Really nice post.. as a minnow, I feel obliged to upvote my fellow minnow, but I also want to save my upvote for quality content. I too go to my replies tab first thing... it really encourages me when people comment since it makes me feel that they took time out to actually read and tell me what they thought about my content.
I recently got a reply from someone who wasn't able to read my entire post, but followed and upvoted to support me. I would have liked it if he could have let me know what he thought about my content, but knowing that he supports my work feels really good :)