I just don't see why anyone would think that self-voting is wrong in any way.
In the short-term it makes perfect sense for someone to do so even if in the long term it may work against them since every self-vote you do means less curation and less engagement with other members. People who do nothing but self-vote will fail here in the long run.
But I see nothing at all wrong with some voting for yourself as long as you do some curation and engagement too.
For what it's worth, I think that Project Smackdown is a solution in search of a problem.
I think you answered your own question - self voting is not beneficial to Steem in the long term (or even medium term I would suggest).
Hardly, the problem is very clear - self voting! As we've laid out, it is counter to the purpose of Steem which is distributing Steem by the votes of others. The problem is that since HF 19 the old incentives against which discouraged self voting have been significantly weakened. We are looking for solutions to that if it was not clear to you.
I said that in the long term it's not good for them, self-voting is not a good long term strategy for members. That's very different than thinking that it's bad for Steem/Steemit.
Oh, it very clear to me what you're doing. I just think you're wrong.
I see, I read you wrong there. Quite possibly it is not a good long term strategy either but I don't think that is obvious enough for it to have an effect.
So it sounds to me that you we are correct in this point, that self voting is not beneficial. What then do you say we're wrong about?
It's my opinion that self-voting is not inherently a good long term strategy for users and that its existence is not inherently bad for Steem/Steemit.
But, and this is important, I also don't take issue with the idea that kitty would be using its Steem Power for Reason X, even if X is flagging self voters. Users should be able to use their SP as they see fit, whether it's for self voting or for flagging other users who self vote. A flag is just a downvote or thumbs down by another name.
As an aside, I don't like the idea of any bot voting, either positive or negative. But I realize that bot voting is here to stay.
It's not an opinion. Self-voting is reducing the (Dollar value of the)
remaining reward pool and therefore the value of the platform. It's a simple measurable fact.
Also if people have to spend voting power on flagging to counter it, they can't upvote content they want themselves.
Self-voting should just be eliminated, it's best for everyone.