MY THOUGHTS ABOUT SELF-UPVOTE

This topic has been all over the place since Steemit started way back 2016 and now I would want to talk about this topic today.

Before I start, please be reminded that this is my own "POINT OF VIEW" and any comment for both Negative or Positive will be greatly appreciated.

Now let's get started by first showing you this graph, link is included below.

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I am not sure if the date shown in this graph is 100% accurate but for this instance I will use this as reference. In this graph, although the percentage (%) is not included for I used the Snipping Tool instead of a Screenshot, my Self-Upvote is around 7% of my Total Upvotes in the past 30 days.

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Now what does this Graph is trying to say? It's totally up to you but am I trying to be righteous? Of course NOT for I am also guilty of Self-Upvoting. But is it really bad? Is it wrong to upvote our own post? Then let's continue...

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My point of view is this, we are spending time, money and effort in these platforms, are we getting paid to do that? Of course the answer to that is NO but some might ask how about in Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and any other social media platform out there, forums or video streaming sites wherein we also spend time and effort? You're right, Time and Effort are also being spent on these other platforms but are you spending money in these other platforms? If your answer is "YES" then I guess your either a vlogger,a streamer or an advertiser.

So basically what's the point that I'm trying to make? It's quite simple and for sure many of you here already know, monetary investment. Let's all face the fact that majority of us here thinks of Steem as a place of not just sharing but also a good place for investment. There are always free users who tend not to spend anything (money) but wants to earn something and there are those investors who would prefer to let their money work for them and of course there are those persons who are in between who tends to spend something and expects to also have something in return.

Now how is this related to SELF - UPVOTE? We all know that in these platforms we have 2 basic way to earn something, to earn reward by becoming an author or through curation. This is basically self-explanatory but I'll still give an overview about this. So those person who doesn't want to spend anything but wants to earn something usually ends up being an author, of course they can't curate if they don't have voting power. Investors tend to be the curators for basically they will be able to earn with just a simple click. And those who tend to fall in between will basically earn the most compared to the other 2.

I guess it'll be a lot easier to explain if I'll have a visual representation so I created a simple graph. The data I used to come up with this graph is just PLAIN SPECULATION and I don't have any available data to back this one up. This is just on how I see and understand things with my entire stay here in Steemit.

HYBRID = Both Author and Curator (Self-Upvoter)
FREE USER = Most likely an Author
INVESTOR = Most likely a Curator

Now let's discuss the graph - The figures that you can see w/c is from 1-10 is just for scaling purposes. I guess you will be able to easily understand what I mean by simply looking at the graph itself. I just come up with the name HYBRID for I don't actually know what to call them. I guess the graph itself is pretty much self explanatory.

So what does this graph means? Let's go to the explanation and analysis.

HYBRID - Let's start with this one. Due to the fact that these users create their own contents and eventually do self-upvoting so by the time that reward is being awarded, these users will get 50% of the reward pool as an author and a portion of the remaining 50% for the curator reward. In the graph that I made, I gave a random value of only 0.5 or pretty much 10% of the entire 50% curator reward this could be much more higher depending on the person's voting power. A total of 55% of the total reward pool.

FREE-USERS - Again this is self explanatory, due to the fact that it's a 50/50 Reward basis, these users get 50% of the entire reward pool.

INVESTORS - Last but not the least, most likely these are those people who just curate and curate. Although the reward is being split 50/50, it doesn't mean that they will get 50% of their vote value thus I only gave a random value of 45%.

Now let's go to analyse these figures. Some of you might disagree or might ask how come FREE USERS earns more than the INVESTORS in the graph that I showed above. Don't worry I'll be explaining things further. The graph below is a visual representation consisting 5 posts made by each user type, HYBRID , FREE-USER and INVESTOR

So did you notice something in the 3 graphs above? If yes then you got it right. Even though FREE USERS gets 50% of the reward, it doesn't mean that they will be able to consistently get a reward. Again the details in these graphs are just my own speculations. If you notice, only 3 out of 5 posts made by FREE-USER gave out a reward while both HYBRID and INVESTOR has all 5 out of 5. But comparing both graphs between the two obviously gives HYBRID about 10% earnings more than the INVESTORS.

Now my stand about doing SELF-UPVOTE, it is not bad nor wrong so long as it's ETHICAL. I don't just randomly create something non-sense and upvote it or copy someone else's work. There are some things I consider when I guess, again this is just my opinion, self-upvoting doesn't hurt the community. First thing is that the post should be of good standard, it shouldn't be a copy-paste, plagiarized or anything of such kind. *Second thing is frequency - it's fine to self-upvote but make sure that you don't keep it all by yourself, share some of your voting power to the community to give chance to others. Last thing as much as possible, don't upvote your own comment - it doesn't make sense - unless your goal is to give that comment exposure and emphasis for as we all know, the highest reward post usually comes on top of the comment section.

For me securing something for yourself first is never a bad thing specially if you put so much effort and spent time on it. There's always this so called RETURN OF INVESTMENT that you need to consider and how are you going to help others if you can't even help yourself? I acknowledged that it's better to give than to receive but of course before you can't give something that you don't even have to start with. Also my goal is once I attain a good amount of voting power, I will have the privilege to reward those posts that I think are under-rated and most of the time ignored. I also believe that we should always think of ourselves first before others - but not to the point of being selfish.

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I do admit that I'm one of those users who falls under HYBRID for I do create my own content and upvote it to make sure that it shows up on the Hot Category. I also like sharing videos related to eSports, Billiards and Boxing but I always make sure that I make my own description. Also I always make sure that I'm not just here to be rewarded but I also engage in the community through comments and chat via Discord. Again everything written above together with the graph's data were just merely my own opinion, idea and speculation. For any question, clarification or violent reaction, feel free to leave your comments below. Sorry if this is quite lengthy but if you read the entire post, all I can say is...

THANK YOU AND HAVE A BLESSED DAY AHEAD!!!