Aloha Steemians, This place is fascinating; experimenting on the borders of anarchy.
I'm hoping to gather opinion on some things that heretofore have "gone against me grain"
Voting for my own posts
Since 2012 I've mainly used Facebook and liking ones own posts is just not something most people did, (not that there's anything wrong with that... ;) Most I would do, if trying to give a story traction, was "like" when a friend shared it. Reading around here shows advice to always do so, so tried it; still felt weird. I mean, I wouldn't have posted it if I didn't like it. I was pondering this at work today and thought, "well, politicians vote for themselves", but that didn't help...
At first I thought it was all about the $$$ so wasn't concerned, but then realized, for anyone who wants to see this place overtake the old centralized systems asap, it's all about the SP. Further, I found myself over in #charlesfuchs and read a piece that spoke of "playing the game" which I equated to the wisdom of "When in Rome..." Finally, a bit ago, I was over in reddit and realized that autovote is the default there...
So, I guess I'm ready to take the plunge -
Maybe I'm just hoping someone has a compelling argument to talk me down (well, up, as it were)
Bots
nope nope nope nope nope... My reluctance goes back to the r3VOLution. We dominated online polls and as a matter of principle discouraged bots, clearing cookies, etc.. I was a mod at RonPaulForums.com and it was a regular thing, explaining to green supporters the political implications of gaming the system. The one time we purposely did it was when someone from another camp alerted us to bots being deployed by Romney's crew. With the help of some folk from 4chan we crushed em anyway and then we got wind of a revenge plot for the next matchup against Jon Huntsman. We were more prepared for that one, but as you can see by the graph, we waited till they turned theirs on before sending out the word on our side. More here...
So I come over here to SteemIt and I'm like, "Bots? Really?!"
But, maybe I'm just old, (I suppose that's relative but I digress) and need to keep an open mind, but damn. I mean, I'm excited to build an account, and have often watched dolphins frolic, with a primal yearning, ...
but...
And then there's the article about "playing the game."
I lean no at this point, (but am not about to fall over.) Is it, "the done thing", that everyone does? Playing the game? A price we pay to play?
#GrumpyCompliant, of course...
The final thing, the money aspect, hardly goes against my grain, but it is a bit weird to get used to. The nuance of the process is amazing, with a highlight on maze - The idea of waiting til an opportune time to up-vote a post, having to keep track of voting power, and a myriad other details I've seen hinted at. I like the idea of curating and will get the hang of it, but damn.
I wont get into the strained commenting but... "don't mind us minnows feeding!"
The value aspect is so new, I suppose it is hard to grasp and irresistibly compelling for many, myself included. I see posts from people from all walks of life and that's encouraging. Like I started out, it seems like experimenting on the borders of anarchy and I'm a big supporter of that.
Ironically, as I've written this I've received ~$3.50 from a comment bot... lol
Thanks for reading. Please share your ideas on self-voting and bot-usage