@liberosist, one of my favorite line is, Men come in a million shades of grey. No two person are same, no two perceptions are similar, of late perhaps since a month there has been tremendous influx of new steemians to the platform. I call them steemians as once they are in, they are steemians already. I am one of the newbie that arrived here and I am totally green behind my ears when it comes to blogging. I never ever blogged in my life. except for a few rants on a page that no body read anyway.
so my introduction was my first attempt into writing some meaningful content and I made a decent intro of myself there.
The word out there is that "STEEMIT PAYS TO WRITE" and everyone thinks 'Hey, that's cool. let me makes some money there'. After a couple of failed or botched up write ups, they become desperate, they fail to understand why no one is upvoting them or following them and they try to influence the curators or the heavy weights here with the standard beg, borrow or steal method.
I feel the newbies need a break, they need some traction in the beginning. once they find some foothold on the platform, they should be concentrating on providing good content. that's how I see it if Iam sympathetic to those who beg for votes.
On my side, my principle is never ask some one to follow me in any of my posts or comments, I never ask anyone to upvote me in any of my posts or comments, I don't comment if I don't have an opinion about the blog or a word of genuine appreciation, simply put, I don't make frivolous comments.
The mantra I am following is try to provide as good a content I can and rest everything will follow eventually. This is a long term game as you put it. so better start with the right step.

You are a very senior & experienced steemian here. Is there any milder way to handle this transgression? just asking.