I used to use auto voting and curation trails, but it's all manual these days. I found the trails were voting up some posts I didn't really want to support. I manage to use up my votes and my voting power is often lower than I really want, but I can live with that. I don't self vote. That's just my personal choice. If you have bought your Steem then you deserve a decent return and you are not abusing it.
I delegate about half my Steem. There are so many cool people and projects that can make good use of it. I can manage with less curation rewards. We each have our own strategy.
Keep on doing good stuff. We need more like you.
That is one of my bigger complaints actually. Glad you brought that up. Sometimes I will be manually browsing and curating and I will see a vote on something that I would most definitely not have supported.
Yeah I think there is a big distinction of those who contribute and support the community but also self vote their pieces, vs others who only self vote or who spam the chain to vote their own comments like crazy.
Delegating 1/2...that's impressive. In the coming months I want to make a bigger dent in my delegations. I'll look to you as inspiration friend!
We each do our own thing. Some people have bought a lot of Steem and want something back for it, but if the price can keep going up they should win anyway. It's in all our interests for Steem to do well. Short term greed does not help at all.
Wise words my friend.