Thanks for that - good thoughts! The self-upvote thing is something I wish were discussed more often, more openly. I know one of my "mentors" says No self upvote. Period. OK, I tried that. I am starting to stand on my own feet a bit... But where is that magic cut-off? I did NOT buy in, I had ZERO vote power for a long, long time. It was 2+ months before I had a post break $1, and I still rarely break $2. At this point, there is a silly challenge I am in that I am "winning" because I have the most votes, so I will be responsible to pay a charity $1. (No problem with that, I am illustrating a point here.) The other 2 people in the challenge both made over $2 on their post, I have not made $1. I got more votes, but they all were worth few pennies. The other two only got a couple votes, but people gave them 100%. If I do not upvote my post before it pays out, I will LOSE money. I don't mind taking a little loss for charity but I cannot afford to keep doing that, so which is the "right" answer? Upvote myself so I at least break even and am willing to continue the challenge? Or not upvote myself because that big 30 cent vote of mine is just draining the reward pool... and then drop out of the challenge because I can't just keep losing money on it?
Hmm... apparently I had a rant in me wanting out... thanks for springing the trap door lol!