I've been reading a lot of posts about people self-upvoting their own comments to an extreme degree after HF 19. Everyone has a different perspective on self-voting, but I think we can all pretty much agree that if someone upvotes their own 10 + inane, superficial comments in a thread, day after day, that's pretty shitty and reflects poorly on one's reputation. Can you imagine what a social network would look like if we all just went into a corner, upvoting only our own comments all day? That would be a masturbatory nightmare:
There are lots of solutions being passed around here, but I propose a different one:
START UNFOLLOWING AND DISENGAGING FROM PEOPLE WHO ABUSE SELF-VOTING.
Now many different definitions of self-upvoting exist. For me personally, I upvote all my posts, as I see nothing wrong with that. However, I don't upvote my own comments (as long as no one is flagging me abusively, which rarely happens). I think we can all agree that if someone continually upvotes their low-value inane comments, then they are abusing the system.
We all have a choice who we pay attention to and who we ignore.
You can unfollow those who are abusing this platform, for we all know that this platform was not designed to upvote our own stupid comments all day. Unfollow and disengage from those who are abusive, just like we do in real life. That's a solution that we can all do right now. A healthy dose of self-love in the form of upvoting our post is different than upvoting our dumb comments a bunch of times. I think most rational people would be able to agree with this statement.
Now, this brings me to the definition of a word we see every day: STEEM.
Do you know what STEEM means?
Here's a reminder:
A gleam of light does not go into a corner, self-upvoting their own stupid comments all day.
A flame. Something you value. It's coming from the word, esteem. Let's review that word:
respect and admiration, typically for a person.
"he was held in high esteem by colleagues"
synonyms: respect, admiration, acclaim, approbation, appreciation, favor, recognition, honor, reverence;
Notice something interesting about this definition: it relates to how one person feels about another person. It's not talking about how one feels about one's self. THIS IS CRUCIAL FOR UNDERSTANDING HOW STEEMIT WORKS.
Ok, we are all on a spectrum of greed. Having a balance is crucial to the smooth operation of a society. What kind of society do we want to create in Steemit?
Carry on.
Keep in mind all minnows, that coming into Steemit and trying to find an instant get-rich quick scheme will only end in disappointment/quitting. The ones who remain are the ones who take the time to read the whitepaper, and to understand what a Mutual Aid Society is. Here's something about Mutual Aid Society:
"When you join a mutual aid society by helping to support their members you join a community of people who will have your back when you need it the most. It is through mutual sharing of life’s unexpected and undeserved burdens that members of a society gain peace of mind." -Bytemaster Blog
We can create the most amazing place on the internet, or a masturbatory shit-pool.
It's up to us.
Choose wisely or risk being ignored.
ps- solve a problem that affects a million people and you'll never have to worry about money again. Solve a problem that affects one person (you) and you'll be scraping off your own scabs, trying to sell them for ten cents to a bunch of people who don't want them.
And thanks to @aggroed, we have this handy list of the worst offenders that we can all start unfollowing, and disengaging from:
