Steemitiquette: Self-Upvoting Comments - Have we been given permission or a big dilemma?

I spotted the self-upvote button under the comment field yesterday.

Does that mean we're allowed to use it???

Or is it frowned upon?

In my world (in my head) there was a common sense agreement and unwritten law that, yes, you always self-upvote your articles, because the first upvote goes 100% to the author anyway, so readers might actually be hesitant to hit upvote, unless someone else (you, the author), has "removed the risk" of not receiving anything back for you.

So, self-upvoting articles is accepted.

But comments?

Upvoting your own comments was considered vain.
Like, "Oh, wow, what you (self!) just said, is sooo brilliant!"

But, actually, what's the difference? Maybe there's a reason why comments and articles are both called "posts" on Steemit?

Maybe there is no difference at all?
Maybe it's all in my head?

Is there a difference in payout?

Or do comments now work exactly the same way as articles, in that the first upvote goes 100% to the author. In that case, we should all tick that box and upvote ourselves, no?

But if the payout works differently, then maybe not....

Can someone who knows this please comment???

(I will upvote your comment, whether you've upvoted yourself already or not!)

If we do start doing this - won't this affect how much we give to others?

If it is indeed allowed/accepted or even encouraged, then we will all drain our voting power pretty quickly.

It's hard to receive 100% upvotes from people as it is. And then it will be even harder. So won't we take away a LOT from others, if we all start upvoting our own comments now?

I don't know. I feel like I've been given permission, but also a huge dilemma at the same time.

Why isn't there some central controlling authority here who will just tell me what to do??? 😁

The worst thing, however, is that I'm suddenly not sure anymore, if this check box has always been there... Please tell me it hasn't. That would make me feel a tiny bit stupid. And blind...

If it has always been there, just don't mention it, okay?
Just tell me how you handle this dilemma.

Thank you.