There, I said it - I am a self-voter. This behavior has been going on since I joined Steemit, and I don't see it changing anytime soon. How can I justify this you ask? Well, I like my content, and it is a free market.
Did any of us join Steemit because we wanted to create another Animal Farm? We are fed up with our old Facebook or Google master and want a freer society to live and work in. We leave the old paradigm and begin creating a new one, only to find in the end that we don't know how to run our own platform any better.
I don't see the regulation of our voting as a healthy choice. We are working to solve a new problem with solutions from an old world.
In simple terms, the argument seems to be that those who are self-voting are draining the reward pool for themselves and not sharing the daily rewards. *I say let them do so.* We have learned time and again in our society that such behavior is not rewarded by people participating in free enterprise.
What do you do when you talk with someone that only enjoys speaking highly of themselves? You want out of that conversation as quickly as possible. We are wired to want to hear more about ourselves. Self-voting satisfies that partially but what we truly want to hear is if other people approve of what we create.
The biggest rewards are never reserved for those that toot their own horn. The people creating the greatest value will always be rewarded with the largest reward. If you start telling people what they can and cannot do with their money - Steem Power in our case - you are cutting off one head of Hydra and allowing two more to grow in its place.
Thinking of the Little Guy
Starting out on Steemit is hard. You see posts worth hundreds of dollars and you are struggling to make $1-$2. The reality sets in for you that buying Steem is a good idea. This puts upward pressure on the price of Steem and benefits all of us.
What if you can't purchase the Steem you want? Then it is time to build a following by upvoting and commenting on other posts. Wait, you self-upvoted your own posts and now have a low voting power. You decide in the future to vote smaller amounts on your own posts and support the people that you find to be creating quality content.
This scenario is what it takes to build a business. You market your products and earn on the value you created. The more people buying your product the more revenue you create. That customer base is built on Steemit by commenting and upvoting on posts other than your own. You can make some money by only self-upvoting, in fact the curation rewards are better when you do so. However, in the big picture did you give up a feast shared with friends for a frozen pizza you cooked yourself?
me for more great content.