I think the problem, as @reggaemuffin pointed out, is one of transparency. I remember signing up for Utopian and Dtube and both of those took my votes and I only noticed the small print afterwards.
Anyway like you say, good to see these services thriving and good people like @reggaemuffin running them :-)
Utopian and Dtube 'took' your votes? Neither of those are a voting service, and utopian doesn't even have a log in, just a method to use tags.
Are you sure you have this right? If so, could you explain a bit more so I can understand and avoid whatever happened to you?
I can't remember exactly, however I remember something like a percentage of either my vote rewards or direct votes went to them as a way of paying server costs etc. I just didn't like the fact it wasn't prominently mentioned, so I left.
Back when I was a member it did.
Cg
Yeah, you nailed it.