RE: Steemit on auto-pilot. Are we still a community?
Within the last eight weeks or so, I've picked up some autovoters. I didn't have them before, and I don't autovote them back, so I don't know why they're doing it other than they think it's worthwhile and they don't always have the time to try to keep up with it. Better to upvote than not get anything out of it at all.
However, you're right. It does lead to complacency on the part of the curator and the creator who is benefitting from the upvote. I'm putting in as much time on every posts as I've ever did because of those autovtes, though. When they do check in and revise, and the ones upvoting me do, I want them to see something that I at least consider to be worthwhile.
But it is that complacency that has kept me from auto upvoting, that and the fact I still want to read posts, comment if I have something meaningful to say and upvote if I think I should. The way I understand it's supposed to be.
It's also why I'm hesitant to delegate SP to anyone, and why I would have to think about it long and hard at whatever future date I had high enough SP where it might be meaningful.
Auto vote is a great tool, but, like you pointed also, I would sugest to the ones using it to check their voters from time to time and search for others when standards are not reached anymore. I have two auto voters also...I guess.
I suppose it means they need to have a standard set to begin with, and depends on what they most aspire to. Some folks are more interested in the amount of their curation reward at the end of the day than they are the content of the post they're autovoting. They do it because the author is consistently posting and whatever and whenever they upvote the post is giving them good returns. Not the way you or I would do it, which hopefully means that if we were to do ever do it, things could change as we help turn the tide. :)