@SumatraNate's Self-Voting Strategy
The topic of self-voting brings about a wide range of responses and emotions!
In this post, I will explain my self-voting strategy and the reasoning behind my decision.
My name is @sumatranate, and I am a self-voter.
There is no reason to deny the truth. I have self-voted and will probably continue to self-vote unless something significant changes - personal conviction, new Steemit rules, community pressure, etc.
I personally believe that self-voting is an acceptable Steemit behavior when done as a part of a balanced voting strategy.
What constitutes a balanced voting strategy?
For me a balance voting strategy ...
Is Primarily Community Focused
I am not the center of the Steemit universe. I am one member of a community of people. And if you have not heard me brag about the Steemit community, then shame on me. Steemit has meant a lot to me since I joined in June 2017. I have learned a lot. I have met so many incredible people that I would have never known without Steemit.I believe that our voting should reflect a desire to grow our community (both in numbers and in strength). When I first struggled with the idea of self-voting, I made a decision to use 90% or more of my upvotes to benefit others. I was doing a really good job with the 90% to 10% rule until recently.
Over the last 30 days, I have used about 14% of my votes on myself. If you are interested in learning more about your outgoing voting patterns, check out a valuable tool called Steem Reports. Remember that you can not manage what is not being measured!
Since finding out this new information, I will be curbing self-votes until I can get back to down to under 10%. Again I am trying to execute a balanced, community-focused voting strategy.
Allows For Self-Investing
There are many ways to invest in yourself on Steemit (most of which require time and effort). We all know that building relationships and writing quality articles are important keys to growth.One reason why self-voting gets a bad name is because of people who upvote their posts even when the quality of their posts are lacking. If self-voting is a lazy way to self-advance, then we have a problem. But I see things differently when someone is active and engaging in our community and upvotes their post.
Now having justified self-voting (at least in my own eyes), I know from personal experience that using our votes to build up others can have a significantly larger impact (on ourselves and others) than just self-voting. I may not agree with your position on self-voting (and you may not agree with me either), but we all need to examine our WHY?
Are you balancing your self-interests of today with the overall good of our community in the future?
Rarely Allows For Self-Voting Comments
I do not believe it is good practice to self-vote your comments, especially the short comments that we sometimes get that prove that the person commenting never even read the post.But there have been a few occasions when I have self-voted a comment. When I am fully confident that I am giving the best answer to someone's question, then I might self-upvote a comment. My practice is not to self-upvote a comment at 100% but just enough to place my answer high enough in the comment section so that I can add value.
Again this behavior is rarely acceptable! Just because I think something is valuable does not make it true.
Does Not Include Automatic Self-Voting
My upvote post box is not automatically selected.
I believe that self-upvoting should be an intentional, willful decision. Every time we upvote ourselves we should be forced to evaluate the quality of our writing and the intentions of our heart. I want to make sure that if I am choosing myself before others (in the moment), and that I am required to take a moment to make the decision.
Your Turn
It is clear that I did not bridge the divide of self-voting in the Steemit community. This is an important issue, and I appreciate your listening to my thoughts on this matter. Now I would like to hear from you about this topic.
- Do you feel that it is right or wrong to self-upvote?
- Has your opinion changed since you first joined Steemit?
- Are there any scenarios that justify a self-upvote?
- Do you feel differently about self-voting for post versus comments?
Thanks for stopping by. I look forward to reading your comments.
@sumatranate
Image Source: https://pixabay.com/en/arrow-directory-signposts-direction-2085195/
When I first started out on SteemIt, I kept that 50/50 box checked all the time. Until I realized I was taking away all the money from the curators. So I stopped using the automated self-voting and started to upvote my own posts after 3 or 4 days, to give other people a bigger chance to earn by upvoting my posts.
Last week, I migrated to a new account (long story). By doing so, I had to give up the reputation of 51 I had worked so hard for (The first week on SteemIt it went all the way down to 11), and all my followers.
Because I had to start over, with a rep score of 25 and no followers (I did delegate my SP to my new account, though), I upvoted my posts sooner again. Not immediately, but after an hour or so. I simply needed to get back on my feet a.s.a.p. Now I'm already back up to 45, so I guess I will wait a little longer from now on.
When it comes to upvoting my own comments... it depends. I have the tendency to write awfully long comments, which takes up a lot of my time. (I should really learn to write shorter comments, btw.) And sometimes, when I see my comment being all the way down, underneath the 'that's nice, bro' and 'please follow me' comments I give it an upvote. I see no problem in that. At least I'm trying, they're not.
😉
@simplymike, we all come into the voting game with different needs and motivations. Based on what I have heard from you, I see no problem in what you did (but I have to admit that I do not know all the circumstances of what happened).
I am ok with people investing in themselves, but I also know that in the long run when we use our votes for others then we build a larger network and better relationships within the community.
I hope that your new account will grow strong and that any issues that you faced in the past will be just that ... the past.
Blessings!
Thankd
I have never had any problems with people self voting. I really don't know why it has such a bad fame here.
