An uninitiated opinion - Voting behaviours

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(Edited)

I came across an account today and noticed the user self-voted every single comment they made at 100% - Every comment.

I scrolled back a ways and saw the same self-voting pattern to the tune of about 0.26 or so each time and thought I'd take a look at SteemWorld and see what I could see. The image above shows that users voting pattern over the last seven days...That green section is the self votes, by weight, totalling 78.07%. The next closest is 2.48% and it drops off from there as you can see.

It got me curious about my own voting pattern and I decided to take a look, something I haven't done for about twelve months or so I think.

That's me above in a snapshot taken today at about 4pm (28 January 2020)...It's weighted a little in my brothers favour as you may imagine, in the last seven days at least, however I'm proud to note there are no self-votes.

I've added the chart below using the by weight metric also as it shows a little more diversity of accounts on which I've voted in the last seven days.

I'm not trying to level an accusation or judgement at the account that, quite obviously, makes comments with the sole intent and purpose to self-vote...I believe it may be called fishing...We all have a right to act as we see fit here on the blockchain. It is for this reason I have chosen not to disclose the name of the account here.

However, I wonder how many accounts may be doing the same thing and what repercussions it may be having on the entire community and the subsequent price of steem.

There are so many posts receiving 0.01 in reward, some even 0.00, many good ones too, and I wonder if a 0.26 vote on those posts could make the difference between that user sticking around or leaving disheartened and disillusioned.

We all want steem prices to rise and in my humble opinion that's only going to happen through growth of users, content and engagement. I don't know, maybe I'm missing the point and will be happy to stand corrected if indeed 100% self-voting ones' own comments to is indeed a legitimate way to build and grow steem. Please enlighten me.

Below is a snapshot of my SteemWorld page and where to check your voting chart as I have above. You may not be interested, but it could be a good exercise to see what your voting pattern looks like.

Just go to the STATS TAB on SteemWorld and click on the OUT VOTES TAB as circled in green.

Just to be clear, I don't have an issue with smaller accounts dropping a self-vote on their own posts - I did in the early days, however I fully believe that those multiple 0.26 100% self-votes on every comment could be better placed to help drive the community forward, support smaller accounts and in turn drive steem prices upwards, something we all benefit from.

There are many good great community-focused initiatives out there doing some great work...@innerblocks, @curangel, @ocd and @c-squared just to name a few...There's also many users selflessly working in the background to promote steem, support new accounts and drive engagement...It's quite uplifting and positive really...However if users like the one mentioned here were to add their 41,000SP-powered vote to assist a new account here and there rather than self-vote every single one of their own comments I wonder what difference could be made.

We all have choices in life though, and all need to accept the ramifications of the choices and actions we make...I hope some of you guys make the choice to check out your own voting habits as it may give you a great perspective. We're all here in this community together and together we can make a great difference.

Just my humble, and uninitiated, opinion. Maybe I'm way off-base here and happy to be set straight int he comments below.

Tomorrow isn't promised - Design and create your ideal life, don't live it by default
An original post written by a human
Discord: galenkp#9209 🇦🇺

hive-174578 steem voting thoughts community neoxian palnet steemleo oc responsibility
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I like this perspective a lot. I read a bit about an initiative from your brother as well, checking myself and the habits I may stray into. It's a nice reminder, and the site does show a bit of the cadence it did in my early days. This could be bias or positive sentiment or both - either way, I like it.

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Hey there, yes my brother seems to have his head screwed on right, even though I dropped him on it as a baby. 😂

I don't know as much about the state of play here, but what I believe is that we need to support each other a little better, engage some more and keep at the front of our minds that we all want the same thing, the price to rise. In supporting a new account here and there I think we could make a huge difference to the community and the price.

Thanks for commenting. I greatly appreciate it.

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To listen to the audio version of this article click on the play image.

Brought to you by @tts. If you find it useful please consider upvoting this reply.

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let me throw in my 5 cents - considering me. I almost never self-vote now, tho I did it in the past (in the beginning, when my posts attracted 5 readers, hehe). I do about 1 post per day, sometimes more sometimes less, but it is about this figure... and 95% of my posts are self-voted -- as I belong to the TalentClub voting trail, and I am a member of this community, which votes my posts on a 1 post per day basis. so the picture looks like this -- and I think its as simple as that, no big drama and pattern to be deduced here.. and probably I am not the only one in this boat.

(but ofc 100% voting of self-comments ... it is something special!)

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Yes, it takes a special person to make comments with the sole intention of 100% upvoting them..All of them...

I don't see a problem in the smaller accounts placing an upvote or two on themselves, there's little harm done by it and many receive so little reward anyway it it probably essential to do.

