NOT A HYPOCRITE: Self voting comments...
Awhile back when the big discussions about people who were self up voting their own comments after HF19 and draining the reward pool came up I indicated that if you wanted to do something about it rather than FLAGGING people for doing it you could simply not follow them. I did stop following some people, and I will do more when I notice it. Why? I am a pretty avid comment up voter. Unless it is someone being a jerk, or all it says is something like "Nice post" I'll likely be up voting it. I've been up voting comments at 1% for a week or more now while monitoring my voting percent. I am now doubling that so will be voting 2% on comments to see how it goes. I want to encourage discussion. If my voting percent can bear it I'll keep bumping it until I'm hopefully at 4 or 5%.
I can tell you some of the people I unfollowed I didn't really want to, but I try to be a man of my word. If people who currently vote their own comments stop and I notice and they are someone I engage with I will be more than happy to follow them again. I also will support your comments, and you shouldn't need to support your own.
If you are doing it for visibility. I am pretty good about looking at every reply I get. I've missed some before due to for some reason how steemit sometimes sorts the replies tab. It doesn't happen very often.
So if you are someone who has been following me, and I was following you and you are wondering why I may not be following you now, that would be the reason. If you are angered about this, that was not my intention, but if you feel the need to unfollow me then I would understand that.
If you however, have been up voting your own comments and are willing to stop doing that and instead cast those votes for other people in the community let me know and I'd be ecstatic to follow you again.
I wanted to write this post as one person just asked me why I stopped following them, and they were actually one of the people I was bummed about no longer following. I did write a few posts and comments about this before I did it, and like I said I didn't want to be a hypocrite. Practice what I preach.
I really don't upvote my comments, maybe because i am still growing on the platform. But i do give upvote to my post atleast with my least cents. I always think if you dont show people that you like your post then who will start it?. However, these are still due to my status on this platform.
I actually don't have a problem with people up voting their own post. It is only the comments that it can quickly drain things. I first noticed it with a guy who replied to me (disagreeing it was capitalism vs communism debate... he was the pro-communist) his first comment he up voted $3. There was a lot of back and forth between the two of us. By the time I finally pointed out that he who was talking about mean capitalists and how they concentrate wealth and are greedy yet I'd seen him up vote his own comments probably close to $30 in the span of that dialog. His voting % was down to $1.30 or so by the time I said something. He stopped responding, and muted me. :)
It's interesting how often I see the supposed negatives actually turn out to be the person projecting what THEY actually act like without someone calling them on it.
Status and improvement come on the platform just with effort, and perseverance. I had many a post I love make $0 when I started out. Many I considered some of my best made less than $1 at a time when there were trending posts making $10,000+ So I've been there. I just stuck with it. I tried to be civil, and keep my word.
Funny thing is it was the Communist in the debate that proceeded to up vote their own comments to about $30 in that single post with their first one starting at $3. So they did it a lot. Ironically this was lumped in with their comments about how capitalists seek to consolidate wealth. Which lead me to eventually thinking perhaps the reason the person really wants communism as the only mind they can read is their own and perhaps they for some reason have difficulty being a decent person without someone FORCING them. So they decide to project their problems as being the problems of everyone else. ;)
Poland swapped Communists for capitalists and in 20 years all they've done is swap state centralization for globalist centralization. Centralization is the big problem. So we decentralize things like Steemit & Bitcoin, and guess what happens? Yup! The top dogs rule the roost once again over time. Humans are much too complex for the centralization or decentralization of powers!!
Human nature is indeed what blows up even the best made plans. :)
As far as decentralization and the blockchain. For me it is more about not being able to easily shut it down, and the more nodes and decentralized it is the harder that becomes.
As far as people vs people. Let me make my own choices, don't make them for me. That's all I really ask.
I think that is the best we can hope for in either system: centralized or decentralized :)
Really!!!, apparently he was engaging with you because of the rewards. I dont know if it will be right to say he was acting greedy by slowly dragging a debate and upvoting till he drained his power. Also, he left when he couldn't get any gain again. I think he shouldn't have washed his dirty linen outside. But thats the world we live in. Hopefully, someday sort of these people will change and decentralize power and money instead of their own selfish interest.
Interesting perspective on the self voting. I was doing it for a while, then I stop, then I do it again. Still figuring out the Steemit Universe and what works, feels the best, etc etc. Thanks. Going to follow you as well. You write very well!
I think I am the only guy who upvotes and replies to 95% of all my comments. It's interesting. Just to let everyone know, Its probably thousands in 50 days :)
And yet another awesome discussion on this topic! Your attitude of if everybody did it struck a cord with me a few days ago on the thread of the upvoter bank rolling himself, it was so spot on all I could wonder is if he looks in the mirror and sees someone he likes.
My concern is less on the money aspects of this place and more on building a community of thinkers and folks who actually interact with each other for a better place.
Coming over here from YT (lots of haters/trolls) was like walking into a place where you can actually have a discussion and not lose your head for asking someone to quit cussing in a chat with small children reading the post (NOT Family Friendly), so it is a breath of fresh air.
