Minnow?  Shoot, I'm still at plankton level. if you ask me heh.  I am just now starting to understand how all this upvoting stuff works.  I thought you had an unlimited amount and they all contributed the same.  So, yeah, for a week or so, I was upvoting my stuff and everyone else's stuff that I enjoyed.

Thanks for showing me the "light".

I probably shouldn't even...but I will...my posts always automatically include an upvote when I publish them...guessing there's a way to turn this off ?  I don't think self voting - on 1-2 posts is so horrible for minnows, I don't. 

Upvoting your own comment - no matter what you are - is just...gag lol.  Did you see the post by @aggroed on self voting depleting the rewards pool? 

It's the massive self voting whales that really cause the mess. Plus, it just looks so...damn evil and greedy. if you're regularly making $500 -$1000 per post, is it really necessary to upvote yourself? Then, what always gets me is how their loyal followers are like 'don't hate on success'.  

Gag. 

Great post.

<p>This post has received a 5.06 % upvote from @booster thanks to: @ilyastarar.</p>

(Note: Rereading this I see it looks critical and selfish. I feel, though, that it is the clearest way of getting my point across, so I will leave it as it is.)

I fully understand what you are saying, but I have to ask why would people invest in Steem Power if they can't use it to their own benefit? Or maybe we shouldn't bother investing in steem power at all.

The truth is that I can't make an income from my investment, I will simply power down.

The question also has to be asked what makes a post so valuable that I would effectively give the person who wrote it some of my own money. I say effectively because that reward would otherwise go to me when I vote up my own post or comment.

The argument that people should vote up their own posts but not their comments also doesn't wash. Of course, anyone producing a few posts per day will agree with this because they will benefit from it - they get to use most of their own power on their own posts plus they expect others to vote on them.

I feel that your post is more about blaming the users than blaming the system. Before the hardfork we had a system where whales had way too much power, now I feel it has gone too far. People don't seem to understand that for the system to work, people have to invest in it, not just by producing quality content, but by actually putting money into the system.

Unfortunately, money does make the world go round. Money in this case is what is attracting new users to the platform. There is very little altruistic about it.

One last thing.
How much content is there here which people would actually read if they found it somewhere else? You  can get upvotes here simply by putting up pictures of cute little kittens. My point is that in the real world very few people pay for content. I do upvote content that is of interest to me, but there really isn't that much of it. And upvoting friends so that in return they will upvote you is just the same as voting for yourself in my view - it just looks better.

I've got the solution!

Let's ban Steem Power!

I agree, and to be fair, it took me three days to notice that PRE-ticked vote on your own comment box. I really feel that the Steemit Platform could do everyone a service by changing the settings in the background, to unchecked. Then if one wants to check it they can...but unknowing newbies will not be draining the pool.

I like your message and I think you are right that the community profits more from not self-upvoting. But I have one issue with this post: 

Why are you attacking the coolest cartoon character of all times who went through the most daring adventures to own his fortune and has the most saddest back story and who influenced my life profoundly and who I adore to the core and also own a handdrawn original from the master Don Rosa himself?

https://s6.postimg.org/yhlqn8hnl/Scrooge.jpg

Self Voting look like

<a href="https://imgbb.com/"><img src="https://image.ibb.co/hJd8tQ/13655065595988.jpg" alt="13655065595988" border="0"></a>

Right on! And as you bumped into @smackdown.kitty's announcement post, and directed me here, I want to support your own discussion about the subject, because the more it is talked about the sooner it becomes an unbearable pressure on steemit, inc, and importantly, also the witnesses, who all will need to agree to increase the block size to 128 kilobytes to enable minnows to have a slider.

I agree and support that and will follow it !

Thx @ilyastarar

<p>Congratulations!  This post has been upvoted from the communal account, @minnowsupport, by ilyastarar from the Minnow Support Project.  It's a witness project run by aggroed, ausbitbank, teamsteem, theprophet0, and someguy123.  The goal is to help Steemit grow by supporting Minnows and creating a social network.  Please find us in the <a href="https://discord.gg/HYj4yvw">Peace, Abundance, and Liberty Network (PALnet) Discord Channel</a>.  It's a completely public and open space to all members of the Steemit community who voluntarily choose to be there.</p>

<p>If you like what we're doing please upvote this comment so we can continue to build the community account that's supporting all members.</p>

It's a big problem and I tried to warn against it, and not many listened.

I appreciate this and have wondered the same.  I never vote for my own comments but also never changed the setting on my posts that is automatic to upvote my own - I always felt this to be a bit too self serving but wondered if it was also best to leave it as such.  After reading this, I am going to change that, it is not like I make much off my own vote anyway and would rather give others I find well deserving the precious few cents I have to offer.

"To preserve our community's fundamental value;  generousity " 

Well said! 

Upvoted.  Resteemed. Commented.  Follower

Along with cutting down on the self voting I know I for one have been utilizing the esteem app. Under the settings on the app you can adjust your voting power on a sliding scale. With the hard Fork changes I have noticed that this has been able to allow me to continue voting many people's things while not zeroing out my voting power. Because I'm one of a vote people's things that I like the problem is that I found too many of you to follow and you guys post awesome stuff! So I have found this to be a compromise where I can vote and still apply a good bump while not bottoming myself out. This is just something I found that is help me out and maybe it'll help out someone else. And with a hard for it changes voting on your own comments is definitely detrimental to the community.

agreed and feel same 😐😒

Glad to see this! Several postings telling folks to ratchet back and use their upvotes sparingly is causing confusion to many just joining up, mixed messages are an issue. Upvote, yes no and what content needs it and being limited of how many you can do a day and lets not forget the don't go below 80% of your voting power and ya need to recharge it, yup lots of confusion going on....