I just feel that an account with 41000SP could use their vote in a better way. Sure, go ahead and self-vote one post a day but many, many of ones' own comments? Think of the good that person could be doing with some of the new accounts that struggle for recognition.

Thanks for your comments here. I really appreciate it when someone who doesn't engage with me much comes a long and takes the time to do so. Makes me smile.

And...Speaking of 5 cents...Here's another 5 for ya! :)

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you are very correct, that kind of of vote (0.26) is already something for an smaller account. If it will use to those accounts that neve4 gets notice. I'm sure it will make that person happy for it and continue on living on steem. It seems the #newsteem mindset was gone nowadays. I hope it won't since the steem is slowly growing..

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Drama token huh? Ok, thanks.

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why? I hope you didn't take it as an insult for that kind of token. From what I understand about this token is not just about drama. It's about good things you'll make in this blockchain. You're helping people to understand and I think it's correct action. But anyway I hope you didn't get it as what am I thinking right now. Sorry for using that dramatoken, won't do it next time.

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Nah, I'm sitting back waiting to be the millionaire they promised me actually...I'm going to be a whale apparently, although I'd rather be a whale shark as it sounds cooler.

I can be blunt in comments and maybe my comment didn't come across as I intended. No worries though, send me as many drama tokens as you like...It'll all go towards my millions.

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!DRAMATOKEN
!SHADE 5

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Thanks, I'm running straight to the bank to deposit these incredibly valuable tokens for my future. I'm set for life now.

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You've got DRAMA. You are going to be a Whale!

To view or trade DRAMA go to steem-engine.com.

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What if I don't what to be a whale, but a whale shark (Rhincodon typus) instead? Is that possible? I hope so.

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I find it a kind of abuse and should be reported to SteemCleaners or other projects who are fighting abuses on the system :(

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There are many reward pool abusers here...The thing is their behaviour doesn't go unnoticed. Sure, it may for a time, but sooner or later someone discovers it and then...Well, things are prone to change I guess. It's funny though, these abusers always seem to fight tooth and nail to justify their behaviour to a community that isn't willing to tolerate it...And there's often people who will champion their cause also. Humans are funny creatures.

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I’m proud to admit the only self voting my account has ever (EVER) done is when a trail I’m previously supporting votes my content. I know when they come through and vote my content, each time I kinda cringe kinda—“danget!” One of those double-edged sword things.

I understand the business aspect of the platform or, any platform for that matter, and having the ability to pay yourself is the ultimate goal. I, however, see self voting, specifically the habitual type, as a form of selfishness. Just my two cents—currently $0.15 but who’s counting?

I’ve always considered a self vote as one less vote I could give someone else so I’ve consistently tried to avoid it. Another nice write-up, @galenkp. Enjoy your day sir.

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It's pretty cool that you can make that statement, and yes, you should be proud. I guess the people here are no different than those in the real world and for every person there's an accompanying thought, ethos, plan or understanding.

In popping that vote onto someones blog we might just be bringing them the motivation to stay and write another, and another. If we all did that...Well, wouldn't the steem price rise as we all desire? Who knows?

Anyway, I hope you're well at 9am Wednesday morning. Have a good one.

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I've added the chart below using the by weight metric also as it shows a little more diversity of accounts on which I've voted in the last seven days.

Sheesh!! Van Galen. I couldn't see my username in this 2nd weight metric chart that shows a little more diversity of accounts. Not even at 0.00% at 0 x. Hahaha

Wussup brother? :)

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Dunno brus, must have missed your work somehow...

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image.png

This is the result of my following several curation initiatives on steemauto. My self votes come from being picked up by the very curation trails I follow... (Perhaps a victim of my own success?) I don't think I'm an abomination.

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A pretty nice looking chart there man! Take out yourself and it's nice and balanced. I think most will either have a couple favourites, like me voting my brother, however it's good to see an evenly spread voting pattern. Congratulations on being the first person to comment showing their actual chart. A few have also got that issue of curation trails picking themselves up, I think @dandays mentioned it too. All good though bro, nice chart.

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Its all there, its all data that anyone can interrogate, therefore, I thought I'd start the landslide.... :D

Will we be seeing you tomorrow night?

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You got a bro-hug for me if I turn up? Lol.

Hmm, possibly but I probably won't stay long. One burger, one beer maybe. What time you getting there? 6pm?

Yeah, all that information is public domain which I guess some people don't really understand. Everything we do can be scrutinised. One never knows who is watching.

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I'll be getting in a bit earlier, owing to the fact I have the next day off, and tomorrow is my Friday. :)

There's a bro-hug for everyone who needs one. I have a public confession to make, I'm just a teddy bear masquerading as a creative on a blockchain.

