thanks a lot kevin
basically I have to choose along with fellow steemians whether I'm able to continue providing content the way I have been, as well as voting the way I have been because I can't really justify making significantly less than vote lending, which is another topic, but is basically an inevitable consequence of the steemit economic system and won't go away due to playing with the numbers or the curve.
If it's not financially competitive for me to produce content (i'm barely keeping up with a passive income even without getting flagged) then they'll just be 1 more full time whale leech here.
Maximisation / Optimisation of posting and curating is a whole other can of worms. I just choose to stay away from my numbers and just use the platform as usual without maxing out my returns, which kinda sucks lol. The economy relies on differentials of power, and some will inevitably need to take the hit and just do what's best for the platform, hoping for a better Steem valuation.
I very much respect what you and curie are doing, but tried to do that for the first 7-8 months of my being here
Basically I'm now competing vs how much I would make if I completely lent out my voting power to a bot, which pays maybe 80c to the dollar. So while the self voting may look ugly, it's actually barely breaking even against potential passive income. If i lent it out full time, everyone still loses the same amount in terms of the loss to the rewards pool, just means the average vote buyer will get the money.
So basically it's a choice between traf's content or the average vote buyer's. I'm not an early cyrpto investor as you know and steem is the bulk of my net worth. Recent personal circumstances took a turn for the worse (which is why I was away for so long) and I don't have the luxury to be too altruistic :(
Oh now I understand. I didn't know lending voting power to a bot is that yummy. I'd personally do it as well lol, if there are more innovative solutions for actual curation with decent returns. Maybe an offshoot of Curie for vote buying lol. But it'd likely still be not as much as 80c to the dollar. As of now, I think you wouldn't get the flags anymore, if you so choose to continue busting ass trying to come up with viral short content. It's your own vote and you've already explained why you're doing it and opened up the floor for discussion. I didn't check, but whoever flagged traf's content might reconsider after seeing this. It's about communication after all if there are any conflicts.