I have read several posts that attempt to teach newbies some manners when it comes to upvotes and resteeming. I don't know how much good it does, but I'm certainly glad to add my upvote, meager as it is, to your post. The process I think serves the community well to discourage people who are here for the money and don't care about the quality of the experience. I've been fortunate to receive upvotes from whales, but it was based purely on the quality of my content and because it was valuable to them. I am going to give my steem power a bit of a boost by investing in steemit. That is the other way that minnows can build steem power. Convert hard currency into bitcoin and then into steem or steem power.