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Bwahaha! Then I'm there fella! I reckon I'll probably be there between 5:30 and 6pm...Depends when I can sneak out of a bullshit office thing that starts at 4:30. :)

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Ok, ok, I can take a hint! Tell you what I’ll do, how ‘bout all five screen shots showing zero self-votes and I’ll do it in sequencial order but here’s the kicker—ready? I’ll number them in steem green, @galenkp.

932qpm.jpg

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Haha! It wasn't a hint, was just holding you up as a shining example of non-self-votery. ✅😉💥

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Ooo, I hadn't spotted that tab before. Must give it a whirl!

I haha people that do the comment self vote thing. In that case it's just abuse

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It can be an interesting thing to see although for most I'd say they know whether they are weighting their votes towards themselves or others without checking it. Worth a look though.

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I looked and liked it. Thankfully mine seemed quite even ish!

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I think we're all going to have some favourites in the chart, that's typical. I guess the point to this whole blog was to draw attention to selfish self-voting in the manner of the user whose chart I used for the main image. I don't want to name them here, but like everything on the blockchain, people see.

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They do see and that's what is almost always forgotten!

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I don't think I've ever self-voted, not even when strongly encouraged to for the curation rewards, always seemed kinda dumb to me ^_^;

Also I'd really rather drop that vote on someone else but I'm weird like that.

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I think maybe the habit of self voting starts innocently enough but then takes over and stopping brings on a fear of loss. Maybe it's got something to do with the feeling of entitlement some have or maybe its just simple greed. It's good that you haven't done it.

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Howdy sir galenkp! Great topic here, I really enjoyed the comments!

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Thought I’d throw mine out there. I did upvote my own once recently. Solely down to a noob error on dtube though. So I think that’s forgivable.
93FC712B-F62F-4491-BBAB-EB3B79E6E2E0.jpeg

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Noob errors are excluded mate. Lol.

I upvoted myself, as most did, in the early days when my vote was worth very low values, these days I don't. My post was more about those abusing the reward pool by voting every comment they make (including making comments purely for them to upvote on them) and throwing 100% votes on those comments and also very poor quality posts. It's not productive for the greater community and in fact, is counter-productive.

As it turns out the user I based this post on, and didn't mention, has been addressed it seems which is as it should be.

Thanks for joining in and throwing up your charts.

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I get that. Myself and my mrs started steemit quite a while back, mainly on her profile because she is much more interesting than I am. Back then everything that was trending was solely doing that because people were buying votes, also, we watched some introduction video on YouTube, all about steemit. On that they instructed to always upvote your own post, so we did both of them. We then had about 6 months away from the platform, mainly because of a new business venture that took over our lives for a while. When we came back on, we continued to do things the same way, and got a bit of stick for it. Downvoting was a new thing when we returned and a couple of my posts got stripped of Virtually all of the rewards. When @slobberchops and @steevc explained everything it became very apparent to me of the good it does for the platform to be regulated by the users. I’m still not 100% clued up on searching for bidbot miss users or self voting etc, so I have recently learned how to set up a curation trail, and have followed a few people that do some downvoting good for the platform. It’s a way to basically delegate some of my downvoting power to people that do good with it, even though it’s a small amount. Also, I was tempted to upvote my comment on here as a bit of a joke, but not many people get British sarcasm, lol.

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Laughing about your last line...Yes, British humour can be difficult for some to grasp. I would have got it though. I'll throw you a vote anyway, so the same result. :)

Thanks for adding some perspective to your own journey and yeah, coming back like that with the old-steem modus operandi would have caused you some pain I'm sure. You know now though, and I think are doing the right thing with your DV trail. It's important to ensure that abusers are addressed. We need to give them a chance to change their ways and if they choose not to then they need to accept that the community will address it for them.

There's a couple of nutbags out there at the moment who started heavily down voting posts for reprisal but are now downvoting comments as a way to attack the community. It is annoying for those being DV'd, but nothing more than mosquito bites in reality. It will will also be addressed, by the community, and we'll all move on.

Keep up the good work.

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Yeah. My girlfriend gets the same 2 downvoting most of her posts. Somebody said that there was somebody that you could tag, and they will upvote you, to the same value as an incorrect downvote.

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Who is your GF? I'll have a look.

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Bettynoir
I wouldn’t worry too much. They have very low SP, and the downvotes are of a small percentage.

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(Edited)

OK, I thought so...Nah, no problem there...The two I refer to have a 100% DV value of about $2.50 each. When bettynoir starts getting those sorts of DV's let me know. It happened to me for about 3 months, on every post, and yes, there are people who can redress the DV's and work on addressing the situation.

Read this by acid...https://steemit.com/nice/@acidyo/the-cost-of-being-an-abuser-on-steem

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