thanks a lot, this was very much the intention
i remember you as one of the first winners of my be a smartass competition a long time back
I was hoping things will slowly evolve, i'd hire ppl to most the best short content on other sites like reddit, maybe one day get a team to edit our own gifs etc
as to the aggressive self voting, I think I expalined it better in some of the comment replies than the post. I'll copy and paste a reply so you get a more of an idea there, I think it's important
In terms of the economics however, I tried to explain, it just looks bad because people don't really notice the alternative which is renting out voting power. This is done by a lot of whales, some way bigger than me, and didn't spend a cent getting their steem, nor do they produce content.
Even current circumstances I can't afford to be too altruistic, I'll have to use a lot of my voting power on my own content, or rent it out. Basically the rewards pool is going down no matter what, so the choice really is traf's content or the avg vote buyer's content. Because even with my aggressive self voting that looks ugly, the reality is i'm barely keeping up with just passive income enjoyed by many others without lifting a finger. Is it better for the platform if I become one of them? It's an inevitable consequence of the economic system here.
Sorry if that sounded aggressive, I'm trying to draw out the facts. I don't really lose anything if I get flagged and stop posting. Financially that is. I mean it's probably a little less fun, but way less work.
You are correct, I was a winner on the smartass competition. I'm humbled that you remember. That experience showed me that there can be money made on Steemit, and helped me realize that sometimes I'm not the only one that thinks my off the wall humor has some merit.
This whole Steemit project is a journey through uncharted territory. I think your actions have at least started many discussions that need to take place; cultivating new genres, self-voting to support polishing many comedic turds in hopes of also discovering a few comedic diamonds versus passively selling votes, and recognizing value of multiple profitable genres to keep Steemit from become a one trick pony.