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I have a dumb question: Do i have a limited number of 'upvotes?'

Not to my knowledge. I think Upvoting is strongly encouraged, as I understand it. You can, and should, upvote your own posts and comments; and everyone else as well. So, get to upvoting right away and start with me, pweze.

So I think I remember that the optimum number for a day is something like 20. An upvote uses your Steem power or one of the magical mystery things on here. Every day that grows by a certain percentage so you can replenish somewhat. For example, I am now finding that I am following so many people and liking so much deliciousness that my votes are decreasing. I probably need to take a couple days off, but I probably won't. I just need to be more selective I guess. Anyway. You can always buy Steem to increase your voting power. You can also have all your posts go totally to just Steem for a while. That's an option. Some people also do the 50/50 but then convert some of their SBD to Steem. Hope that makes sense. There's a learning curve here, but you'll get it.

Bless you for the hints! And do you know if it's advantageous or in bad taste to upvote oneself?

There is a bit of different opinion here, but in general up voting your own posts is fine. As people get to higher levels of Steem power, you will see that some also upvote all their comments, as well as their posts. Like all things, there's a point at which it is fine and a point at which it becomes grotesque. For me, I upvote all of my blog posts but none of my comments. That's my line, but I have friends that I respect who upvote certain high profile comments. You just have to follow those you respect and follow their guidelines. We all have our own paths, n'est pas?