After browsing around this "minnowbooster," and putting it to use, I find myself to be of two minds.
In principle, I look at it as being a bit deceptive. I mean, the votes should come from the quality of the content, right? So this is contaminating that ideal.
But then again, what does a street musician do before he starts playing? He throws a few coins in his guitar case so passersby will think someone has already considered him worth paying. If he doesn't, people will just pass on by.
So from that perspective, I guess it's sort of a means of advertising, and Lord knows I'll be sprinkling a little of this into every post I make from now on.
I guess the line between "throwing some change in your guitar case" and "a circle-jerk for whales to upvote each other" is basically a question of how much do you use it. Maybe some mechanism could be put in place to not necessarily prohibit these kinds of services but limit their use.