I can honestly say I've stopped upvoting my own comments entirely. I'm no saint though, my wife also has an account here so she tends to get my spare voting power after I've hit up my usual suspects.
I still find it difficult to justify dropping votes on random people though unless they really impress me, at least until I hit that magic SP figure and get my slider bar (I know there's tools out there but "ain't nobody got time for that" :)
I think as long as you contribute something to new users, that is the most important thing.
Yep, I throw upvotes around to anyone in the minnow support group chat who engage with people. I'll admit, I don't have time to search for content but I do chat and network and if something they have posted stands out it gets a love tap from me :)
I responded to HF19 by cutting back my support for the bigger fish and focussing on the people around the same level as me, those who have the time to engage with me directly.