Hello Steemit friends,

until now i'd upvoted all my posts directly with first publish and used also Minnowbooster. The intention behind was always the same.. so much effort in every post.. why should i not use my Steem Power and Steem Dollars to increase the payout?

"For what reason i bought all that Steem Power and did constantly powering up?"

Some Steemians stopped that behaviour simply because they had so high payouts for each and every post that they don't needed it anymore. The other intention is sometimes to feel better and less selfish. In my case it is the opposite. My payouts decreased recently (one reason for sure is also Steem price but not the only reason).. but i waive nethertheless. @freiheit50 wrote about his decision what made me think about..

"You must be crazy if don't get anything and don't use the services and bots!"

At first glance it might be economic nonsense. But on the other hand i use now two other Minnowbooster services:

• Steem Power delegation for users on the marketplace
• vote selling at voting strength of 75%

The trigger was that sometimes i saw that my voting power was at 100%, unused because i could not be active at some times or i didn't want. To avoid the waste of potential i watched for alternatives.

If do now no self-upvotes all the voting power remains in my arsenal and can be sold to Minnowbooster or i use it for others actively while reading, commenting, upvoting your posts.

Something changed for me basically?

Not at all i think. Finally my rules remained the same:

• reply on each serious comment in my blog and upvoting with my subjective voting value
• go out of my blog and visiting your exciting world and commenting and upvoting
• constantly powering up to increase my own voting value, to gain more influence
• helping others if there is an opportunity (hints using Steemit, promoting of great posts, donations for for needy people, etc.)
• maintain delegation for Minnowsupport
• transform interesting topics into great posts whenever i have time and desire to do that
• constantly generate income for powering up

Ok, i'm now not as active as in 2017, but that can change spontaneously.. i believe writing blocks are normal and natural sometimes and there are times i'm simply to busy with my business. At the end of the year i activated vote selling and made a break from writing.. i forgot the activated service and after my return to Minnowbooster i was surprised because i saw three digits sum of Steem Dollars for sold votes which were collected over time.

"Hey what are these Steem Dollars in my Balance??"

.. yes i was confused for a few seconds and not aware of it.. it was the first question to myself with wide opened eyes. I'd it simply forgotten. Eventually my Steem Power had worked for me over a whole month and it was clear why there was that amount of SBD. Quick decision for me how to use the small fortune.. POWER UUUUUUUPPPPpp!

But one thing you should remind!

"You don't get any Reputation for Vote-Selling!"

You can imagine that as punishment for inactivity or simply as smart action to reward active Steemians.. and really it works that way. I'd earned some SBD during my break but i'm now more well-known or respected? No! It is the opposite. Someone might visited my blog for a few days after my leaving but then he might said to himself:

"What happened to him? .. no writing.. his blog is dead.."

The result for sure is waning interest by the community and if you start writing again maybe less payout. I doubt there is much interest from people who bought my vote, because they already paid for it and don't care who upvoted their postings. Therefore i see a passive approach never as ultimate solution. But Steemit offers a model to be passively active in such times and that's what i especially love about Steemit:

"In Steemit you have options.. there are many ways to use the ecosystem."

Because of these various options i decided to join Steemit in mid 2017. I simply was and still being fascinated by the sophisticated system (with all the little flaws which are also amplified by the bad behaviour of people) and learned new possibilities on my journey.

"Is my moral grown because of my decisions?"

I believe not.. but i'd seen booster service used by others which pumped up cent-valued posts to double digit Steem Dollar payouts. Such posts consisted often just of a small section of text without interesting content, which was sometimes annoying. My belief is that quality always counts and the payout is often not an indicator for quality. To be honest i was bit shocked as i recognized i'd supported someone for a long time who did this with each of his posts. I myself writes mostly relatively long posts because i can just stop if i got the feeling of completeness and wanna ensure that everything is said. I wanna see if my posts are worth something without self-upvoting and booster services. That is something regarding honesty with myself. I'm aware that Steemit the system is often gamed but i wanna belong to the ones who does not follow that path and wanna belong on bright side.

"You write so much.. and you earn almost nothing. Make that sense?"

Sometimes i'd invested one day in one post and got 1 Steem Dollar as payout value.. i don't care if someone comments my post and thanks me and contributes something valuable to the topic.. since it paid off for both sides!

"If i got no Steem Dollars what are the benefits of this platform?"

Of course i'm happy with each additional Steem Dollar which i use to power up in 99% of the cases, but i cannot say:

"I DESERVE IT!!.. i deserve it? 😏"

I think that was one reason why i stopped Self-Upvoting and Minnowbooster because i wanna see how others judge and not me by myself. 😌 Beside that there is silent hope that it will pay out in the long term, for the community and eventually me.

"Is that good for moral or better at all?"

I don't know, others buy now my votes for their boosters. Please tell me your opinion about that topic. Thank you!

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Exciting times ahead steemit friends!

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