Upvoting yourself?

Hello Steemians,

This seems like a contentious issue, or a misunderstood one. There are two parts to this issue, in my opinion. The first is the inner effects of upvoting yourself, as in the gains distribution, and there is the outer effects of upvoting yourself, as in how it looks to the community.

picture source: https://www.someecards.com/usercards/viewcard/be-as-mad-as-you-want-right-up-until-voting-day-on-voting-day-suspend-your-madness-and-be-rational-9a81f/

Before I attempt to elucidate a little, please ask yourself these following questions:

1. In a community where we hope to be upvoted and where we upvote others that we like, how does upvoting yourself add to the community?

2. If you do not have an inexhaustible amount of upvotes to dish out (around 10 per day, to keep your voting power high and so that it has influence, rather than have no effect at all), then doesn't it look a little selfish to spend even 10% (one vote) of the voting power that is for other subjects that you wish to support?

3. To upovote yourself is to say that you like your own work. In a growing, sharing community, isn't it obvious, once we have shared, that we like what we have produced?

4. Isn't it somewhat against the spirit of Steemit to upvote yourself?

picture source: http://antondarcy.com/page-15.html

1. Wouldn't you would feel better in the long run, if you were to give your upvote to somebody else?

2. Is the financial gain really worth it?

3. Aren't we all here, to some degree, by definition, for the long haul?

picture sourse: http://www.quotehd.com/quotes/words/long%20haul

Okay, firstly, I apologise if anybody feels attacked or is upset by my comments and this is not my intention at all. My intention, at most, is to prick the conscience enough to maybe consider these points, but I may well be missing something. I understand that it might be a profitable thing for those with over 500 Steem Power to do, and I may be wrong there, but don't need to consider that right now.

So, I feel that the benefits of upvoting yourself are massively outweighed by the negative image that it might portray of you, and this is most likey a false picture of who you really are.

picture source: http://www.youcantakeherhomenow.co.uk/2016/05/week-242-vote-for-me-play-it-cool-play.html

The following paragraph is copied and pasted from a comment that I have made elsewhere, on the same topic:

"There may be one reason for maybe upvoting the self, which is that you are adding curation value, so curators would get more money and this would be especially pertinent for a whale, I think, although it would be weird as well to upvote yourself, knowing your post will be upvoted, unless you have an already dedicated following. But, other than this, I really can't find a good reason to upvote yourself and maybe I'm wrong for doing this, or reacting this way, but if I see that the poster has upvoted themselves, I am reticent from upvoting, but still sometimes do, as the content is so good and I forgive them, but plagiarism and upvoting yourself don't sit too well with me and until I am maybe educated about something that I am missing, I will continue to produce and support original work and reciprocal people."

Another thing I will be doing, and this is obviously a personal choice thing, but all of my posts will be 100% power up, from now on, because it's better to have Steem power for the long haul. I know it takes longer to transfer to cash, due to powering down, but I just think the Steem Power helps with the growth of the site and community a little more, and in turn, that helps us all.

Thank you for reading this and I hope that I haven't upset anybody and more so, that I may have a point and that I am already on the good (Steem) ship Fairy-Shary :).