RE: Aggroed's simple litmus test for self-voting: Does the content provide value to the platform?
Well, I upvote myself more than most whales, but it's practically never on comments. I write 1-2 posts a day on average and will continue to do so. I may have more posts than half of the top 20 witnesses combined. I like to write, and I think the writing I do adds value to the platform. I'm not ashamed to self upvote it because it meets my litmus test. Do my posts add value to the platform? YES! They help build communities on this platform. That's one hell of a service too!
I agree with this completely. I post 2x a day and upvote my posts. Like you, they take time to write. I never upvote my comments and rarely will upvote a zap I send out. But the blog posts, never are they short.
I understand your own vote on this post, I can see the time it took to write it. Many people feel that one just throws together a post like this...it doesnt happen. It takes time to research even before writing.
If you posted a youtube video along with a few words, that would be something different. But an in-depth post detailing serious topics on this site, that is worthy of an upvote...your own or from someone else.
I agree with you @aggroed and @taskmaster4450 on self-upvoting. I only joined steemit in December and have struggled with this whole idea. I've played around with the upvoting bots, and sometimes it feels like I'm wrapping up a birthday present for myself, other times it feels like I'm getting paid for a job well done. If I spent time on a post, and I think it's a valuable one, something that adds value as a whole to this community, and I see that because of my 'newness', there isn't much monetary value attached to it, around the 5-day mark, I might use a bot to simply pay for my time and effort. Sometimes it still feels 'icky', but I guess anywhere in the world, we are compensated for our time, effort and value as a whole. When I see it used and abused on a photo or meme from google images for example, then I feel like it is completely self-serving. In the end however, people are free to do what they want, but I think the selfish soon get weeded out here organically...I hope :) Thanks for the 'food for thought'. Cheers!
I do agree with you about the selfish will get weeded out over time.
One thing I just want to mention: this is a social networking site...therefore, it takes time to develop interactions with others. Posting comments is one of the best ways to do that. In fact, I suggest to newer people that it is best to comment a lot more than post articles in the first 60 days.
It is how people get to know you plus you can get some upvotes that way which will help build your SP.
Thank you, that's the advice I've been passing on to any 'newbies' that I meet. I'm sure we all spent hours writing a post only to make a big fat zero on it :) It dawned on me pretty early on that if I wanted to become a part of a community, I needed to show my worth or value to others, and the only way to do that was through genuine commenting and genuine interaction with others. It's like moving to a new town; people aren't running to you, asking to be your friend :) It's up to you to go out and make them Thank you again, Cheers!
Thanks info like this really helps. It is like a sea of information on my own.