When I first came to Steemit, I immediately assumed that upvoting yourself is done just for fun, and doesn't really pay you anything. Any other option is just absurd, and could easily be manipulated by users.
Imagine my surprise when I found out that I could pay myself by upvoting my own posts!
Even after considering this, I still can't believe that this option exists. Let's consider why this is such a horrible idea:
A simple way to make money would be to invest in the platform and upvote every single one of your own posts. There, free money! The posts don't even have to be any good, they just don't have to be so bad that people flag them.
This type of manipulation could easily be the reason why Steem's price has been crashing.
If you can pay yourself, you don't have to work hard to get paid anymore. Submit any old post, upvote, and forget. The platform will be spammed with these boring, meaningless posts.
An immediate consequence of this problem is that it makes the rich richer. In order for this platform to work, the SP has to be spread out as much as possible, and not put into the hands of a small number of users.
Imagine you're a new user on the site. Here are two facts you'll learn on your first days here:
this reeks of a scam, and has undoubtedly scared off new users.
This option has got to be taken down. It makes absolutely no sense and is hurting this website!
