes a difference. It could be the motivation that someone needs to stick with the site. We all know how frustrating it is when new.
Personally, I use a blended approach. To start, I have someone I adopted under the 1KSP program. He gets two 100% upvotes from me a day. The goal with this program is to move him ahead to 1,000 SP as quickly as we can. Hence, the votes I give him carry some weight.
I also upvote the quality comments made for my articles. Most of the unique 183 unique people I voted for are those who comment on my articles. Since I tend to get a lot of newer people reading and commenting on my stuff, I reward them each time they post a comment. I usually do this at 6% voting power which is roughly .60 S.T.U. There are a number of people who get 14-16 upvotes from me a week which, looking at their growth in their SP, is having an effect.
Obviously, I wish I could upvote everyone at 100%. However, the system is not designed for that. We have to put some thought into what we are doing and how we are using our votes. One thing I think imperative, at least for me, is to keep my voting power as high as I can. I rarely let it drift below 90% (I try to run it down to that level twice a day). As I wrote in the past, I do not want to take the delegation from @fulltimegeek and waste it because I ran my voting power down to 10%. In that situation, I just threw away 90% of the SP he delegated to me.
What about self upvotes? Many people seem to take exception to those who upvote their own stuff.
For me, it is simple. I take time and put a great deal of effort into my posts on here. Because of this, and based upon the feedback I get, I feel I produce quality posts. Therefore, I have no problem upvoting my own articles. Since I do 13-14 a week, this is the number of votes I give myself.
That said, I do not upvote my own comments. When I post a comment, it is in response to what someone else wrote (either an article or a comment). It is up to that person and whoever else reads it to determine whether the comment is worthy of an upvote (and for those who have seen my comments, they often are longer than many people's articles).
There is another reason why I believe in this approach. As my SP increases, so does my VP. Upvoting my articles brings in rewards that I use to power up, hence increasing my VP on a weekly basis. What this does is that, over time, the amount I am upvoting other people increases. It is rather simple: the more powerful you become, the more powerful I become: the more powerful I become, the more powerful you become. The system on here creates this magical circle.
I hope this provides some insight into how I use my voting power and offers ideas of the best way to approach yours.
One final thought, every person on here should make sure he or she is using the allotted voting power each day. This is how we move others, and ourselves, forward. The systems gives you 20% of your total voting power daily, use it.
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