Yeah, wow, what a thread this is turning into! Thanks for bringing me back with your response. I don't have time to read through all of the comments, but I do agree with you. I would say that I am OK upvoting myself if I feel as though I deserve an upvote for it. How's that for a wishy-washy non-committal position! Obviously, that's not a big deal at this point, but how am I going to feel about it if/when my votes start carrying some weight?

Are the whales abusing the system? Someone smarter than me will need to figure that out. I have to assume that some are and some are not. When the discussion gets serious about regulating that stuff, I figure that it will start to flush out the abusers, who may start moving some of their financial girth elsewhere. Would that affect the valuations and reward system? As they say - he who has the money makes the rules.