When I first joined Steemit I had no idea how the upvoting system worked. Like you mentioned in your post, I was upvoting for the sake of people noticing me and following my page.

It wasn't until I did some googling and watched some videos on Steemit on how to properly use the platform. The platform makes total sense. We want to create valuable content on here that is of use or has done some kind of purpose for the reader.

I am an artist so I look at mostly art related posts. There are some fantastic outstanding pieces of art out there. I want to ensure my voting power get distributed to proper art and I am happy to reward the artists with my voting power.

Thank you for the reminder of why our voting power is important in the steemit community!