Personally, I think you've done a fantastic job, and that goes for the rest of the community here at #steemsilvergold who got @silvergoldbotty where she is today. I can attest to how busy running a bot account can get, especially when things go wrong, or when it comes to managing donations, delegations, tiers, SP leases etc to make sure the ROI is a good as possible for everyone.

I wasn't here in the early days, but have known @phelimint since before @silvergoldbotty got up and running, and he is an upstanding Steemian, who would never intentionally wrong someone else. Perhaps there were some grey areas not discussed at the start, but historically all the bot owners are the ones doing the hard yards, and so "own" the SP rewards. Investors, be it through delegation, or paid subscriptions in STEEM or SBD work their ROI based on upvotes.

I do however think that @phelimint should be on the correct tier, based on the same criteria as everyone else. To me that is a fair solution, given that the SP rewards should be enough to cover the running costs with some extra for @phelimint's hard work.

If you're not happy with your ROI on your investment through upvotes, then there is not reason for you not to pull your delegation and invest elsewhere. I don't see any other project with a higher ROI than right here, even at a lower level of investment.

If there were any initial "donations" made to help get up and running which were meant as "investment in shares" of the bot, perhaps there should be a power down and refund, or let bygones be bygones and move on with the positive ROI we are already getting, which may have already eclipsed your initial investments by now.

As for voting on non-#steemsilvergold posts: A lot of us post on a variety of topics, which may not fit into the tag, and so it is not always used. If we had to use the tag to get a vote, that would contaminate the feed and make the tag useless to the community. Does that mean we shouldn't get a return vote on our investment? I don't think that's how it should work, as long as we are contributing something to the community, and supporting each other outside of the realms of the bot.

#steemsilvergold isn't the bot, and the bot isn't #steemsilvergold.

At the end of this I'd like to see all sides come to an amicable solution, and put this one to bed knowing and accepting where everyone stands. Resolve the issues, accept the outcome and move on. Just don't let money get in the way of a good solid community, and sour the whole experience.