And it is up to us to try to keep it the positive mind expanding place you are describing and when we encounter new problems try to do something about them if we can find a way to do so that doesn't hurt the platform.
I agree and am taking my time to learn the ins and outs along with the do's and don'ts of working with a place that is so different!
Well the dos and don'ts are also community built so you'll potentially have some input into shaping them as time passes and new things come up. We'll encounter new problems...
I think that all people in Steemit are very different, in the little time I´ve been here I see that a lot of people don´t vote for another people because "they don´t deserve to be upvoted in their posts" and just voted for themselves, that´s fucking crap. I´d like people stop thinking like that and help another people to grow up.
Yep, don't follow such people, don't vote for such people, and if they want to have their own private island so be it. Yet to support them by following them, voting for them, etc indicates you are okay with their behavior.
It is good to see that a person of principal is not only willing to follow his self imposed guidelines, but to make a public proclamation and follow up with it. Very genuine and the logic makes perfect sense. I believe with the spike in new accounts, the common consensus from these groups that are attempting to vie for the attention of, people of influence, is that this is the only option they have. I feel that it is very noble that you voiced your concerns and gave warning. The fact that you are willing to let them back into your fold if the corrective actions are achieved is beyond compassionate. Cheers to you!!!
I don't believe treating people as forever damned is very good for our community. Thanks for your thoughtful reply.
Thank you for having the patience and understanding of a saint.
Heh. Let's instead call it a long term view rather than a short term one. :)
And as you are leading by example, the culture of this community is in great hands and minds.
Are you also against self-voting on posts?
I am not. I was not one of those yelling for that. I have stopped self voting my own posts, but I didn't have a problem with that. The quantity of comments can lead to a much bigger impact on the reward pool than simply up voting your own posts. If the person was spamming 10 posts a day and up voting all their own posts at 100% so all their voting was going to that I might have a problem, but I haven't really seen anyone doing that.
I'm glad I'm not the only one that things this way. What are your opinions on things like booster and randowhale?
I thought those were pretty good ideas. Though they've balanced their random chance enough that I'm not sure in the long run whether it is actually worth the fee paid. I still think it is a cool idea. I haven't seen booster, but I used randowhale on a couple of posts by people.
I think people saying they don't up vote their own posts and then turning around and using randowhale to up vote their own posts is a little dishonest, but I think they are potentially a cool little bonus if you want to do it for someone else.
Ultimately, I don't really care too much about voting until it becomes detrimental to the community and steem ecosystem as a whole.
My litmus test is this:
Ask yourself "If EVERYONE did what I am doing how would that impact steemit?" If you come to the conclusion that it'd potentially be bad then perhaps you shouldn't do it.
Cool, thanks for sharing. You articulate the way I feel about these things really well! I am thinking that a vast majority don't see the larger impact theyre having on the community through some of these "initiatives".
I think many just do it to get towards the top of the comments, never done it myself, but always upvote my own posts, I am sure that used to be automatic?
It was automatic until a week or so ago. I actually think that is a byproduct of this up voting comments thing. People were complaining about the rash of self up voted comments draining the pool which logically lead to people saying "then why are you up voting your own post". We've been doing fine with up voting of posts since the beginning except the occasional powerful reward pool police periods... Comments getting up voted insane amounts still sometimes happened prior to HF19, but it was only a few people that could really do it. After HF19 a lot of people could do it and it became a drain.
The rule I have for myself "If everyone did this how would it impact steemit?" is a simple test.
It survived self up voting posts just fine. Comments were starting to drag it down.
I've stopped self-upvoting my own posts too, but personally that is not something I am against.
I came onboard in May, and recall there was a checkbox to upvote your own posts then. I don't do it either, because my vote is too valuable to waste on me. I'd much rather drop a vote on someone whose post has merit.
I reckon if what I post has merit, others will upvote it. Since I'm not all that concerned with money, but am rather interested in what folks have to say, that's where my votes go.
Good to know, I will stop upvoting my own posts too.
You could answer with the word, "Integrity" followed by a link to your post explaining your view of self upvoting comments, but I think you've got too much integrity to do that.
I've stopped following some people (with high profiles) who don't seem to bother upvoting anyone's comments. I would consider changing my mind if there was a valid explanation, but they don't seem to care enough to explain.
Cha-Ching
I know your opinion on the Mute button (and respect it too) but I find muting people like that reduces my frustration, just a little.
Ignorance of unacceptable behavior that I have no control over, is bliss.
I won't know if they change. It is bliss, but it is still ignorance. :)
Depends upon which is more important having bliss, or eliminating ignorance. A personal choice. I won't bash people for going one way or the other.
Me I prefer to face problems rather than ignore them. I pretty much just mute people that are intentionally trolling me, and I usually feed them quite a bit to make sure that is the case beforehand. :)
With traffic the way it is not following someone is almost like mute, though there is still a slim chance through conversation we might find a reason to follow them again.
Optimism. :)
I still take a look at the Hot & Trending pages occasionally, looking for something really good and it makes it easier to find new work if I've muted the people who always seem to be on there. It saves me from having to scroll through a few extra pages.