An experiment in not self voting.
A few weeks ago I decided to begin an experiment and stop self voting. Not only do I no longer upvote my own comments, I also refrain from voting on my own posts. This matches my behaviour on facebook and twitter. I never 'like' my own content there and it feels a bit odd to do it here.
The benefits of self-voting
Of course self-voting bestows benefits, so by refraining from doing it I sacrifice those benefits. So what do I lose?
- Obviously my upvote would increase my rewards.
- My posts would more likely trend.
- My comments would bump nearer the top.
- I would get curation rewards on my own posts and comments.
The pitfalls of self-voting
Okay, those benefits look pretty good! So why would I want to give them up? Well I don't want to give them up, but since you only have a limited amount of STEEM POWER, you need to spend it wisely. Self-voting is an obvious tactic, but it might not prove the best strategy. Gratutious self-voting can even incur flagging from others that disagree with the value of your post or comment. I don't think I ever fell into that particular pitfall, but some less obvious ones can trip you up without you noticing.
You will have less voting power to...
- reward people that comment on your posts
- reward people you follow and other posts you find
- reward people on posts you read
- reward people you engage in meaningful conversation with
- flag spam, fishing and abusive comments and posts
Okay, but none of that puts money directly in your wallet, so why should you care? Well, the benefits of building an appreciative community around you will vastly outweigh the benefits of self-voting. For one thing you will find being on the platform more emotionally rewarding, fun, and far less lonely and frustrating. I'm not saying that you shouldn't aim to make money. I'm saying that making money should be a secondary goal to building community. Once you build a strong community, the money will flow from that. The value of steem will reflect the strength of the community. To make this platform work, both on a personal level and as a whole, community building must be our focus. Treating the platform as a milk-cow will just lead to isolation, frustration and ultimately disappointment.
The results of my experiment so far
In conclusion I have to say I don't miss self-voting. I enjoy finding and connecting with new users posting similar content to myself. I enjoy having the power to encourage comments on my posts. I have found I get increasing numbers of others voting for me, such that I don't miss the rewards my self-votes brought. Of course, that may have happened anyway as my following grows. I've noticed less rewards from my comments, but that seems to stem from getting more minnow votes lately. Maybe I'm engaging more with minnows than dolphins and whales as a result of this change in behaviour. But that is okay also. My account continues to grow, my steem power continues to rise and my follower count is approaching 400. I don't see myself ending this experiment any time soon. I encourage more of my followers to try replicating it. Or trying variations of it.
I don't miss self voting either, but tbh it is just 3 cents that I miss out on per vote. If I had an SP that would make a 30$ full vote that would be different maybe.
What is your opinion on services like @booster and @randowhale btw?
What exactly are these services anyway? I've seem them voting up posts, but haven't really looked into what their purpose is.
You essentially pay a whale (rich user) to upvote a certain post. That post might be your own or from someone else. I don't really like the system, but there are a lot of more services then the 2 I mentioned here.
I wrote a little more in a post of mine (dont vote on the linked post, it is too old)
https://steemit.com/steemit/@thatgermandude/why-do-you-use-randowhale-or-booster
Sounds like system designed for users to make money, rather than contributing with quality content to Steemit. I would downvote this system if I could.
The only problem is that you will lose the a downvote/flag war against them. There are some really powerful Users behind those services and communities.
I like the boldness of your statement - followed you. However I think it is important to not start a war, not only because we would likely lose, but because it is not the right way to solve problems.
I haven't read the https://steemit.com/steemit/@thatgermandude/why-do-you-use-randowhale-or-booster yet, but will do so with an open mind, and am open to change my views on the system.
It is quite a rant against these systems. People in the comment sections also mentioned @minnowbooster which seems like a much more healthy service/community.
Just a tip, have a look at Randowhale's wallet and follow where the money goes. ;-)
It is not like I don't know that Bernie is Rando or did you mean something else?
Well they don't use your voting power, so they don't have the pitfall of self-voting in the sense of reduced community engagement. I have even used @discordia to boost content I liked from others. Obviously these services can be abused. Although some put measures in place to reduce that...
Good on ye! I must say that before I vote for someone, I often check first to see just how much he loves himself. To me, appreciation is something you give to others, not to yourself.
Agreed. I tend to be more forgiving of this behaviour in minnows, but feel that those with significant voting power should be using it to encourage our engagement and support rather than taking us for granted.
Thanks for the info, I will test this out on my current series of posts, a roguelike devlog and see what happens as I have been self voting up to now.
I also read your comment voting piece and have taken that on board :)
You have yourself another follower for some great content :)
Was the comment voting piece mine or something I resteemed? I'm losing track of what I've written now.
So focused on my secret wea///project... ;D
Not sure if was yours now lol
I know what you mean focused. I am enjoying writing my roguelike and blogging about it as I go. I will keep an eye on your secret errr project :)
Hmm. A rouguelike eh? Had to look it up, but I used to play one of those old dungeon hack type games a while back. Didn't realise they had become a genre... :)
Really wide genre now. Some that hark back to the classic ascii era but with tile based GFX. Dungeon of Dreadmore is a great example. To 3d tile based *Legend of Grimrock". Then into the 3d FPS style, still with rendom levels, brutal difficulty and permadeath. There are even JRPG style ones and also Zelda like with Binding of Isaac :)
I quite enjoy the shadowrun unlimited user created story, but it seems to repeat locations a lot. Slightly random unlimited adventures. In a way Invisible Inc was also a bit like it, but the storyline progresses and although each mission has a randomised layout, it does build up to a climax fairly quickly. I like the cyberpunk setting the best, especially when combined with magic like in the shadowrun universe. I also play almost exclusively on linux these days, so that rules me out from a lot of windows only games. Luckilly quite a lot of really good games support linux these days.
Yet, shadowrun games are good. And steam boosted linux gaming loads :)
The most insane roguelike is still Dwarf Fortress. All ASCII based still but probably one of the most in depth complex games created. 2 man team been writing it for 15 years I think and still considered alpha state lol
More building and managing a huge fortress but huge worlds where you can build up and down into the ground. Each new world has 100s of years of history randomly generated. Insane scope. Unplayable in my eyes but cult following.
I just remembered that some years back I created a pen and paper rouguelike. Each time you entered a doorway or turned a corner you rolled dice to find out what kind of corridor, room and contents awaited. I made it so I could play d&d solo.
Self-voted comments make me disbelieve their author.
It would be funny if you upvoted this comment, though.
I don't immediately disbelieve them, but it can raise a red flag. I do see serial self-upvoters as non-team players and less valuable to engage with.
interesting. I have not thought about this. Thank you for bringing it to my attention.
I vote for u, vote for me