@slobberchops has invested a lot of time and money into Steem/Hive. He does not beg for votes and I don't think he has any deals with people to get votes. I also get auto-votes that I have never asked for and I do not do deals either. We both support a lot of small accounts. I do not self-vote at all.
Of course people will game the system. See those who give themselves lots of big self-votes, sometimes across several accounts they control. Some of us do what we can to support small accounts.
It can be frustrating, but there are people who care about real engagement and not just their own rewards. Nothing is perfect, but we can try to make it better.
I know him from steem, and I respect all his actions there & here. I just had to write that contrary to what most people believe, just moving to a new place does not fix the problems; and slobber's post is a testament to this.
In fact, I feel like this whole HIVE thing is only superficially about freedom & decentralized politics and ethos, and happened just so some people would continue to earn from the circle-jerking, undisturbed by other newcomer high-stakers in steem-chain. This will never allow the critical mass of good-quality posters to shine, become popular and gain proper rewards. It is the same problem as steem had, but now, most of the circle has moved from there.
I know some think the same, but I know a lot of people do care about making it work for the majority. There will always be circle jerks, but we have an opportunity to act. Already people are turning against Kingscrown who milked Steem for years. There is very little vote buying going on here.
It looks like your posts do well from SBI. I know some people hate that, but I am fairly neutral on it. Some of us are lucky to have big accounts support us, but I would encourage them to vote up the little guys too.
Well, I've been on steem since 2017-08-08, and only participated in SBI for a little time; I've tried Minnowbooster for some time too. But you are right, SBI is still a kind of vote-buying and a part of me feels not-so-good about it. On the other hand, it is easy to frown upon projects like these when you have lots of Power.
With much Power, you grow faster -- even your own votes on others give you a nice amount of power! But when you are struggling with 1000 power or lower, the journey seems so long that any shortcut is needed. I know it may seem inappropriate, but who can make plans involving cents & pennies for a period of several years?
I'd like to know how we can break the circle-of-jerking between the whales? Is it something I can be part of too, or is a high voting-power needed?
I started in 2016 and earned most of my Steem/Hive. I may get to orca as I sell off my Steem.
Just talking about these things can have an impact if you reach the right people. I have been part of anti-abuse efforts for ages and we got the support of some whales to deal with people milking the platform, including some of the big ones. There are people behind each account and they can respond to persuasion. But then sometimes they just flag you. I just can't do nothing.