I had to say this.
While I don’t encourage self-voting, I definitely don’t think it’s right to look at someone who self-votes as a criminal and flag that person. All of us are here to make money, and we all choose our own path to achieve our goal.
Some of us who understand that the health of the community is important, make sure we follow the etiquette that such a community demands. But when people from all backgrounds are ENCOURAGED to sign up, it’s not right to degrade/demotivate them purely on the basis of self-voting.
I have come across many wonderful people who self-vote, even those that are doing everything they can for this community. By flagging such people, we are only harming the community.
As we all agree that self-voting does not serve the purpose of Steemit, we should be looking at other options:
- Restricting the number of self-votes per day, OR
- Completely removing the self-voting option
Look outside the Steemit doors and see what’s happening. People talk about Steemit as a way of earning money from comments and posts. People are flocking in by the thousands each day – hoping to make some dollars.
Please don’t misread or misinterpret what I wish to convey. I am NOT AGAINST RULES. All I’m saying is that it will help if things are done by not hurting anyone's self-respect.
If someone is behaving in an untoward manner or posting stuff that should not be posted – deal with them – because inappropriate behavior is not acceptable anywhere.
I hope you don’t mind a minnow jumping in with opinions, but I think the flagging option should be reconsidered.
No I don't think "criminal" is appropriate either, but it is selfish, and a kind of selfish activity that is not aligned with the goal of some benefit for all. For example, previously because of curation rewards it was win-win to vote for someone else. Now we have win-lose, a zero sum game if we self vote too much.
Perhaps etiquette and social norms will be enough to encourage restraint in self voting by and large, and I feel that flagging some users will add to a culture of this. I don't think flagging self votes is harmful especially when we decide to only flag those making the most. We aim to do this until there is a blockchain level solution in the form of a hardfork, or until we are satisfied either it's not effective or has had it's effect.
I very much appreciate you taking the time to post, especially as a minnow. But flagging is always an option and I defend its usage.
Being a minnow myself, my opinion is based on the fact that flagging may be demotivating and hurting. I'm placing myself in other minnows' shoes.
However, I also understand and appreciate that your opinions/decisions will be based on your experience here, having seen thousands of us enter and abuse the platform.
Thank you for being so patient with your response. :)