In their last update about HardFork 20 (Velocity) 
Image source
No, the photo doesn't go with the topic. I couldn't find an "I voted for me" image, so I thought maybe someone could use the soothing sight of cute kittens instead.
One of the things mentioned is a change in the way the creator's upvotes aids in curation. Rather than explain it, I'm providing a screenshot of the paragraphs devoted to the change. The first sentence refers to a preceding paragraph which discusses changes to the 30-minute curation window intended to help manual curators against curation bots.
I don't self-upvote, so I don't know how significant a change this is going to be for everyone. I suspect, though, like most things here, the true change will come to those who regularly self-upvote as high as they can who have significant voting power.
I'm not a fan of the self-upvote, but I understand why most people, especially those with less voting power, do it. It helps them receive part of their own upvote, plus it gives the post a greater opportunity to be seen.
That doesn't necessarily mean, though, that the creator should also receive all of their own percentage of the curation reward plus a portion of what's left.
What is the reason why people self-upvote? Generally, the first answer you hear is, "I believe this is an important/high quality post and I want people to see it." You will also hear a variation of either, "I'm too small to get fair compensation for this post so I might as well get my portion of the reward pool," or "I can do whatever the bleep I want. It's my reward pool money."
The latter two are probably another post, but If it is actually only meant to entice curation, then the self-upvote should act more asadvertising enticement additional incentive for curators to look at the post and determine if it's worthy of curation.
What do you think? Is it fair? Will it discourage creators from posting? Will it discourage self-upvotes, or temper them? Will it really make that much difference for most of us here?
As a side note, the Velocity update was posted 12-20-17. The opening paragraph states:
Significant progress is being made with hardfork 20, including some additional changes which will make the Steem blockchain even better. There is no official release date yet, but a release candidate is expected to be ready by the end of the year.
It's now the middle of February, so obviously, the release candidate is still being worked on, but based on the projection, the self-upvote change, along with the rest, could be any day.