I do have a problem with people only self-voting. That is a different thing. It is like saying you just don't want to up anyone here, and that is not how i understand this platform works.
@flashfiction, thanks for the comment.
Self-voting is like all other important issues. A few people are at the extreme in regards to opinions. Most of us are in the middle somewhere. I believe that finding a balanced strategy is best. I definitely think we need to use our votes to help others.
Honestly, I think it's a person's preference to self vote.I have no issues with people doing it; whether they're new (and trying to get some upvotes) or they're a whale. What they choose to do with their account and how they handle their SP is each's own business and they have their reasoning.
I have self voted in the past when I was trying to establish myself on steemit but haven't done any in months.
@goldendawne, thanks adding to the conversation. We all come to Steemit with different needs and goals. I agree that each person has the right to do with their account as they see fit (unless they are intentionally harming others).
I do like the fact that we can build others up as well with our upvotes. We are trully apart of an incredible community and platform. Blessed that Steem allows us to enjoy both!
I came here for the purpose of reviving my writing and blogging; I had NO clue about cryptocurrency. As time has gone on and my knowledge of the crypto world began to get nourished, I started realizing I can actually do something with it... later.
We (my husband and I) have decided this will be for our retirement property in a more rural area. Big goals... but do-able for me.
@goldendawne, that is really awesome. I had some exposure to crytpo before Steemit, but my interest has grown tremendously since I joined.
I am starting to dream BIG goals too!
@sumatranate, great subject.
I went through different fases. At first I thought it was cool that you could self vote. Then when I found it was frowned upon I kinda felt ashamed. When HF 19 came along I selfvoted like crazy because of my new voting power.
Yes I upvote myself and feel no shame in doing so. The reasoning is that it is a strategic move, not for the measly upvote value (because lets face it, our voting power is nothing compared to those of some whales). But because it buys your post some "hangtime" in the hot section.
I have tried not upvoting my posts but that only leads to not getting noticed by anyone. I will upvote myself as long as I my voting power is less than $10 or until the point that I don't need that initial boost.
Upvoting my own comments however is a big no-no.
@xervantes, thanks for your input. I agree that we need to look at this issue from a strategic standpoint. I want to reiterate what you are saying.
Upvotes are not only about the payout, but also about the exposure.
Thanks for dropping by!
I self vote each time I post, and rarely when I comment. So that's about 10-20% of total voting power
@clumsysilverdad, I think that the 10-20% range is a responsible range overall.
I support our right to decide how we use our accounts (as long as we are not maliciously harming others and the community).
All things in moderation. Hah! I hadn't seen that site steem reports yet so I went and checked my self votes. 6.6% LOL not bad.
Like anything self voting can be abused and there are those that will game the system whatever the rules allow them to. But that is the love/hate of non-regulation. Sometimes we got to put up with a little BS to be able to enjoy the freedom that goes along with it.
@harleymechanix, Steem Reports is a great tool, and I highly recommend it for anyone who wants to understand their incoming and outgoing votes.
I completely agree. I hope that Steemit does not step in on this issue and make major changes to the rules. My preference is that the witnesses represent the best interest of all of us so that we can continue to enjoy our freedom.
Great addition to the conversation!
Personally, I think self voting shouldn't be an issue, though I'm still relatively new, I do it every time. I think since it's my account I can do whatever I want as long as it doesn't affect anyone negatively.
@melanoquin, thanks for your comment. I agree that we should be able to use our account as we see fit (as long as we are not harming others). I do advocate using our upvotes to build up our community and network of followers.
We have a great opportunity and a great responsibility. We need to use it well.
I agree that self-upvote is legit when you write good posts, as you have written. By upvoting your post later, you can also increase the payout for your curators. That is also a good thing.
@holger80, thanks for the comment and the kind words. My desire to to write quality posts.
Thanks for adding to the conversation. Your point about increasing payout for curators with a delayed self-vote is interesting! I wonder how much of a delay would maximize the benefit for curators.
The way the algorithm works, its now linear and max curation is at 30 minutes.
I don't think it matters when you upvote your own post...because you are offsetting the additional curation value of the sum by the same amount you will collect as well.
Being new to Steemit, I wondered if self voting was acceptable or frowned upon. Great article on the subject.
I think it depends who you ask really.
I am on here promoting the communities I belong to, writing and blogging, and commenting. I do my thing and steer clear of any drama. If I wanted drama I would still be on facebook.
I can appreciate everyone's views, opinions and reasoning for self voting; whether for it or against it. I have heard both sides. But again, I do my thing. I am too busy in my steemit career to get involved in it.
I agreed with self-voted. Self-vote to me means that I support my content, that I believe in it and that I wanna promote it. Of course, I disagree with users that made a lot of posts along the day and vote only in their content. I also disagree people that only vote in people with big upvotes in order to receive an upvote in return.
I following some people and after reading their post I upvote them because I wanna support them. But I also wanna support me, so I need upvote my content too :)
@criptomaster, thanks for participating in this conversation. Keep supporting yourself and the work of others!